The case of small scale

dams in community
economic livelihood

http://www.practicalaction.org
 Agenda - Points
1. Who we are? Our vision and mission.
2. The Potential Water Resources in Sudan
3. The need for utilizing the small-scale earth
dams in Sudan (IWRM approach).
4. The impact of dams on rural community.
5. Opportunities for Peace by Business
engagement.
6. Facilitating the change, (PMSD).
Practical Action's Vision is one
of Technology Justice:

a sustainable world free of poverty and

injustice in which technology is used for the
benefit of all.

Practical Action Mission
To use technology to challenge poverty by:
building the capabilities of poor people,
improving their access to technical options
and knowledge, and
working with them to influence social,
economic and institutional systems for
innovation and the use of technology.
 Technology Justice:
People should have the right to decide, choose
and use technologies that help them live the
kind of life they value, so long as they do not
reduce the ability of other people and future
generations to do the same.

.
.
Water Resources in Sudan / Access to water?
Source Amount in Utilized
MD m3
Nile System 122 14.6 MD m3
20.5 (share)
Non Nilotic Seasonal 7.9 160 million m3
Rivers (khor, wadi)
Rainfall precipitation 300
Ground Water Resources 564,000

In spite of the huge resources, vulnerable communities suffering

from the drought and CC variability in rain-fed areas.
 A solution - small scale dams across wadis

The main purpose of a dam is to spread water for flood

irrigated agriculture in the fertile clay soils found in the
wadis.

They also enhances sub-surface aquifers for domestic

water supply, and increase vegetation

The Original dam designs were based on weak earth

embankments that were often washed away, and had
high rates of siltation that quickly reduced dam capacity
Technically, structures based on:
ditched earth embankments
Spillways
Sluice gates
Pitching
Socially:
Community managed
Reserving the rights of people
living downstream
 Community participation in dam projects
Community knowledge of
suitable dam location

Community contribution not

less than 30% of the total
dam cost through the
collection of local materials
such as stone, mud, gravel
and water.

Participate in unskilled labor for masonry work on the

spillways (80% are women).

Communal work (nafir) for stone breaking and compating

earth embankments

A dam committee is established as part of the CBO who

are responsible for operating and maintaining the structure
Girgir Dam, Kassala,, Eastern Sudan
 Impact Shangili Tobaya, N. Darfur
1. Total area cultivated increased 11
fold from 450 to 5141 feddans.
2. The number of beneficiaries rose
to 800 families.
3. Land regained fertility.
4. Introducing diverse cash crops.
5. Crop productivity increased
>100%.
6. increase in incomes > 83.3%.
7. The dam helped farmers
recapture water for longer
periods, giving time to infiltrate
deep into the soil
8. Employment for local workers. Impact
9. Female farmers benefited in terms Shangil Tobaya
of family food security, self-
employment, paying school fees
and meeting health needs.
10. Job opportunities increased due to
widening of the cultivated area. A
survey on the project indicated an
increase of 50% and 300% for
men and women respectively.
11. Livestock are able to feed on crop
residues
12. Subsurface water storage
increased
13. Environment regenerated
 Impact of dams

Groundwater recharge;

Wadi fodder production

Lower cultivation and grazing

pressures on the goz

Allowing rangeland recovery;

Relieving dependencies on
maladaptive coping strategies
such as the cutting of trees for
firewood
 When building a dam, consider:-

Adoption of the Integrated Water Resource Management

(IWRM) approach, developed with UNEP; instead of
constructing dams in ad hoc locations.

A wadi catchment management committee to be formed

that represents all communities located along the wadi
including pastoralist representatives (PAPD), as well as
government line ministry staff and academia.

A role of this committee will be to discuss and agree on

dam locations, and to share knowledge and lessons
learned
 Some of the constructed dams
Dam Location, Year Irrigated area Beneficiaries Cost in $

in feddans Households (HH)

Abu Degaise N. Darfur 1,500 3,334 $200K
2008
Girgir Kassala 1,500 2,411 $300K
2007
Azagarfa North Darfur 600 500 $100K
2001
Shangil Tobaya North Darfur 5,141 800 $12.5K
Rehabilitation 2004

Um Pronga. North Darfur 5,000-10,000 Not completed, due Washed

2003 to war away
 Some simple calculations
1,500 ; 3,334; $200K
1,500; 2411; $300K
Cost / land fed Cost / HH
$134 $60
$200 $125

Repayment period one year (1 season)

Risks due to CC? (insurance)
Climate Risk Finance of UNDP/HCENR
 Markets Toolkit & Approach
1. EMMA: Emergency Market Mapping and
Analysis (toolkit).
Is a guidance manual for humanitarian staff
in sudden-onset emergencies. It aims to
improve emergency responses by
encouraging and assisting relief agencies
to better understand, support and make
use of local market-systems in disaster
zones.
 Markets Toolkit & Approach
2. PMSD: Participatory Market System
Development (approach):.
An approach to create good conditions for a
wide range of key market actors (both
public and private) to create solutions and
changes that make sense to them and
that contribute to making their market
systems more inclusive, productive and
efficient.
The Pillars of PMSD?
Participatory: poor producers drive the
process
Market: private sector takes lead in delivery
of inputs and services
System: holistic interventions to create
systemic change
Development: changes that are
sustainable
Vision of market growth and sustainability
IMPROVEMENTS IN LIVELIHOOD

Goal (Vision) for significant numbers of

MARGINALISED SMALL-SCALE RURAL PRODUCERS

TRANSFORMATIONS IN MARKET SYSTEM:

at three levels:
Business Environment
Outcomes Value Chain Actors / Relationships
Provision of Inputs & Services

EMPOWERED MARKET SYSTEM MARKET SYSTEM

PRODUCERS ACTORS ACTORS
exploring more and (in project area) (elsewhere)
Outputs better business
opportunities
working together to
change critical
inspired to adopt
and adapt lessons
for themselves & their issues and and business
communities relationships in the models emerging
market system from the project
The Market Map (a generic schematic)
 Facilitating the engagement of actors
- Private Sector (constructor/contractors)
- Financial institutions (micro finance)
- Technical backstopping (e.g. SRDC=Sudanese Rural
Development Corporation)
- INGOS (Facilitation + Fundraising)
- Government (Supporting policies + Extension + Financing )
- CBOs/Producers/Farmers (Ownership, running &
operating, managing)

Is that a win-win situation?

All are winners

***********
 The best aid to give is intellectual aid, a gift of
useful knowledge. A gift of knowledge is infinitely
preferable to a gift of material things. E.F.
Schumacher

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