Pharo Dams
Climate-resilient water infrastructure in Somaliland: hafir dams that capture and store water for communities and livestock.
Stable water makes everything else possible.
Pharo builds and rehabilitates hafir dams across the drought-exposed landscapes of Somaliland, so communities can plan beyond the next rainfall.
By 2025, we had built a network of hafir dams, large seasonal public reservoirs, with a combined capacity of around 326,000 m³. Individual dams such as Wado-Makahil (58,000 m³) are a good example of how we build these dams. Reinforced with silt traps and geomembrane liners, and a day or two of rain can fill a dam for use through the dry months. Separate taps and troughs give people and livestock safer, more reliable access.
Our dams are carefully thought out and planned to ensure that they are built in the best area for widespread access.
From 2026, the focus is shifting toward rehabilitation, guided by satellite mapping of over 1,000 hafir dams and 1,200 berkeds, and by on-site monitoring of how each one actually performs.
When water is uncertain, nothing else can be planned.
Erratic rainfall and persistent drought leave households and herds without a reliable supply and infrastructure. Existing dams built without monitoring frameworks have failed and dried up quietly, rendering many of them useless. There are dams around, but many are not functional.
Our response
Capture and store water with infrastructure sized to the catchment, designed with the community, and increasingly rehabilitated rather than rebuilt.
Hafir dams and structures matched to local hydrology and herd size.
Restoring existing dams for greater impact per dollar.
Geomembranes, silt traps and security infrastructure, with strong site management.
Dams with geomembranes, silt traps and security, plus strong site management, were markedly more efficient.
Restoring existing dams improved our impact per dollar, and one rebuilt dam (Biyo) showed that liner quality makes or breaks performance.
Satellite analysis showed many existing dams were not sited to capture natural runoff, so where a dam sits matters as much as how it is built.
The dam network
Eight hafir dams across Somaliland, holding roughly 326,000 m³ between them and serving 3,040 households, which is around 22,000 people.
- Capacity
- 58,000 m³
- Households
- 540
- Livestock
- 29,700
Reinforced with a geomembrane liner and silt traps; a day or two of rain can fill it for the dry months.
- Capacity
- 17,400 m³
- Households
- 250
- Livestock
- 8,000
- Visits
- ~20,000 / month
A small dam with exceptionally high dry-season traffic, as measured by our Camel Cam, an AI-powered computer vision system that tracks live dam traffic, is proof that small dams are critical drought infrastructure.
- Capacity
- 58,600 m³
- Households
- 465
- Livestock
- 12,090
A very popular dam in a critical area. Like most of our dams, this one includes a geomembrane lining and a silt trap.
Geed-deeble sub-surface dam was completed in 2023 and handed over to the Hargeisa Water Municipality. This dam was intended to replenish the groundwater levels for boreholes 2, 3 and 4, which are integral to Hargeisa’s urban water supply.
- Capacity
- 66,400 m³
- Households
- 2,000
- Livestock
- 306,000
- Capacity
- 40,000 m³
- Households
- 220
- Livestock
- 21,260
- Capacity
- 40,000 m³
- Households
- 330
- Livestock
- 63,251
- Capacity
- 40,000 m³
- Households
- 360
- Livestock
- 83,030
Co-fund water resilience.
Partnership, co-funding and operator enquiries start here.