Water Projects 3

Water Catchments (Dams).

These are usually excavated by JCB, bulldozer and or explosives. A dam collects water from a slope in the ground and contains enough water to last between rains. It offers a very large capacity for reasonable outlay from around £3000 but suffers from evaporation and needs rain for it to be of any use. The pictures below show a water catchment on land owned by the Mutende family.

How it looked in the beginning. After work to extend and deepen it. Catchment full after El Nino rains

River Barrage Dams.

This is where a concrete and Rock dam is constructed across a river bed to enable water to be captured during the rainy seasons. Dams such as these have been constructed at Empuyiankat and Loyankalani in 2009 and Eluanat (in the Mashuru Division of Kajiado Central District) in 2010.

Empuyiankat Dam

The two pictures on the left below, (a) & (b), were taken during the construction of the dam in 2009. It was completed in March 2009. See also report from Project Directors visit to Kenya in Jan/Feb 2009 for more details - click here. In June 2009 it was reported that the catchment was full of water [see pictures (c) & (d) on the right below) and only 0.9m below the top at the end of September 2009.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Work on the dam at Loyankalani was completed by the end of September 2009.

Eluanat Gravity Dam: Work on the dam at Eluanat started in August 2010. This benefits the community of Oloilalei. It was completed in mid October 2010. This project was sponsored by the parish of St Alphege, Seasalter, in north Kent, England.

The wall across the Eluanat seasonal river will has a length of twenty four (24) meters and a height of two point one (2.10) meters. It was constructed using local rubble stones and cement mortar. The area is located at an Altitude of one Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty Eight (1,686) meters above Sea Level and the capacity of the Reservoir will be around one Thousand Cubic meters (1, 000 m3).

The pictures below were taken at the completion of the project in October 2010.

This is a community facility located at Shompole in the Magadi division of the Kajiado District.

It is close to the Tanzanian border near the soda Lakes Natron and Magadi, in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 kms south of Nairobi. The project serves a human population of 1829 and about 11,309 livestock plus wildlife. The dam capacity is 20,000m³ which is able to last for 6 months before the next rains which hopefully refill the dam.

KDDT[UK] provided funding assistance for this project, that had been previously set up by Shompole Lodge (Royal African Safaris / 'The Art of Ventures'). Additional funds had been provided by proceeds from a rock concert called "Rock the Rift" in July 2006, various individuals and the local community.

The dam was constructed under the auspices of the Kajiado District Development Organisation and managed by Mr Pietro Langiu. The picture on the right above shows details of this rock and earth dam.

A short DVD of the "Rock the Rift" Concert with additional material is available from KDDT[UK].

The Wall Catchment was originally a joint project sponsored by the Intermediate Technology Group (ITDG) in Magadi, Kenya and KDDT[UK]. The monies provided by KDDT[UK] have been given by a professional photographer (Mr Mahoney) and his associates, from Sittingbourne in England. Mr Mahoney and his associates have maintained their support for this project over the years and much more has been achieved. The picture on the left shows one of the catchment 'pools'.

On the right are some more pictures of the Wall Catchment. Our Project Manager/Consultant in Kenya, Mr Piero Langiu is the man in the blue shirt.

With extra funding provided by Mr Mahoney and his associates it has been possible to build a water tank to store the collected water, from the catchment, to provide a clean source of water away from contamination by animals etc.

The pictures below show the completed tank and its connection to the catchment system. This part was finally completed in early 2010.