Renovating dugouts to provide a sustainable water supply in Ghana
In remote regions of Ghana year round steams are rare and ground water is often inaccessible, so communities collect rainwater in dugouts but these are now drying out for several months at a time due to climate change. We are helping to resolve this problem by expanding & rehabilitating dugouts to ensure villagers have a sustainable source of clean drinking water.
Scroll down for Key Project Facts, About our Ghana Project, Photos and Project News.
Key Programme Facts
Renovated
dugouts
Providing a year-round
water supply and supporting female led water businesses at the dugouts.
Sustainable Development Goals
Supporting SDG 6 (water),
SDG 4 (education) and
SDG 1 (poverty)
Community
Support
Supported by our local
NGO partner –
Saha Global
About our Ghana programme
In 2022/23 we funded our new partner in Ghana, Saha Global to set up 22 small water treatment businesses run by local women, to supply clean water collected from dugouts to remote rural villages surrounding Dambai and Krachi. The project was a great success but we learnt from Saha Global that in recent years the dugouts had been running dry for several months a year due to climate change. This resulted in villagers, especially women & young girls walking very long distances to find often un-safe water, disrupting their education and work.
In 2024 we therefore supported Saha Global with funding for a pilot project to undertake their first ever renovation of a dugout in the village of Sinsina. Following the success of this project, in early 2025 we started work on a new dugout in the village of Tacpuli – find out more below.
Our work in Ghana supports a number of different Sustainable Development Goals. Women and children will not have to walk far distances to alternative sources of water, allowing children to stay in school and women to focus on other important activities (SDG 4 – Quality Education and SDG 1 – No Poverty). This project also represents a significant step in building climate change resilience for villages and communities reliant on dugouts.
About the dugouts:
All the dugouts we are renovating are linked to small water treatment centres run by local women supplying clean drinking water to the village residents.
Sinsina
Tacpuli
In August 2024 we completed a new pilot project with Saha Global, funding the expansion and rehabilitation of a large water dugout supplying clean drinking water to the 466 people living in Sinsina, in the North Gonja District.
In January 2025, we commenced work on a new second dugout in the Tacpuli community located in the North-East Gonja District with a population of 963 residents.
The renovation works took place over several months, resulting in a deeper dugout three times its original size! Vertiver grass & trees have also been planted around the dugout to reduce evaporation during the dry season.
Having the dugout expanded means that Naana pictured above, who co-runs the water treatment centre at Sinsina can now supply clean drinking water to the village residents all year round.
We started work on Tacpuli’s dugout in January, replicating the approach taken with Sinsina to deepen the dugout. With the support of members of the local community, the works progressed far quicker than planned which is wonderful news!
By the end of May 2025, 97% of the project was complete – the planting of vertiver grass around the dugout has to wait until the rains commence to ensure their initial growth.
Photos from Sinsina:
Photos from Tacpuli:
There are many more remote communities in Ghana with dugouts drying out for several months at a time due to climate change. We plan to start renovation works on a third dugout in Autumn 2025. If you would like to support this work please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you – please contact us here.
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