Sam Project for Sustainability Through Agriculture and Micro-Enterprises Society

In 2024 Zambia suffered the worst agricultural drought in 40 years with an estimated 5.8 million people or 33% of the population suffering food insecurity. In response we effectively paused any new initiatives in childhood nutrition and agricultural diversity in order to focus on providing reliable year-round access to water. Although we continued to support our legacy projects in these vitally-important areas they are patently secondary when people are struggling to access water for their families crops and livestock. . Basically our approach now is to combine modern satellite GIS mapping to locate population centres (like villages schools and clinics) then use the same technology to target likely sources of groundwater and deploy human-powered technologies (shovels picks cement mixers and wheelbarrows) to establish wells and other improved water points within a reasonable distance. We were pleased this year to continue our long association with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) by hosting a team from the Nebraska Professional EWB in August. In a very ambitious and exhausting 10-day period 48 earthen dams across the District of Zimba were inspected for structural deficiencies scour/erosion seepage reservoir sedimentation and woody vegetation growing on the structures. The dams have now been ranked on various elements including severity of damage location cost to repair and strategic importance. Over the next three years EWB will conduct detailed engineering studies on the three top-ranked dams with the ultimate objective of restoring them to design capacity.