Since October 2013, Enabel’s Water Supply Gaza project has successfully improved access to drinking water in rural areas in the northern part of the Gaza Province, Mozambique. This relatively dry region is characterized by remote and widely dispersed communities, that rely on few and often salty water sources. Despite these challenges, the project has installed and updated many water and sanitation facilities in the region, greatly improving the lives of the rural population in the province.
In order to provide the population of rural Mozambique with drinking water, Enabel’s Water Gaza project often relies on renewable energy solutions. Not only are the targeted communities disconnected from a reliable and clean water source, often they are also not connected to the national electricity grid. In the few locations where they do have access to the electricity grid, it is often unreliable, with frequent power cuts that can take days to repair.
When access to the only water source in the area depends on this grid, power cuts can have devastating consequences. In order to overcome these issues Enabel’s Gaza project has been focusing on independent and environment-friendly energy since the start: almost all of the installed water pumps are at least partially equipped with solar panels to provide cheap and renewable energy to run the systems.