An A-maizing Project

Since coming to Dodoma, I had been hearing about sand dams but had no concept of what sand dams might be, except that they were a major water project of Iringa Road Mennonite Church. Last Wednesday, my questions were answered.

Pastor Amos drove us a few kilometers southwest from the Iringa Road into a rural area. After we crossed a bridge over a nearly-dry river bed, we turned onto a narrow road winding beside that river bed, and drove a kilometer or so before stopping beside a low concrete dam. Behind that dam was not a lake of water but sand, completely covering the rocky river bed like what we could see below the dam.

Pastor Amos Muhagachi explains the sand dam concept to Dan Holcomb,
both standing on the first of the two dams that have been built.

Pastor Amos led us to a pathway on that sand lake. We soon discovered that if we left that pathway, we would begin to sink into the sand. It was saturated with water. We soon noticed holes dug into the sand, each hole well filled with water. Then, we saw the reason for the holes. Two young men came down the riverbank to the hole, each carrying two large containers on a yoke over their shoulders. They filled each container from the hole they had dug, then carried the water back to the garden where they and several others were working. There were many rows of healthy tomato plants being watered, plant by plant. That explained what I had seen as we walked: the lush vegetation on each side of the river, mainly tall maize plants, many with very large ears. We walked further and soon saw another dam, the first that had been built, 200 meters above the previous one. Behind it was also a lake of sand.

This farmer has dug the pit from which he is collecting water for irrigation.

Another farmer had dug his pit just below that dam. He was talkative and willing to be interviewed for video, speaking rapidly in Swahili, of course, so I did not understand what he said. Later, Amos told us he had talked about how grateful he is for the sand dams that provide water for far better crops than before, when water was available only for short periods of time. The sand dams make it possible for him to raise a large crop of tomatoes to sell. Before, his garden was dry and useless much of the year.

The farmer pours water on flourishing tomato plants.

The science is simple. During storms of the short rainy season, abundant sand washes into the river bed from the land beside the river and from tributaries further back along the river's course. Instead of washing down the river, the sand is captured by the dams, becoming saturated with water at the same time. It is technology used in several other dry places around the world; Pastor Amos and others learned from a Kenyan sand dam installation. He explained that his original purpose had been to provide bore holes, but he quickly saw the advantage of sand dams in this situation, making use of run-off water instead of a well that would eventually lower the water table. The project is supported by Mennonite Central Committee, which provides a full-time worker to guide the local project (a delightful young man named Josh whose home is near Kalamazoo, Michigan).

It would appear that this is a project of many years. In fact, the first dam was completed just last September, entirely with volunteer labor, including people living near the river who will benefit from the water. The second was finished in October. Amos has a plan for several more dams, at 200-meter intervals, further down the river, thus extending the green abundance and bumper crops. The plan also includes raising the two dams already built to increase their capacity.

An abundant corn crop on the riverbank.

We moved on from that informative and hopeful scene to a different kind of planting. Near that river, a new church is just getting going. We joined in a worship service that Wednesday afternoon, twenty or so people mostly women and girls from the surrounding rural area gathered in a roofless shelter open to the sky and also a wall missing and open to the scene of the river and the dams. (This is one of six congregations planted by Iringa Road Mennonite Church in the eight years of its own existence.) A small choir sang well, and the people's singing was joyful. Pastor Amos gave Dan Holcomb and me the opportunity for brief preaching to a very responsive congregation. Dan spoke of several biblical references to water, with obvious connection to the water now available to these very poor people. At the end of the service, people expressed obvious gratitude for our presence and for the new, living water that has come to their community.