Rainwater harvesting

Teacher’s house at Fiwila with 8 cu m. rainwater tank

Much of Africa endures lengthy dry seasons and increasingly unpredictable rainy seasons. So accessing water can be a major drain on time and money. It makes sense then to consider harvesting rainfall from building roofs and our tile roofs are perfect as this picture demonstrates. The tank is built from curved stabilised soil blocks.

The problem is that it costs around £500 or US$800 to build the tank and this is unaffordable for most people. The economics of storage depend on the cost of buying water during the dry season.