Time-lapse of a sand dam being built

Watch as Kwa Voki self-help group build their sand dam in Makueni County, southeast Kenya.

The dam will go on to provide the community with nearby, lifelong access to clean water.

Credit: Titus Mbithi / Africa Sand Dam Foundation (Sand Dams Worldwide's partners in southeast Kenya) / Just a drop

Please donate what you can to help dryland communities access clean water and food security for life with sand dams and climate-smart agriculture

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

£50

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

£100

could provide a wheelbarrow and ten bags of cement to help a community to build a sand dam.

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Latest

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February 2026 sand dam expedition with Koy Clothing

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The Water Women of Wambiti

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Film explaining how sand dams work and their potential impact in the world's drylands
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In 2022 Kyamuisu self-help group in Kenya completed their solar-powered water project with the support of SDW and Africa Sand Dam Foundation. Hear how community members are now benefiting from the project.
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Hear from just a few of our beneficiaries in southeast Kenya who have transformed their own lives and land with sand dams.
Hear from our partner - the Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF)

ASDF have played a key role in supporting our other partners to implement sand dam projects. It is our shared vision that sand dams will transform millions of lives.
Watch how sand dams work (French)

Film explaining how sand dams work and their potential impact in the world's drylands (with French subtitles)

We support communities to build sustainable sand dams in some of the poorest, drought-stricken regions across our world.
What is a sand dam?
Donate

Please click here to donate what you can to transform lives and land with sand dams and clean water.
Watch how sand dams work

Film explaining how sand dams work and their potential impact in the world's drylands
Reversing land degradation and desertification

Conservation of the environment is critical to the economic development of people living in drylands.
1 million sand dams for 0.5 billion people by 2050

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.
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.
Act Now: Tackle Food Crisis With Sand Dams

Support dryland communities to overcome food shortages, and ensure they can grow enough food to eat and sell. It all starts with ensuring they have access to water. That’s where sand dams come in.
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.
Our approach

Find out more about Excellent's approach, from working with self-help groups to why we partner we on-ground, local organisations.