Bagoroto gravity scheme – pipes and tanks

A few weeks ago, Dinesh, José and I went with some staff from WaterAid’s partner HTL to review a recently installed project in Bagaroto, which is in Maubara sub-district of Liquiça, about an hour west of Dili. The picture above is one of the houses in the village. It was an interesting experience for me, because whilst I have seen rural water systems before in Zambia, Madagascar and Nepal, this was the first time I had seen a ‘gravity scheme’.

Gravity schemes are common here as Timor is a very hilly country. It rains a lot in the mountains, and springs rise which can be capped and the water piped down to the villages. Timorese have actually been doing this for centuries with bamboo half-pipes, but they break easily and the water is open to contamination.

The main advantage of a modern gravity scheme (beyond secure pipes) is the big cement tank, which is normally placed uphill just outside the settlement. These tanks are quite large and ensure that, even if the spring doesn’t provide much water in the dry season, a decent supply of water can be saved in the tank for some time.It also ensures that there is good water pressure in the tapstands which are installed very close to the houses.


This system in Bagaroto was a great example of a gravity scheme. It had been installed a few months earlier by HTL, one of WaterAid’s local partner NGOs. Most International NGOs like WaterAid work with local partners as it’s the most sustainable way of doing things. The local NGOs are best-placed to understand their national context, and their organisational capacity is strengthened through long-term funding arrangements.

We were there to check up on the scheme a few months after installation, and fortunately everything was functioning properly. One thing that struck me was the distance which the pipes travel. It was a good 20 minute uphill trek following the pipe up the hillside to the source. As the hillsides are both steep and rain-sodden, landslides are common, see e.g. the picture above. This was an old landslide which was now very stable, and the partner had skilfully placed the pipes to skirt round the outside.

After a sweaty trek we finally arrived at the capped spring (see picture), and everything was in order. Whilst doing the trek up the hill, it struck me what back-breaking work carrying water up such hillsides must be. Before this scheme, the villagers had to trek 400m down the steep hill into the valley, and then back up again carrying containers of water.


I say ‘villagers’ but really I should have said ‘women’. Unfortunately, fetching water is seen as women’s work in most of the world. This is one key reason why water supply interventions are good for gender equality, freeing up women’s time to do other things, and meaning that girls aren’t kept away from school. The new tapstands in Bagoroto are all within 10m of the houses (see a photo of a tapstand at the top of this post), meaning that collecting water is no longer a chore.

The challenge now is making sure that the system is sustainable. East Timor has one of the worst failure rates of water schemes that I have ever encountered. Recent surveys by Plan and Oxfam suggest that up to two thirds of schemes fail within a year or two, which beats sub-Saharan Africa hands down. There are many reasons for this, which I’ll cover in another post. You can be sure however, that WaterAid Timor-Leste and its partners monitor their schemes carefully to pick up any issues as they arise.