Empowering rural communities: rainwater harvesting by women groups in Rakai, Uganda

Rakai District lies in southwestern Uganda, about 200 km SW of Kampala. Thedistrict has four counties (Kabula, Kakuto, Kyotera and Kooki) and 22 sub-counties.The majority of the districtís 383,500 people belong to the Baganda tribe, the largestethnic group in Uganda.A major problem in Kooki County is the lack of clean water. According to Ugandangovernment and World Health Organization standards, the highly mineralizedgroundwater in this area is unsafe for human consumption. Local people are forced touse contaminated surface water, so water-borne diseases are common.The Regional Land Management Unit (RELMA) and the Rakai District administra-tion agreed to explore rainwater harvesting as a way to provide safe water to the com-munities in Kooki. The area receives about 800 mm of rain a year during the tworainy seasons, so rainwater harvesting has the potential to supply much of the localpeopleís needs.Representatives of the Rakai administration travelled to Kenya in mid-1996 to seevarious rainwater-harvesting projects there. They visited Nakuru, Laikipia, Nyahururu,Machakos and Kitui districts, where women groups were making rainwater jars ofmanageable sizes. The Rakai team were impressed by the tank construction itself, bythe groupsí high degree of organization, and by their subsidiary activities that hadhelped improve their livelihood.On their return to Rakai, the team asked RELMA to help local people learn how tomake tanks. RELMA sponsored some Kenyan women to teach groups of Rakai womenhow to build two types of tanks.This book describes how groups of Rakai women learned to make tanks and built arainwater collection system for each family in the group.The book also shows the supportive role the donors have played. This role has beendeliberately in the background, so as to create room for local initiatives and empower-ment, thereby increasing local ownership and sustainability. The approaches used arerelevant not only for rainwater harvesting projects, but also for other interventions thatrequire community participation.The activities described here are still continuing today.

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