Our impact goes beyond clean water, supporting multiple Sustainable Development Goals
WaterHarvest to close in 2027, our 40th Anniversary year. Although this is sad news, our anniversary feels like an appropriate milestone to bring the charity to a close and we have much to celebrate from our four decades of rainwater harvesting. Find out more here.
A staggering 2.2 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water.
Four out of five people living without at least basic drinking water services, are in rural areas.
Source: The United Nations World Water Development Report 2024.
Our water harvesting programmes are a lifeline for the remote rural communities where we work, providing not only clean drinking water but improved personal hygiene & health benefits.
The number of people facing hunger and food insecurity has been rising since 2015, with the pandemic, conflict, climate change and growing inequalities worsening the situation.
Source: UN DESA. 2023. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition – July 2023.
Our water harvesting tanks in Uganda are enabling many schools to provide pupils meals for the first time and for schools to grow cabbages, maize & bananas in their gardens.
In sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than two-thirds of children complete primary school*. In Uganda pupils miss lessons to collect water and poor sanitation leads to girls dropping out of school once they begin menstruating.
*Source: UN DESA. 2023. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition – July 2023.
In the Ugandan schools where we have installed tanks, we have seen a 26% increase in school enrolment and a 23% increase in girl’s attendance.
The UN estimates that if current trends continue, c. 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty by 2030, with most in sub-Saharan Africa*. Water and poverty are interlinked – a lack of clean water impacts food security, sanitation, livelihood opportunities & education.
*Source: UN DESA. 2023. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition – July 2023.
In Ghana we are renovating large water dugouts to ensure villagers have access to water all year round and the associated female run water services stay open.
There has been some progress on improving global health in recent years but the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing crises have impeded progress towards this Goal.
The communities we work with in Ghana and Uganda are at risk of contracting water borne diseases due to drinking water that is not clean.
Our programmes provide a clean and on-going water supply. In the Ugandan schools where we have installed tanks, attendance levels have increased due to reduced sickness levels.
The UN’s latest SDG report in 2023 states “With a climate cataclysm looming, the pace and scale of current climate action plans are wholly insufficient to effectively tackle climate change.”
The communities where we work are already being impacted by intense extreme weather events and rising temperatures.
In Uganda, the water from our tanks is being used to grow tree seedlings to plant in school gardens and distributed to parents and communities to enhance village micro-climates.
Related News
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Video from our dugout project in Ghana!
We are proud to have supported our local partner Saha Global to expand and rehabilitate a large water dugout close to the village of Sinsina. Works completed in August 2024 and we’re excited to share a video featuring interviews with Sinsina residents – watch below! The dugout in Sinsina is linked to a small water…
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It’s World Water Week – watch our new video from Nakateete school in Uganda!
August 25 – 29 2024 is World Water Week – to celebrate we are sharing a new video highlighting the impact our work is having in schools in Uganda. We built four rainwater harvesting tanks using ecoblocks at Nakateete Baptist Primary School early this year. We recently filmed teachers and pupils from the school to…
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NBS TV highlights impact of our tanks to schools in Uganda – watch now!
Uganda’s NBS Television visited two schools with our tanks in June 2024! In Uganda we are building rainwater harvesting tanks transforming the lives of 10,000 school children in 22 schools. We have built 47 tanks at nine schools and are raising funds for the remaining 60 tanks at 13 schools – find out more here.…
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Why we harvest rainwater
Many people ask us why at WaterHarvest, we harvest rainwater and why we don’t dig wells, sink boreholes or invest in piped water. The answer is that we believe that 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…
