In Portugal, a winning team of AKF’s Climate Innovation Challenge has taken up the mantle to confront the escalating water crisis in the country’s southern region. Led by Victor Ramos, Mônica Barroso, and Ana Marinho, this dedicated team is prototyping a novel approach to harvest rainwater for sustainable use in social housing complexes.
Located in southern Europe, Portugal grapples with increasingly severe droughts, particularly in the south of the country. In the spring of last year, 89% of the mainland was in drought, with 34% suffering from severe and extreme drought; April 2023 was the third-driest month since 1931. “[Last year] our water reservoirs got very, very low, and we even had shortages of tap water for the first time in Portugal,” says Victor.
Water scarcity will soon pose a significant challenge for Portugal. In Sintra, where the team is based, the communities AKF works with are mostly comprised of migrants from former Portuguese colonies, such as the Cape Verde islands. Victor recounts that it was these residents who inspired the team’s climate innovation, “When we talked to the residents about the issue of water scarcity, they told us ‘Oh, back where we come from, we collected rainwater all the time!’”
Throughout her life Monica has witnessed the two extremes of the impacts of climate change, specifically on water. She grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, surrounded by nature. There was a river at the end of her garden, which slowly dwindled over time; after 20 years, the river disappeared almost entirely. Now living in Portugal, she notices the impermeable cities with a lack of green spaces, “On rainy days, I see all this water going down, but it has nowhere to go – we’re just wasting it. It makes me think about the river [back home] which dried up, yet here, clean water falls from the sky and we just waste it.”
The team’s innovation aims to collect this wasted rainwater for household use, enabling communities to actively participate in their own climate resilience. Once the water has collected in tanks, it irrigates ‘green balconies,’ so that residents can cultivate flowers or kitchen gardens, enhancing their homes and producing fresh, healthy food. The green balconies symbolise community solidarity to combat climate change, raising awareness about water scarcity.
The team are hopeful that their solution becomes widespread, transforming social housing complexes across Portugal. By collaborating with local authorities and scaling up their pilot project, they hope to set a precedent for incorporating the system in other buildings. The team have already had preliminary talks with the Sintra city councillor responsible for social housing and with various city officers, all of whom showed enormous interest in the pilot project, indicating real possibilities to expand the pilot, locally or even beyond.
“I think it has huge potential to be brought everywhere, especially where water quality is very low,” envisions Ana, inspired by a recent trip to Zanzibar where she recognised the need for a similar rainwater harvesting solution. “The next step for this innovation would be to have a filter, so that the water can be recycled into drinking water,” she says.
Whilst their innovation currently relies on retrofitting, the team emphasise the importance of integrating rainwater harvesting systems into building designs from the outset. Ana shares their “big dream is to see this prototype transform how buildings are projected and made, instead of adding the solution afterwards.”
Aside from the evident environmental impacts, Victor is driven by the significance of nature-based initiatives like this one for community wellbeing. “I used to work with a community garden here in Sintra and a lot of people hadn’t had many opportunities to connect with nature,” he explains. “One of the women struggled with a lot of personal issues – her husband had died, and her daughter was very sick – but she was fascinated with the garden and came every day. Later, she told me that the garden had saved her life.”
As they continue their efforts, the team encourages others embarking on innovation journeys to trust in themselves, seek help when needed, and remain focused on their mission. Whilst none of them have a background in engineering, which proved challenging at times, their belief in the incentive behind their innovation helped them to persevere – climate resilience for both people and planet. “We cannot do community development if we don’t think about the environment,” Ana explains. “Of course, people need to eat, they need to earn money, but if we don’t have a planet to live on, then there’s no point in any of it.”
