About the region

The people of Gwanda District in Matebeleland South, Zimbabwe, are suffering from long-term water scarcity. In this region, rainfall is erratic and unpredictable. Only 13% of households have access to water within 15 minutes. When the rains come, communities lack the facilities to store rainwater, meaning they have less water available for drinking, washing and farming. During dry seasons, women and children can walk up to seven hours daily to collect water which is often dirty and unsafe. This wastes time that could be spent working or learning.

About our partner

Dabane Trust works with rural communities in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe to develop simple, appropriate and sustainable water abstraction and food production systems. An innovative organisation, one of Dabane’s successes was developing a new sustainable type of handpump, the Rowa, that makes water abstraction more efficient than other designs.

How we're working together

Since 2014, Sand Dams Worldwide and Dabane have worked together to enable the construction of 6 sand dams in southern Zimbabwe (with more planned) and support local communities to implement a range of environmental protection techniques which will transform both lives and land for generation to come.

Dabane is particularly interested in learning about ASDF’s techniques in design and construction - which can reduce sand dam construction time by months.  

"Dabane has made its name by getting water out of sand rivers. Our next step is to ensure we don't over abstract. The answer to that, especially upstream, is sand dams. Without a doubt."

Stephen Hussey, Dabane Trust, Zimbabwe.