# Warta-Burale villagers build own dam, report says

> Somaliland Standard reported on 21 September 2019 that Warta-Burale villagers built a dam with their own labour and resources.

- By: Editorial Team, Somali Construction Review (https://somaliconstructionreview.com/about)
- Published: 30 September 2026
- Format: News story (reported from one named public source)
- Publication: Somali Construction Review (https://somaliconstructionreview.com)
- Subject: Infrastructure and Services
- Tags: water-supply, drainage
- Web version: https://somaliconstructionreview.com/blog/warta-burale-villagers-build-own-dam-somaliland

## Key points

- Somaliland Standard reported on 21 September 2019 that villagers in Warta-Burale, about 85 km north of Burao, built a dam using their own labour and resources.
- The report says digging began in February 2019 and the completed dam was full after short rainfall earlier that month; it does not establish whether the dam still holds water or functions.
- No funder, contractor, consultant or project cost is identified, and key figures come from village elder Abdi Elmi via Radio Ergo.

On 21 September 2019, Somaliland Standard reported that residents of Warta-Burale, a village around 85 km north of Burao in Somaliland, had built a dam with their own labour and resources. The report, which carries reporting by Radio Ergo, said the village has no borehole and has suffered water crises for years due to successive droughts, and that digging began in February 2019.

According to the same report, the completed dam was full after short rainfall earlier that month. It describes the dam as 150 metres long, 150 metres wide and three metres deep, figures attributed to village elder Abdi Elmi and not presented as engineering-verified.

## What the villagers contributed

The report states that villagers pitched in with labour and resources, and quotes resident Fadumo Osman saying that over 100 people at a time worked on the dam, some digging, some removing soil, and some preparing food and water until it was completed. Osman, who has lived in the village with her husband and seven children for more than a decade, contributed three of her 25 remaining goats, the report says. Another villager, Nur Jama'a, contributed five goats, and told Radio Ergo he never thought a dam in the village would happen.

Abdi Elmi, a village elder on the dam-building committee, told Radio Ergo that 100 goats and 10 camels were slaughtered to feed those building the dam, all contributed by locals. Before the dam, he said, residents bought a barrel of water for $4 from tankers fetching water from Burao town. The report does not specify the size or unit of the barrel or the reference period for that price. It also states the area has only two privately owned reservoirs.

The account says residents previously migrated to Gebogebo village, 65 km away, which has a borehole with a pump, whenever water ran out. Osman lost 150 goats to drought in the last two years and moved out of the village three times in that period in search of water, according to the report. "We thank almighty God, we finally completed," Elmi said, adding that the water in the dam was enough to serve the village for the next eight months, a forecast attributed to him, not a measured capacity.

Elmi also said several appeals for outside help failed before the villagers built the dam themselves. That is his account as carried by Radio Ergo and is not documented as fact in the report. No outside funder, contractor, consultant or client is identified for the dam, and the article gives no construction cost or contract value. The 6,000 population figure is as stated by the Somaliland Standard report, not a census figure.

## What the report does not establish

The report speaks only to the state of the dam in September 2019. It does not establish whether the dam still holds water or is functioning today, whether any outside help was involved at any stage, or what the dam cost. The dimensions, the eight-month water forecast, the slaughtered animals, the failed appeals and the $4 barrel price are statements by Abdi Elmi via Radio Ergo, and the account of over 100 people working at a time is a direct quote from Fadumo Osman. None is independently verified in the report, and no independent verification of the dam's dimensions, water-holding capacity or ability to serve the village for eight months is offered.

> **Note:** The report does not state whether the dam ended the village's water shortage, only that it was completed and full at the time of writing.

## Questions

### Where is the dam?

In Warta-Burale village, around 85 km north of Burao in Somaliland, according to the Somaliland Standard report of 21 September 2019.

### What is the dam's capacity?

The report gives dimensions of 150 metres long, 150 metres wide and three metres deep, and quotes village elder Abdi Elmi saying the water was enough to serve the village for eight months. These figures are not presented as engineering-verified measurements.

### How was it funded and constructed?

Villagers built it with their own labour and resources, the report says. No funder, contractor, consultant or cost is identified.

## Sources

- [Somaliland villagers build their own dam to end perennial water shortage](https://somalilandstandard.com/somaliland-villagers-build-their-own-dam-to-end-perennial-water-shortage/) — Somaliland Standard, 2019-09-21