Sand Dams with Water

Tchinda Site Before

Tchinda Site After

I have just returned from a week in the bush with a reporter and photographer. We were out to see the Sand Dams and to do interviews for the “Common Place”. It was quite an interesting tour for a number of reasons. It is the end of the dry season and two of our dams have been completed and catching water. The other two will be finished later. I was anxious to see the success or lack thereof and to see how things have changed. It was a good deal more difficult to arrive at the communities as there is now a river in between our stop overnight in Mandie and the communities of Tchinda and Thangera which we were trying to reach. A new road had been cut through the bush to get there. We spent two hours in place of the one hour it used to take us on this journey. The road was quite difficult with large rocks and trees to avoid in the grass on the edges of the road. We faired better than I thought we would when all was said and done. We visited Tchinda first and were very excited to see that the dam was finished and quite pretty to look at. It is functioning well and already has roughly about a meter of sand on the upside. The sand had risen in the river almost a quarter of a mile behind the dam and you could see that the water was infiltrating into the banks of the river and around the edge of the dam. A few minor adjustments will have to be made such as putting a wall on the one edge and planting grass to slow erosion on the downward side of the dam. The leaders of the village were quite positive and about wanting to do a second so we are to visit them in a few weeks and talk with the whole community about the possibility of starting a second. I noticed people looking much healthier this time as it is no longer the hungry season. The kids did not pile around us as they had in the past. They were all much cleaner and dressed nicer. We saw people taking baths below the dam and getting water there.

Thangera Site Before

Thangera Dam

Other View of Dam

We then went to Thangera the second day. Thangera’s dam had water behind it and the people are seeing the benefit of watering their animals there in the community and not 15 km away in the Zambezi River. We had a few interviews with some families which was quite interesting. One family was headed by a single older women. Her husband had passed away. She said that she spends about 6 months a year searching for roots and fruit in the bush for her family to eat in the hungry time. She would like to have a goat but she does not have the conditions to pay for someone to take 15 kms to the river every other day to water it. With the new dam people are watering there animals this month in the dam where normally they can’t. She hopes to have a goat sometime when the dam is mature and holds water longer throughout the year. She also has to get up at 2:00 in the morning to go down and stand in line for water in her own village. There is so little water that every time they fill with water they have to wait for it to raise again. Because there is people coming from her community and other surrounding communities to this one spot she has to wait four hours for water and than return at 6 in the morning and immediately leave to work in the field. If she is late she has to wait longer and than she may not even get to the field that day.

A neighboring community heard of the benefit of the Thangera dam and approached CCM workers about building one in there community. This is a good sign. It means they are seeing the benefit and we will be able to help more people. Time will tell if people will start to plant things in these streams, grow crops and dig wells. We hope things will change.