Dit artikel is ook in het Nederlands beschikbaar.
As we increasingly focus on safe drinking water, we have now to our goals added the building of rainwater collection systems, with a capacity of 5,000 liters, in villages that are difficult to reach. These are remote villages where a truck loaded with a 10,000 liter plastic rainwater collection tank cannot reach and where the use is on a smaller scale than at a school. The system we is made of a mixture of sand and cement and does not contain a plastic inner tank; for a high-quality result it is of great importance that a specific type of sand as well as a good quality cement is used, whereby the two components must also be used in the correct proportion. If those essential conditions are met, the system can serve for up to 30 years!
Recently Erasmus Mutana, who also constructs rainwater collection systems at schools for us, built a first sample at a widow’s house in Katooma village. This woman had to take the long, arduous, mainly steep road all the way down to the lake for water every day and back up again. A heavy burden for her that has now come to an end. Of course, other villagers also use the facility. In the selection of locations for next to built samples we very much look at the presence of elderly and/or vulnerable people in a village.
In the below video heavy sacks filled with sand, which is needed in the construction of system is carried up the steep hill to the village location. It all comes down to pure manpower!
This first sample was a test for us; the result and the reactions are so positive that we have decided to definitively add the construction of 5,000 rainwater collection systems to our goals. As mentioned above, the system can be built in remote locations that are not accessible to a truck and where the larger rainwater collection systems such as we install at schools are not an option. The cost per system is significantly lower than that of a larger rainwater harvesting system with plastic inner tank; at schools, where there are hundreds of children and the risk of (serious) damage is many times greater, we still prefer the rainwater collection systems that we have installed several times.
We thank Thijs-Jan van Hoek for his generous donation that made the construction of this first system possible!
If you would also like to help us achieve our goals, please visit the page ‘How You Can Help’ on this website. Every donation, small or large, is highly appreciated by us.
HWMCO-Nederland & NiCA Foundation
‘We Fight Poverty by Bringing Development’
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