A lifeline for last mile communities in India, Ghana & Uganda
Our water harvesting brings sustainable change to last mile remote communities. Our work improves health, reduces poverty and frees women & girls from water procurement to attend school and gain income security.
A little about us
We are a small but very impactful UK charity that has been focussed on harvesting rainwater in remote communities for almost 40 years. To date we’ve worked in over 2,000 villages helping 2.3 million people. Thank to you everyone who has supported our work for almost four decades!
WaterHarvest has over 37 years of history, originally starting in 1987 as ‘Wells for India’, when founders Dr. Nicholas Grey and his wife Mary visited the state of Rajasthan in north-west India and saw for themselves the hardship faced by people in remote, rural villages affected by drought.
Today our core values remain the same – to help vulnerable, remote communities to have year-round access to clean drinking water. We continue to believe that the best way for us to do this is to partner with local organisations who are deeply rooted in their communities. This is how we have always worked in India and our Africa work follows this ethos.
We fund and work with local partners that have strong community links, to help rural communities secure a sustainable source of clean drinking water. We encourage our partners to develop the best sustainable source of clean water for their communities. We do not seek to impose solutions on communities, rather to offer our help and guidance, sharing the technical expertise and experience we have built up from almost 40 years of water harvesting.
We operate different delivery models depending on requirements for each programme/country. In Ghana we fund our partner to develop and deliver our programme. In India and Uganda, we directly employ specialists on the ground who oversee the work we fund with local partners.
In the UK we have a small team in the UK, supported by an active board of trustees and an advisory panel. In Uganda we employ an experienced local engineer to manage delivery of our programme, liaising with a contractor team of 30.
We harvest rainwater as we believe small scale rainwater harvesting structures are the best solution for families in the remote, arid and semi-arid areas that we work in. The reasons behind this can be broken down into four main areas: environmental sustainability, the benefits of small scale solutions, water quality and the maintenance involved. Find out more about why we harvest rainwater here.
Our approach
Our fundraising promise
Value for money is embedded in everything we do – it’s been in our roots since we were founded back in 1987. We work hard to make your donation have the greatest impact possible, keeping all our costs low, including our fundraising costs.
Why we harvest rainwater
We don’t dig wells, sink boreholes or invest in piped water – we believe that small scale rainwater harvesting structures are the best solution in the remote areas that we work in.
Our UK team
Our UK team is home based in London & the South East. In India and Uganda we directly employ specialists on the ground who oversee the work we fund with local partners.
Corinna McShane – Chief Executive Officer
Corinna joined WaterHarvest in 2024. Corinna has a wealth of international charity experience both as a senior executive and Board Trustee. Before joining us, Corinna was CEO of The Jane Goodall Institute UK and prior to this she held senior roles at the BBC & British Airways. She has an MSc in Climate Change Impacts & Sustainability and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Dawn Flach – Operations Manager
Dawn joined WaterHarvest in 2004. Dawn deals with financial and operational aspects of the charity and works closely with our programme partners. She enjoys seeing the impact of our programmes and especially how the lives of women and girls can be transformed by having access to clean water.
Julia Seal – Fundraising Manager
Julia began as a volunteer in 2004 and joined the team in 2005, with fundraising her main focus. She especially enjoys liaising with our local partners and hearing how simple water harvesting can transform lives. Talking to funders about how even small amounts of funding can help us is also an inspiring part of Julia’s work.
Our Trustees
Chair
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Our Advisory Board
Advisor
Advisor
Advisor