Melfu ya mamia ya watu wanahitaji maji safi ya kunya. Mengi sana hutegemea juhidi ya kufahamisha watu vile wanaweza kufanya na kutumia vizuri maji yanyopatikana. Jinsi jamii ushiri yanaweza kujadiliwa. Lakini bila shaka ikiwa watu na serikali watangojeana kufanya, yote yaweza kungojea kwa muda mrefu. Ukaguzi wa 1975 ulionyesha wanawake vijijini wanatumia zaidi ya 20 kwa mia ya masaa yao kuchota maji. hata ingawa umbali wa sehemy (pahali) maji yapatikana imepunguzwa kwa nusu, watu wengine bado wako mbali na chemichemi ya maji. Msemo muhimu wa miradi ya maji, kupunguza huu urefu imekuwa "tumeifanya sisi wenyewe." Kijitabu hiki kinaonyesha vile jamii yaweza kuitikiwa kujenga matangi rahisi na ya kudumu ya kunasa maji ya mvua, ili kujipatia maji safi ya kunywa, kupika, kunyunyizia, n.k. Hundreds of millions of people need safe drinking water. Much depends on efforts to better inform people on what they can do and how to make the best use of available water. How community participation arises is debatable, but certainly i f people and governments wait for each other to act, all may have to wait a long time. A 1975 survey found women in rural areas spent more than 20 percent of their time in collecting water. Although the distance to water supplies has been nearly cut in half, some people still are several kilometres away form a water source. The key slogan for water projects, to cut down this distance, has become "we have made i t ourselves:11 This booklet shows how communities can respond with building cheap and durable rain harvesting or water catchment tanks, thus providing clean water for drinking, cooking, irrigation etc.