Strategic investment

December 2006 -The Government of Rwanda received a € 450,000 grant to support a project intended to introduce rainwater harvesting techniques for agriculture and livestock use, as well as to supply drinking water for human consumption in rural districts of Rwanda. This pilot scheme will also make it possible to popularize and scale up the techniques for rainwater harvesting throughout areas in the country which frequently suffer from the effects of drought.

Photo courtesy of Nasa

Background: The City of Windhoek (CoW) is faced with steady demographie growth, and growing informai settlements. The Municipality, which encompasses 326,000 inhabitants, is located in a semi­ arid area  with annual  rainfall averaging  370mm only and scarce surface  water and  groundwater resources. Windhoek's main water resource is transferred over several hundreds of kilometres from the Northern part of Namibia. Climate change is anticipated to result in higher temperatures, increased evaporation, and rainfall intensity across Namibia.

May 2007 - The Network for Water and Sanitation, Uganda (NETWAS-U) received a €450,000 grant to conduct education, sensitization activities to promote roof rainwater harvesting (RWH) to provide relief to the most water stressed parts of the country through the implementation of this low cost solution. The system will provide safe water to the households for a period that will extend beyond the dry spells with aim to secure water supply all year round.