Nonprofit ‘Save the Rain’ Builds Rainwater Collection Systems in Africa
In much of sub-Saharan Africa, it is a daily struggle to collect safe, potable drinking water. And yet, rain does fall.
Twenty years ago, an innovative organization decided to look up, not down, to solve water scarcity problems in Africa. Today, Save the Rain—which uses the motto, “The solution is falling from the sky. All we have to do is help people catch it”—has built 6,500 rainwater collection systems.
The effectiveness of this nonprofit program has kept students—especially girls—in schools and delivered clean water to both families and communities in Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania.
“We should make sure that every child in Africa has clean water,” says Joseph Nyarianga, Save the Rain’s co-director.
Global Goals for Water Access
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal target 6.1 calls for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water. This refers to “safely managed drinking water services” or water that comes from an improved water source, is located on or nearby premises, is available as needed, and is clean (free from contaminants like feces, debris, and chemicals).
It further defines basic water services as access to an improved water source located within a roundtrip of 30 minutes, and limited services as an improved water source that is further away than 30 minutes. Almost a decade ago, a 2016 study estimated that about 3.36 million children and 13.54 million women in sub-Saharan Africa had to walk more than 30 minutes to find water.
The World Health Organization (WHO) currently estimates that 6 billion people or 73% or of the world’s population had safely managed drinking water services in 2022.
The remaining 2.2 billion people included 1.5 billion people with basic services and 292 million people with limited services. Another 296 million people got their water from “unprotected wells and springs” and
115 million people collected raw surface water “from lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.”
A 2021 report by WHO and UNICEF estimated that only 30% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa had access to safely managed drinking water, and this would increase to 37% in 2030.
A 2021 report by WHO and UNICEF estimated that only 30% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa had access to safely managed drinking water, and this would increase to 37% in 2030.
Of the 771 million people globally without access to basic drinking water services in 2020, 387 million (just over half) were in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Causes include population growth and migration, poverty, and poor economic development.
In Tanzania, only 61% of households have access to a basic water supply, according to the World Bank in 2023.
The East African nation had an annual mean precipitation of 1,090.83 mm (about 42.9 inches) in 2023 according to the World Bank’s Climate Change Knowledge Portal. However, rainfall typically ranges from 550 mm (about 21.6 inches) in the central part of the country to 3,690 mm (about 145.2 inches) in some parts of the southwestern highlands.
Responding to a Farmers’ Plight
In 2005, Save the Rain was established “with one tank, one family and one idea.”
It began when Nyarianga, a farmer and mason in Tanzania, asked for help to build a rainwater harvesting system in his village. Californian Kelly Coleman was among those who responded, after a chance meeting outlined the plight of farmers in the country, and Save the Rain was born.
“Clean water is a deliverer of abundance,” says Coleman, the organization’s executive director. “If you have everything that you need—those basics [of] shelter, water, food, companionship, the capacity to contemplate tomorrow—then your life becomes very different, and you are lifted out of the scarcity that poverty cements.”
Save the Rain’s initial research in Tanzania, based on interviews with 1,400 people in four mainly rural regions, showed that 99.5% were experiencing water scarcity. In other words, most Tanzanians walked every day to collect water but did not always find it.
Save the Rain’s initial research in Tanzania, based on interviews with 1,400 people in four mainly rural regions, showed that 99.5% were experiencing water scarcity.
Rainwater Harvesting Technology
Save the Rain builds rainwater harvesting systems that are constructed from ferrocement, which consists of mortar reinforced with light steel fabric or mesh.
A sloping conveyance system created from galvanized iron sheets moves water into a “first flush diverter,” allowing sediment to drop to the bottom of the storage tank. Clean water is then moved into the rainwater harvesting tank. A pipe about 4 inches above the bottom of the tank draws water to the top, enabling people to access water from outside the anaerobic zone.
To prevent bacteria from growing, sunlight must not penetrate the tank, and there must be good airflow. Also crucial is safeguarding the water from insects and vermin.
For rainwater harvesting systems for residential use, there are various guides available, such as for the US or the UK.
Environmental Considerations
Before construction, average rainfall data must be measured against the surface collection to determine the size of the tank required. “The building must be large enough to harvest every drop when it is falling, and then gauge the use in the times when nothing will fall,” says Coleman. Having huge storage capacity is useful even when it doesn’t rain, as it allows people to have water present at home.
Save the Rain’s systems are made of material found locally, such as cement, sand, and stones, and corrugated metal. Such systems do not require electricity, pumps, or Western additives.
Building at Primary Schools
Many solutions, states Coleman, are influenced by Western ideas “rooted in a centralized water system,” which is not viable in rural Africa. That’s why Save the Rain’s work is local.
“We almost always begin at a village primary school,” she says. What tends to happen in those primary schools is, if there is no water present at the school, “children are responsible […] for finding water and bringing it to the school, regardless of the quality of the water.”
However, this creates “a battle between a family need and the need at the school,” Coleman says. “So, what we’re finding is […] parents choose to retract a girl’s education around the third grade because that would be the time she would need to be in school full time [but] she’s responsible for the school’s water, leaving her no time to collect water for her family.”
According to Save the Rain, before rainwater collection systems had been installed, 89% of students fetched water for their families every day, and “63% spent 7 to 16 hours searching each day, forcing them to sacrifice their education.” However, with rainwater systems in place, “95% of their children have a perfect attendance record at school” and “96% haven’t been sick since their systems became operational.”
“63% [of students] spent 7 to 16 hours searching [for water] each day, forcing them to sacrifice their education.” However, with the rainwater systems in place, “95% of their children have a perfect attendance record at school” and “96% haven’t been sick since their systems became operational.”
Ensuring water is available at school promotes food security and prompts parents to “recommit to their children’s education,” adds Coleman.
Sakila and Njeku
In northern Tanzania, Save the Rain is currently working in Sakila and Njeku, two villages in the Kikatiti ward in the Arumeru district. There, primary schools will receive a 150,000-liter rainwater harvesting system, while 45 residential systems will be installed in selected homes.
The average walk for water in these communities is 4 kilometers (about 2.5 miles), and students must collect water every day. About 9,500 people and over 1,000 primary students will benefit.
Maintenance
The community elects people to build and maintain projects. A member of the elected water board will review any issues and learn how to make repairs. “Because the hands that built them are the hands that maintain them and the hands that use them, there’s never a whole lot of education that’s required,” Coleman explains. Save the Rain teams undertake random checks at school systems every quarter.
Women’s Water Initiative
Save the Rain’s research, based on interviews with 1,160 women in 24 villages across four regions of Tanzania, found that 69% reported experiencing gender-based violence while looking for water. The tank itself becomes a vessel for change, according to Coleman, and that’s why the Women’s Water Initiative is so important.
Save the Rain’s research, based on interviews with 1,160 women in 24 villages across four regions of Tanzania, found that 69% reported experiencing gender-based violence while looking for water.
It uses a “giver and receiver model,” building residential rainwater harvesting systems at people’s homes. Six women (givers) go into a new community, reaching out to other women with the greatest need and the capacity to learn (receivers). They then build the systems and rebuild across a region. (See video here.)
“The person supplying the solution is really only one step ahead of the person experiencing the problem. It tends to create an escalator to change because the receiver looks at the giver and says, ‘Well, you’re not that much different than I am. If you could live this life, I could live this life,’” says Coleman.
In northern Tanzania, 204 women are running the project in the Maji ya Chai, Makiba, and Kingori wards, where the average walk for water currently ranges from seven to 16 hours per day. It takes six days to construct the systems. “Those systems cost us about $500 to construct, and thousands have been built. It has been a gigantic eye opener to support those that are experiencing the problem to solve the problem, because there’s a sense of ownership over it,” states Coleman.
Lessons
Coleman believes it’s important that people find ways of reducing their water consumption, especially in areas where drinking water is scarce; this could include using non-potable water in the garden and to clean driveways.
Associations, such as Rainy Filters and the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance, provide more information on harvesting rainwater.
*Yasmin Prabhudas is a freelance journalist working mainly for non-profit organizations, labor unions, the education sector, and government agencies.
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