In Africa alone, women walk for over 4 billion hours collecting water. Over 163 million people walk longer than 30 minutes round trip to collect a few gallons of water. Water that is often dirty.

Providing clean water to villages and towns is crucial to developing and improving those communities. Clean water reduces the time spent collecting water, improves health, improves education, and local economies. Access to clean water makes people live better, healthier, and longer lives.

Fortunately, we have ways to process and provide clean water to people in rural places. Let’s look at 5 methods that are currently being used to change people's lives.

Drilled Wells

Women and girls are often the ones collecting water. The walk long distances to collect water, even though there might be safe water under their village.

Aquifers often contain water that is clean and ready to drink. By using drilling machines to drill a hole 40 to 100 meters deep, the water can be pulled to the surface with a hand pump.

Once the hole is drilled and water has been tapped into, a sanitary seal and concrete apron are built. These wells and pumps can provide up to 5 gallons of clean water per minute.

Drilled wells have significant advantages over dug wells. Drilled wells are generally drilled between 40 meters and 100 meters deep compared to 10 meters to 30 meters for dug wells. Because of this, drilled wells aren’t generally affected by drought.

The advantages of Drilled Wells

Not generally Affected by drought
Good Quality Water
Convenient pump locations

Sand Dams

What is a sand dam?

A sand dam is a rubble cement wall that is built across a seasonal sandy river. Sand dams are the most cost-effective method of water conservation in dryland environments like Sub-Saharan Africa.

How do sand dams work?

Sand dams work by retaining rainwater and recharging local aquifers. When it rains, the dam captures water behind it and causes the sand in the water to sink to the bottom of the dam. Eventually, the dam fills with sand. Between 25% and 40% of the volume of the sand is actually water.

mature sand dams can store millions of liters of water and are continuously refilled after each rainfall.

Using a slotted pipe, burying it in the sand and connecting it to a hand pump, water can be pulled out from the sand.

Benefits of Sand Dams:

Low cost and low maintenance: Sand dams are the least expensive form of rainwater collection and harvesting. A sand dam is built to last over 50 years, has no operating costs, and requires little maintenance.

Community Owned & Managed: Most sand dam projects are built by members of the communities they serve with support from local and international development agencies. Community ownership and management are critical to the success of a sand dam project.

Increased Food Production: A big benefit of sand dams is that they increase the water table around them. This makes it easier to irrigate and creates better growing conditions. The time saved from collecting water also allows farmers to improve their farming practices.

Local Ecology Transformation: The water held by the sand spreads horizontally which creates a permanent increase in the water table. This, in turn, provides a more suitable environment for trees to grow.

Gravity Fed Water Systems

Gravity fed water systems work by transporting water from higher elevation water tanks or springs to convenient access points.

A system of pipes is engineered and designed to ensure a consistent flow of water. If the pipes aren’t properly designed, a gravity fed system can have too much friction and will cause the water to stop moving.

Gravity fed systems have some advantages over other methods of water collection that make it a great solution in areas that can take advantage of them.

The advantages of Gravity Fed Systems

Potentially large volume of water may be transported
Moderate construction costs for the water volume transported
Low maintenance and operating cost.
Simple and reliable: Gravity fed systems have minimal moving parts, making them robust and a great long-term solution

One of the disadvantages gravity fed systems is that they are limited to mountainous areas. Without the elevation change, a gravity system won’t work.

A small town in Nepal recently got a new gravity-fed system and it has transformed how the people in the community live. Read the story

Providing Clean Water To All

With over 663 million people without access to clean water, constructing effective methods to get water is crucial. Gravity fed systems, drill wells, and sand dams all have their advantages and disadvantages but they are all highly effective methods for providing developing communities with clean water.