News from Eritrea

Dear friends,

Visiting our project in Begu Valley in Eritrea is without doubt our personal highlight of the year, although the yearly construction activities at the dam are usually completed by the time of the journey. However, this means that we are able to get on-site a first-hand impression of the fruits of our collective efforts; furthermore we always look forward to meet our project partners and the villagers again.



Approximately three weeks ago, our team returned from this year’s project journey, during which we evaluated the construction progress, assessed necessary measures, planned jointly with our Eritrean project partners upcoming steps for the future course of the project, and fostered our friendships with the villagers in Begu Valley. With each journey to Eritrea, we develop a closer relationship to the people and improve our understanding of the local structures and processes so that Technology without Borders and our project gain in visibility. This opens up new opportunities to spread the idea of our innovative, sustainable dam construction method. During this year’s journey, we presented the technical aspects of our project to different departments of the local administration and initiated further presentations for next year. Thus, the awareness on alternative solutions is passed on beyond our direct project partners, and our project becomes step by step a flagship project.

In order to achieve this, the construction of the sand storage dam has to be completed first and foremost. This year, we made great progress on the way to our goal: After two construction phases during the previous two years, we were able to efficiently use this year’s rainy season also thanks to an increased amount of precipitation. Currently, the dam stands nearly at the final height of 7 meters with the spillway in the centre reaching almost 4 meters height. During future rainy seasons, the spillway will continue to be raised according to the innovative stepwise construction.



Already with the reached height as of now, the dam is able to store water for the use by the villagers. However, the majority of the water storage volume will only be created by the final stages of the dam wall. Therefore, the provided water volume does not suffice throughout the entire dry season yet, nonetheless it already relieves other water sources in the region. Moreover, this year’s water probing reconfirmed the high quality of the water from our dam in comparison to other open water sources in the area, which motivates us to tackle the final phases of construction.

Until construction continues with the start of next year’s rainy season, we are collecting donations for the completion of the final stages of the sand storage dam and the concomitant project journeys in order to finalize the icing of the cake of our work.

Thank you very much for your longstanding support – together we can go the last mile!

Your project team „Water for Eritrea“