Water Cistern Construction Project in Kagera / Tanzania
In September 2009, on the 60th anniversary of the foundation of ROTHENBERGER, the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation organised a fundraising campaign for a project in Kagera/Tanzania. Under the motto, "Donations instead of Gifts", and in close cooperation with the organisation Ingenieure ohne Grenzen e.V. (Engineers Without Borders Germany), the construction of water cisterns in one of the most arid regions of Africa was supported.
For the people of the Kagera region in the north-west highlands of Tanzania, only a few natural water sources are available, and they are often remote and furthermore mostly very dirty. In this way, the use of rainwater by means of cisterns has proven to be a cost-effective and low-maintenance technology. During the rainy season, a single cistern can collect up to 20,000 litres of rainwater, which then supplies about 60 village inhabitants with clean drinking water during the dry period. At the same time, experts and families on-site will be trained on handling cisterns, and the subject of water quality.
In November 2009, thanks to the generous donations from the fundraising campaign, Mr Marko Faber and Mr Falk Thürigen, our partners from Ingenieure ohne Grenzen e.V. (Engineers Without Borders Germany) and manager of the water cistern project, travelled to Kagera to start the project. The water cistern construction phase could be officially started in the mid-November 2009 with two construction teams. By the end of November 2009, two water cisterns were built, a central water supply was planned, a maintenance system for the constructed cisterns was discussed with the villagers, and all existing water cistern tanks were viewed.
The first five water cisterns were constructed by early 2010 and the last 13 by mid-2010. By the end of the year 2010 the TOOLS FOR LIFE Foundation in cooperation with the Ingenieure ohne Grenzen e.V. (Engineers without Borders Germany) successfully completed the project and supplied 1050 people with enough clean and portable water.
