Two thousand euro of the money donated on World Food Day 2009 by the various communities of the South Central Province contributed to the constructing of 5 water tanks in five inhabited areas of the Parish of Soledade, Paraiba, North East Brazil. This is a semi-arid region and suffers yearly from the consequences of drought or of extremely low rainfall.

In the mid 1970’s a Brazilian builder developed the construction of cylindrical water tanks which would harness and conserve rainfall that falls from roof tops. Various NGOs took on the task of developing the construction of such tanks throughout the semi arid regions of the country. The plan was that a group of five families would organize themselves in a ‘meithal’ model to build the tank. A professional builder of this type of tank would lead the ‘meithal’ in their task. They would also be given the necessary materials for the job – cement, sand, iron rods etc.

When constructed the five families would then be able to use the water in the tank for their daily needs. During the rainy season (about 2 months) the tank would serve to store the water harnessed from the rooftop for use during the dry season (about 9 months). During the drought years they would have a tank into which could be deposited water distributed by the local authorities. The philosophy behind this construction was that as well as being a practical solution to an ecological situation which had to be coped with and befriended year after year the mobilization of community was also taking place. The five families would pay back by giving some bags of cement towards the construction of another tank among another five families. Over the years hundreds of such tanks have been built in this manner.

In 2009 one of the priests of the Solidarity Commission of the semi-arid area of Soledade of the state of Paraiba, North East Brazil requested a donation of €2,000 to help buy the material for the construction of five such tanks. This was sent to him from the World Food Day contribution of that year. The 5 tanks have been built, one in quite a populated urban area and the others in small rural villages. Each tank is constructed in such a way that it can harness the water that falls from the rooftop of a small community church and has a water capacity of 16,000 liters of water. A total of 120 families have access to the tanks.

The Solidarity Commission expresses extreme gratitude to the donors for the contribution. We have helped to ease in a very real way the suffering of some families in the North East of Brazil. The storing of water is a great aid on a personal and domestic level but it also means that the dream to remain in the rural area can become a reality and that the rural exodus can be somewhat curtailed.

Ella Noonan rsm
Justice Advisory Group
South Central Province