In his long life, Jonah Kyalo has seen River Kwekuyu flourish and then turn to gaping dangerous canyons thanks to unscrupulous sand miners. Today, the peasant farmer is happy because the stream which cuts through his land in Ngondini Village, Kiima Kiu/Kalanzoni ward in Kilome Sub County is recovering. The rural farming community has turned the recovered sections of the river bed into grazing fields thanks to an aggressive sand conservation campaign.

The transformation, which is replicated in many other rivers and streams across the county, speaks to the successful sand conservation campaign by the Makueni Sand Conservation and Utilization Authority.

"The Napier grass that we have used to rehabilitate sections of the damaged riverbed has outgrown. We are now grazing cattle and harvesting fodder where we used to scoop sand. In a way, our cattle now feed on sand," Mr. Kyalo revealed while herding cattle at the river bed cattle near a sand dam.