Africa is considered a water-scarce continent with most of the countries regularly experiencing extreme water shortage during periodic dry spells. Rapid population growth and inefficient use of resources increases the deficit between available water supplies and the needs of people. Many regions in East and Southern Africa are drought prone and the vulnerability of the population to drought is high with more than 40 per cent of the region’s people living in dryland areas. As resources dwindle and water demand increases, large scale water supply projects become unviable. There is a need to decentralize water supply to household and small community level. There is great potential to make be er use of water resources by harvesting rainwater and storing it locally for household and productive purposes.
Publication year
2005
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
conservation (storage), dams, ponds, rainwater, water
