Published May 12, 2024 · Water-use context reviewed October 14, 2026.
The dry season in Cap Rouge is not subtle. The rains stop, the ground hardens, and the difference between a system that holds water and one that does not becomes very clear very fast.
We started developing water catchment because food security in this landscape is closely tied to water security. Intense rain on exposed or compacted slopes can carry soil away before enough water soaks in. Soil cover, infiltration, and storage each have a role; not all rain that is left uncaptured runs off.
Our cisterns change that calculation. They are community-scale systems, gravity-fed, built with local labor and local stone. They collect rainwater during the wet season and hold it for use when the rains stop. During the hardest months, neighbors access water from these systems for their gardens, their animals, and their households.
What matters most about these systems is not the infrastructure. It is the principle behind it. We are not importing a solution. We are observing how water moves through this specific landscape, then working with that movement rather than against it. The cistern is built where the water naturally wants to collect. The swales direct runoff toward the roots rather than away from them.
Water storage and drinking-water safety are different tasks. Rainwater can pick up contaminants during collection and storage. Clean catchments, protected storage, maintenance, testing, and treatment appropriate to the intended use all matter.
The dry season still tests us. But it tests a land that is more prepared than it was.
Sources and context
Rainwater collection, storage, and sanitary inspection — WHO
