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On the banks of River Kithyoko in Mwingi West, Alice Wayua keeps herself busy watering her crops, mainly vegetables which she sells to local markets, three times per week.

Her three-acre farm is next to a sand dam and a sump well-constructed some years back, and which are now sources of livelihood for her and her neighbours.

Wayua, 26, says the structures are a source of enough water which she utilises to carry out small scale irrigation farming, thus earning her a tidy weekly income as well as ensuring food security at her home.

At Kabati, Katutu and Kithyoko markets where she sells her produce three days a week, the smallholder farmer rakes in between Sh6,000 – Sh8,000 in a day, a small fortune by rural standards.

Irrigation farming

“The availability of water has enabled me to go into irrigation farming and this has made my life comfortable,” says the mother of two while calling on the county government to replicate sand dams across the county.

Sand dams are reinforced, specially designed concrete walls built across seasonal rivers and work by storing huge volumes of water under heaps of accumulated sand over a period of time. A sump well on the other hand is an underground cemented water tank, preferably constructed next to a sand dam where water is pumped from and stored in tanks for people’s use.

This ingenious water harvesting technology has turned out to be the most ideal water solution for the arid and semi-arid Kitui county where the county government led by Governor Julius Malombe has rolled out an elaborate programme to construct 2400 sand dams in five years.

The county government has this financial year allocated Sh120 million to construct 497 sand dams in different parts of the county. Some of the sand dams that were completed before the onset of the ongoing rains are already filled up with water, much to the relief of local residents.

Part of these completed structures is one built across River Mutwaewa in Mwingi Central, which is metres away from another one constructed in 2012, also by the county government.

Remarkable rise

Mary Mwendwa, a local resident, says they have witnessed a remarkable rise in water table in the river where even small shallow wells yield enough for the community.

“Sand dams are a practical solution to water insecurity. Before this one, we used to spend days and nights in the river looking for water but that is now a thing of the past,” said Mwendwa when we caught up with her fetching water for domestic use.

Bretta Mwangangi, the county Chief Officer in charge of irrigation says that the area where the two sand dams sit next to each other is part of 40 areas where the county government plans to establish community irrigation schemes in line with governor Malombe’s priority in water and food security.

Requisite incentives

She says the locals will be trained in irrigation farming and empowered with the requisite incentives to produce enough food for both home use and income generation.

“Sand dam technology is the ultimate water solution for arid and semi-arid areas that have been receiving depressed rains in the recent past due to climate change. The areas where the sand dams are being constructed should have potential for irrigation farming since the key purpose of the structures is mainly to provide water for irrigation,” explains Mwangangi.

She says that the availability of water will reduce reliance on rain fed agriculture which has been impacted negatively by recurrent droughts. Compared to boreholes which have the possibility of drying up or turning saline, CO Mwangangi points out that sand dams are cost effective and have zero or low maintenance costs.

“The beauty of sand dams is that they re-charge the underground aquifers thereby improving the water table with minimal evaporation rates. More sand dams mean a positive mitigation measure against droughts,” notes the chief officer.