Hear from a remarkable community in Kenya who are building towards achieving lifelong water and food security thanks to their sand dam and climate-smart agriculture projects.

Mumbuni self-help group is a community development group based in Makueni County, southeast Kenya, which is categorised as an arid and semi-arid region and characterised by its susceptibility to prolonged drought seasons.

To mitigate this crisis, the group partnered with Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF) and Sand Dams Worldwide to implement sand dam projects in the region. These projects are geared towards providing long term solutions and establishing sustainable development in the region. Following the construction of sand dams along the local riverbeds, each community member now has easy access to clean water. A recent visit to the group provided an in-depth insight of their successes.

Dismas Mutinda, 64, has been the group’s Chairman since its debut and has been spearheading the developments of the locality through the construction of sand dams and shallow wells.

“As a group we have been meeting to strategise on the projects to embark on by utilising the water. Most community members are doing well on their farms because the water is readily available. The group has received several trainings which we put into practice. In addition, we established a tree nursery (see photo) which has 35 mango tree seedlings that will be distributed evenly among the group members.” Mr. Mutinda stated.

Fellow group member, Kanyauwa Mbithi, 64, displayed her excitement and applauded the project’s impact on her life:

“The sand dam projects have helped us in establishing stable homes for ourselves. There’s plenty of water and there’s also enough time for engaging in income generating activities such as farming. The rains had delayed but we utilised the stored water from the previous sand dams to plant pigeon peas which will be harvested later.”

Kanyauwa added jovially: “Additionally, the distance covered to the water source is very short; in less than 10 minutes all my jerry cans are usually full of water and ready to be taken back home. Hygiene and sanitation has also improved; most homesteads have latrines unlike before. Our efforts will be beneficial to this community in the generations to come and we are very proud of our accomplishments so far.”

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