Rock catchments

Wendo Wa Mwau rock catchment Rock catchments utilise the surface run-off of water from flat rocky outcrops on hilltops. By building channels around the rock, rainwater is guided into a pipeline that supplies one or more water tanks.

Since 2002, Excellent has supported communities to build 12 rock catchments, with each one able to collect up to 104,000 litres per tank for domestic use.

Could you donate today and supply more communities with the tools, hardware, support and guidance they need to transform their own lives with lifelong access to clean water?

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£15

could provide a farmer with drought-resistant seeds, so they can feed and support their family.

£30

could supply a community with a rake, gardening fork, shovel and watering cans, to plant trees for fruit, fuel and fodder

£60

could provide a roll of barbed wire to reinforce a sand dam, anchoring it to the bedrock.

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Latest

Sand dam projects keeping communities "young" and healthy

Meet two southeast Kenyan farmers to discuss the impact on the people and their land since their sand dam projects started in 2014.
Jersey Overseas Aid – Kenya 2019 Expedition

Excellent Development supports communities in drylands around the world to transform their own lives with sand dams and climate-smart agriculture; empowering them to achieve lifelong access to water and food. Please donate what you can today to help the Kyekuyu self-help group in southeast Kenya and their community (whose sand dam is being built with the support of Jersey Overseas Aid), as well as other dryland farmers to transform their own lives through climate-smart agriculture.
"Life in school has become more enjoyable"

When water supplies are low, drastic measures are often turned to in efforts to collect it. The construction of a water tank in Utini Girls Secondary School in southeast Kenya has helped to lift this burden, according to testimony from members of the school community.
Enabling greater success

Having access to water on-site provides schools with the opportunity to grow and to try new things. In this story we see what new endeavours a water tank has enabled at Ngomeni Primary School, Kenya.

School water tanks

Water tanks store rainwater collected from the roof of schools. A typical school water tank can collect up to 104,000 litres of water, and they refill every rainy season. Each water tank can last over 25 years and require little maintenance. Each one provides water for generations of children.
Sand dam road crossings

At Excellent Development we believe incorporating the principles of sand dam technology with low volume road crossing designs will deliver a more robust and cost-effective rural roads infrastructure.

What is a sand dam?
1 million sand dams for 0.5 billion people by 2040

Read about our plan to directly support other organisations to build sand dams, in turn, realising our vision to support millions of the world’s poorest people by helping them to transform their own lives through water and soil conservation in drylands.
Donate

Please donate what you can to transform lives with sand dams and clean water.
Zimbabwe (Partner: Dabane Trust)

Dabane Trust and Excellent are working together with rural communities in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe to develop simple, appropriate and sustainable water abstraction and food production systems.
Sand dam manual

For everything you need to know about building sand dams, click here to read (and download for free!), Sand Dams: A Practical & Technical Manual.
Watch how sand dams work

Film explaining how sand dams work and their potential impact in the world's drylands
Job opportunities
The challenge

Find out what are drylands, why they are they are such harsh regions to live, how sand dams are applicable in drylands and what difference they can make to over 40% of the world's land surface.
September 2018 sand dam expedition with Barclays Isle of Man

Barclays Isle of Man volunteers and community members share highlights from the construction of a sand dam they worked together to build in southeast Kenya in September 2018.
Sand dams keeping the water flowing in Lekurruki

11 sand dams have been built since we starting working in northern Kenya in 2015. The impact has been dramatic says Callum Sheehan, Excellent's Programmes Officer.