Water projects are essential

Many regions of Kenya are suffering from increasingly long lasting dry seasons as a result of climate change. Our project areas in central Kenya are among them. The rivers here dry up shortly after the rainy season. People are then forced to walk long distances to get water. What is particularly tragic is that the water, which has to be laboriously carried over many kilometers, is often highly contaminated. Shallow wells, for example, where there is virtually no filtration, are risky. But unfiltered river water and stagnant water also pose a major health risk to people.

Safe drinking water at sand dams 

Our project focuses on the supply of safe drinking water as the basis of people's livelihoods. Together with our local partner organizations and local self-help groups, sand dams are being built to keep the precious rainwater on site and make it available through wells well into the dry season. This year, we want to build ten such dams in Kenya, each of which will supply entire communities with safe water. They will be built in river courses that carry a lot of water during the rainy season. The sandy area in front of the dams serves as both a storage medium and a filter.

Janet Wavinya Kyalumbi is part of the Ke-Lima self-help group from Nthangathini Village. The men and women from the village were heavily involved in the construction of the sand dam. Together with our local partner organization ASDF (Africa Sand Dam Foundation), the community selected the site, collected the building materials and finally built the cement wall.

Women and girls benefit in particular

In Kenya, women and children are traditionally responsible for fetching water. Having a water supply close to home makes their everyday lives much easier. Hannah Meitiaki, who attends Ilmotiok Primary School in Laikipia County, also reports this:

We now get water from the new hand pump at the well. I can even come back in the evening after school because the well is close to our house. Before, only the adults could fetch water in the evening because it is a long way and dangerous in the dark.

Carrying canisters and bringing them home is still part of everyday life for the 14-year-old schoolgirl. But it used to be much more difficult. "Fetching water was always stressful. Sometimes we had to walk to the rivers, which is risky because of the elephants and other wild animals. The water was also not clean, as the people upstream discharged their waste water, which is not good for our health. There were also problems at the shallow wells where the water stands. There are germs or even mosquitoes there, which are dangerous," explains Hannah Meitiaki. The times when water-borne diseases, such as severe diarrhea, were rampant in the village are over. The drinking water is clear and safe. What's more, there is now so much water that there is even enough for bathing and cleaning school uniforms. "We are very grateful for that," she adds.