Harvesting rainwater to improve access to water

I’m Aline, Mozambican, living in South Africa and married to a Kenyan — a true African citizen :)

I’m a civil engineer, with Masters in Hydrology and water resources, and currently finalizing my PhD in Hydrology at Un-IHE. I’m very passionate about water resources, especially about bridging knowledge gaps in the water sector.

I believe worldwide we already have enough technology to solve most water related problems, but still there is a huge population lacking basic access to water and sanitation. In my opinion, there is an information gap that needs to be bridged. Technology and information need to be disseminated and applied were they are needed. New IT developments can help bridging this gap.

For example, the past few years we had quite severe drought in Southern Africa. Many cities and towns experienced water restrictions, however, very few were implementing rainwater harvesting — saving free water from the rain in rainy days. Research has shown a tremendous potential of rainwater harvesting as a buffer to meet water needs for various communities worldwide. Rainwater can be stored in plastic tanks, underground tanks, artificial aquifers and various other storage solutions to be used when needed. It can meet 50 to 100% domestic water demands, even in semi-arid areas.

This is why last year I created with some colleagues the HarvestRainWater mobile application, to help people understand what rainwater harvesting (RWH) is, how to dimension a basic rooftop RWH system based on their location, roof size and roof type. I believe that when more people are educated about the potential solutions for their water problems, we can improve access to water and sanitation for all, thus meeting the SDG 6.

I look forward to meet the bright talents at UNLEASH LAB 2017, specially the Water and IT related innovators. I hope to increase my network at UNLEASH and team up with other innovators to develop further my ideas and projects related to water and rainwater harvesting. I hope we can develop more concrete action plans to improve access to water and sanitation for all, and to make more sustainable the current water access models, especially in Sub Saharan Africa.