Marange — Kuziwa Matongo’s rainwater-harvesting system may not look like much, but its impact is huge. Triangular metal gutters run below the corrugated roofs on all the buildings at his home, transporting water into storage tanks below. The spartan system allows Matongo to collect enough water to get through the dry season — an ever more difficult task in this arid, sparsely populated area of Zimbabwe’s Manicaland province. "We are harvesting rainwater from our rooftops and I have three tanks which are almost full," Matongo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "If the rains continue like this, my tanks will be full very soon. It means enough water for my family during the dry season." Such home rainwater-harvesting systems are becoming a more familiar sight in this part of eastern Zimbabwe as droughts intensify and people search for solutions to worsening water shortages. Over the past five years, a number of new rainwater systems have been installed in the area as rains grow more ...
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