In a country where there is 4000mm of rain falls between June and October the communities in Sierra Leone still face an acute shortage of reliable drinking water and the only long term sustainable solution is collection of rain water to enable more children and trainees to attend school.
The project has achieved the long term support of the Government of Sierra Leone and an Austrian and Swiss group of supporters. The Austrian Consul to Sierra Leone also provides support and guidance for the growth of the project to more villages.
Today in interior villages of Sierra Leone communities are being forced to use stream, spring and irrigation water for all purposes, which may result in the prevalence of skin diseases, diarrhoea, dysentery, and worm infection.
Rainwater harvesting on the other hand, is a simple and low cost technique that has been practised for hundreds of years. Surface run-off around wells may be redirected to recharge groundwater supplies. Or rainwater from rooftops of schools and other public facilities may be collected and stored. By doing so, large water volumes can be stored in areas were otherwise, without these techniques, no water or insufficient water would be available.
