From East Africa: Rainwater Harvesting Presents Multiple Opportunities

Rainwater harvesting is a powerful solution to many of our issues of water around the world.  There are different reasons for this in different parts of the world.  In East Africa, many women walk several miles a day just to fetch water for their families.  These walks are often dangerous and many women become victims of rape and violence while trying to obtain water for their families. 

On Thursday, during the advanced training, we (leaders in training) went to the site (a local school) where we will be building a rainwater harvest tank. We wanted to prepare the site so it would be ready when the grass roots leaders arrived the following week for training.  Unfortunately, the materials we needed to prep the site were not available.  But Mildred Mkandla, our trainer from Zimbabwe, was not deterred by this circumstance.  She was there to train us about rainwater harvest, so she took advantage of the opportunity to show us how many ways we can harvest rainwater.

First, she instructed us to take some bricks that were in the school yard and pile them into a block that sat at the top of a small hill.  Then, we got some boulders and piled them below the brick block.  We got some gravel and filled in as much as we could of the holes between the boulders.  Then we mixed some coarse sand with a small amount of cement and made a “surface” on top of the rocks.  The surface was molded so that water that fell on the bricks and the boulders would be funneled towards the hill.  Then, at the end of the “funnel” we had created, she placed a gutter.* 

At the bottom of the gutter/hill, she will place a bucket to catch the water.  The main purpose of this exercise was simply to show us that all we needed was a surface, a grade and a container to catch the water.  This water could be used to water plants, wash clothes, and do other cleaning chores. 

Next, Mildred took us to a pile of scrap logs and wood.  We cleared the pile and used the logs to erect 4 posts.  Two of the posts were shorter than the other two.  We placed poles across the posts, and then placed thatching that she took from a fence onto the posts.  We tied the thatching onto the posts using the same method that is used to place thatching on roofs. 

The thatching was made of bamboo.  We will place a sheet of plastic over the thatching, and there we will have a surface.  A gutter* will be placed at the bottom of that surface and a bucket placed under the end of the gutter to catch water.   This example showed that even houses with thatched roofs could be used for water catchment.

In about 3 hours, we managed to construct 2 rainwater harvest facilities.  We did not have to write for any grants, or wait for money to be saved in order to construct them.  We used only local materials.  With, bricks, rocks, small stones, sand, cement, thatching, logs and string, we made a way to collect water that can be used for gardening, feeding animals, cleaning, and perhaps even cooking and drinking! 

It was an amazing use of imagination and what was at hand in order to get the water, which is so precious in this part of the world.  We were fortunate to have Mildred Mkandla as a teacher.  Her passion for harvesting rainwater was an inspiration!  The best lesson I learned that day was that there are limitless ways to obtain water, and the most important “technology” to have is a good imagination!

*A “gutter” does not have to be purchased.  Two- and Three-liter bottles can be cut into gutters and put together with glue, reinforced with wire.

Terri Harris, graduate student, Community and Regional Development