Harvest rain water to fight water scarcity
May 11, 2009
The UN Millennium Development Goal No.7c targets reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. It focuses on improved water sources and sanitation facilities.
By Henry Bazira
The UN Millennium Development Goal No.7c targets reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. It focuses on improved water sources and sanitation facilities.
Whether Uganda is closing in on this target remains to be seen. Reports suggest that Uganda has invested in water infrastructure that serves about 50% of the population. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the Government has constructed several kilometres of piped-water (4,058 taps), boreholes (17,915), gravitation flow systems (134), shallow wells (4,734) and protected springs (19,029).
The report further notes that despite this significant investment in water, a large proportion of the population still has no access to safe and clean water. This problem is not the preserve of people in rural areas, but also affects urban residents. It is not uncommon to find residents of Kampala without water or seeing raw sewage flowing on the streets. The reality on the ground, therefore, needs to be ascertained. It is one thing to install the water infrastructure and another to have the infrastructure working to serve the population.
Uganda is endowed with plenty of fresh water that can be obtained from open water bodies (lakes, rivers, streams and springs) and underground aquifers. The open water bodies cover 18.2% of the land area, which is 241,038 sqkm.
The country receives an average 1375mm of bimodal rainfall annually. Even semi-arid areas receive an average annual precipitation of about 300mm of rainfall. These water systems provide a per capita of 3,600 cubic metres water availability. In fact, some areas of the country have registered floods that have affected farms, human settlements, peoples’ livelihoods and water and road infrastructure. Uganda cannot claim to be water-stressed like some countries in North Africa and the Middle East. But, despite this apparent water abundance, many people still go without sufficient, clean and safe water.
Due to the apparent abundance of water in Uganda, it is taken for granted that it will always be available, which is not the case. With the changing climate, rainfall is increasingly becoming unpredictable and unreliable; open water and underground aquifers are continuously declining in volume, thus making water availability a significant challenge. It is, therefore, no longer acceptable to take water abundance for granted.
The paradox is that Ugandans have been so accustomed to obtaining water through piped, tap, boreholes, valley tank, wells and protected spring systems that they do not seem to bother about rain water. They leave rain water to run off after a major torrent and the next hour or day, they purchase water at exorbitant prices (sh500 per jerrican) or travel long distances, sometimes on rough terrain, to fetch clean water.
People also buy bottled drinking water at costs ranging from sh380 to sh1,000 for 500ml and 1,000ml bottles. In addition, they are so dependent on rain-fed agriculture that they do not bother to harvest and store rainwater for human and animal consumption and to produce crops during the dry seasons.
This calls for a paradigm shift in the way people access and manage water. It does not seem logical or justifiable to watch rainwater flow away untapped and, within a short period, complain of lack of water or buy it. We can no longer continue to rely on rain-fed agriculture and complain of declining food stocks during traditional rainfall and dry seasons, because it never rained. Why should we remain entrapped in a culture of buying water at increasingly high prices?
Should we continue putting the blame on the Government for our poverty after we have spent our meagre incomes on a product that we could actually have for little or “no cost at all�
Viewed from another perspective, one may argue that our recommendations may take away money from the National Water and Sewerage Corporation and water bottling businesses, but rather than compete, this is intended to reinforce efforts to ensure water accessibility and quality assurance for all Ugandans, regardless of their social setting. Put another way, this is not to negate the need for continued investment in the water sector by the Government and the private sector, but rather to contribute to household savings, which could be used for other economic activities.
Both rural and urban communities should inculcate the practice of rainwater harvesting as a means of reducing water costs and supporting irrigation-based and “off-rainfall-season†crop production.
To harvest rain water, one may use simple utensils like buckets, basins and jerricans that cost a few thousand shillings, water tanks that cost sh1m — 5m and irrigation tanks or reservoirs that may go for sh30m.
The costs incurred in construction of rainwater harvesting infrastructure can be off-set over time, thus minimising household or community expenditure on water. It is also possible to have household-based low-cost water purification systems.
The Government should invest in the promotion of rainwater harvesting systems both in rural and urban communities.
A policy requiring that all buildings have rainwater harvesting systems should be put in place. In this way, the Government would significantly contribute to household poverty reduction, the Millennium Development Goal on water No. 7c and climate change adaptation. There is need to promote water use efficiency, equitable allocation of water following a development path that minimises social, economic and political risks and one that supports economic frameworks that promote water-resilient behaviours by villages, towns, cities, industries, farms and pastoral families. There is also need for an explicit policy on rainwater harvest.
The writer is the executive director of the Water Governance Institute
- Co-writer: Paul Namisi
The UN Millennium Development Goal No.7c targets reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. It focuses on improved water sources and sanitation facilities.
Whether Uganda is closing in on this target remains to be seen. Reports suggest that Uganda has invested in water infrastructure that serves about 50% of the population. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the Government has constructed several kilometres of piped-water (4,058 taps), boreholes (17,915), gravitation flow systems (134), shallow wells (4,734) and protected springs (19,029).
The report further notes that despite this significant investment in water, a large proportion of the population still has no access to safe and clean water. This problem is not the preserve of people in rural areas, but also affects urban residents. It is not uncommon to find residents of Kampala without water or seeing raw sewage flowing on the streets. The reality on the ground, therefore, needs to be ascertained. It is one thing to install the water infrastructure and another to have the infrastructure working to serve the population.
Uganda is endowed with plenty of fresh water that can be obtained from open water bodies (lakes, rivers, streams and springs) and underground aquifers. The open water bodies cover 18.2% of the land area, which is 241,038 sqkm.
The country receives an average 1375mm of bimodal rainfall annually. Even semi-arid areas receive an average annual precipitation of about 300mm of rainfall. These water systems provide a per capita of 3,600 cubic metres water availability. In fact, some areas of the country have registered floods that have affected farms, human settlements, peoples’ livelihoods and water and road infrastructure. Uganda cannot claim to be water-stressed like some countries in North Africa and the Middle East. But, despite this apparent water abundance, many people still go without sufficient, clean and safe water.
Due to the apparent abundance of water in Uganda, it is taken for granted that it will always be available, which is not the case. With the changing climate, rainfall is increasingly becoming unpredictable and unreliable; open water and underground aquifers are continuously declining in volume, thus making water availability a significant challenge. It is, therefore, no longer acceptable to take water abundance for granted.
The paradox is that Ugandans have been so accustomed to obtaining water through piped, tap, boreholes, valley tank, wells and protected spring systems that they do not seem to bother about rain water. They leave rain water to run off after a major torrent and the next hour or day, they purchase water at exorbitant prices (sh500 per jerrican) or travel long distances, sometimes on rough terrain, to fetch clean water.
People also buy bottled drinking water at costs ranging from sh380 to sh1,000 for 500ml and 1,000ml bottles. In addition, they are so dependent on rain-fed agriculture that they do not bother to harvest and store rainwater for human and animal consumption and to produce crops during the dry seasons.
This calls for a paradigm shift in the way people access and manage water. It does not seem logical or justifiable to watch rainwater flow away untapped and, within a short period, complain of lack of water or buy it. We can no longer continue to rely on rain-fed agriculture and complain of declining food stocks during traditional rainfall and dry seasons, because it never rained. Why should we remain entrapped in a culture of buying water at increasingly high prices?
Should we continue putting the blame on the Government for our poverty after we have spent our meagre incomes on a product that we could actually have for little or “no cost at all�
Viewed from another perspective, one may argue that our recommendations may take away money from the National Water and Sewerage Corporation and water bottling businesses, but rather than compete, this is intended to reinforce efforts to ensure water accessibility and quality assurance for all Ugandans, regardless of their social setting. Put another way, this is not to negate the need for continued investment in the water sector by the Government and the private sector, but rather to contribute to household savings, which could be used for other economic activities.
Both rural and urban communities should inculcate the practice of rainwater harvesting as a means of reducing water costs and supporting irrigation-based and “off-rainfall-season†crop production.
To harvest rain water, one may use simple utensils like buckets, basins and jerricans that cost a few thousand shillings, water tanks that cost sh1m — 5m and irrigation tanks or reservoirs that may go for sh30m.
The costs incurred in construction of rainwater harvesting infrastructure can be off-set over time, thus minimising household or community expenditure on water. It is also possible to have household-based low-cost water purification systems.
The Government should invest in the promotion of rainwater harvesting systems both in rural and urban communities.
A policy requiring that all buildings have rainwater harvesting systems should be put in place. In this way, the Government would significantly contribute to household poverty reduction, the Millennium Development Goal on water No. 7c and climate change adaptation. There is need to promote water use efficiency, equitable allocation of water following a development path that minimises social, economic and political risks and one that supports economic frameworks that promote water-resilient behaviours by villages, towns, cities, industries, farms and pastoral families. There is also need for an explicit policy on rainwater harvest.
The writer is the executive director of the Water Governance Institute
- Co-writer: Paul Namisi