Water Projects - Overview

The Raintree Foundation is using appropriate technologies to improve the rural and poor people lives. Appropriate technologies are technical devices (like pumps, filters, etc.) that are especially suited to the individual need of rural farmers.

Some characteristics of appropriate technologies are

- they can be understood, built, controlled and maintained by villagers without a high level of specific training.
- they are environmental friendly.
- they can be modified to meet local conditions.
- they are affordable and long lasting.
- they are helping local people to improve their basic conditions.

The Raintree Foundation uses appropriate technologies to provide water, to treat water and to provide energy.

Why are our appropriate technologies needed?

A lot of tribe-villages have no access to or not enough clean water for washing clothes, personal hygiene, farming or even drinking. The use of dirty water often leads into sickness, which causes many problems, not only health problems. When villagers become sick they are losing essential working time on the farm and have to visit hospitals that are usually far away. The traveling cost and medical care are expensive and often not affordable. This causes people to borrow money and go further into dept.

Using appropriate technologies such as solar cells can produce electricity for a neon lamp that the children can use to do their home work at night. They will no longer be exposed to a much dimmer kerosene lamp with toxic fumes.
It also decreases the need of using wood for boiling water. Farmers can use less fire wood and can base their daily work more on income creating activities to meet their needs.

Appropriate technologies help people to live more healthy lives, being more productive, to reach easier their necessary income without going further into debt.