At least half the people of Mozambique lack access to clean, safe water and basic sanitation. So since February 2014, TU Delft has been part of a five-year project to produce a sustainable freshwater supply in the capital city, Maputo. André Marques Arsénio is project manager: “Southern Mozambique has limited access to water because of its climate and its geography; there’s very little rain during the dry season, and its rivers originate outside the country.”

Working closely with local community-based organizations, the Eduardo Mondlane University and UNESCO-IHE, Arsénio’s team is looking for sustainable solutions to Maputo’s water and sanitation problems: “Waste-water, for example, is usually just dumped into the river, but it can be treated and used for irrigation, landscaping, or industry, whatever people need, so they don’t have to use the precious drinking water.”

Arsénio is supervising four post-graduates from Mozambique who are working on both the technical and social aspects of water management: “Delft University of Technology has a very long tradition in water management issues so together with our partners, we can work out which technologies are most appropriate for the local context. And people in Maputo are open to suggestions – such as when we saw farmers watering their lettuce crops with effluent water. We suggested watering under rather than on top of the leaves.”