CEMENT MORTAR JAR
1.0M3 CAPACITY
A CASE STUDY
Introduction
This Case Study is taken from ‘Rainwater
Harvesting – The collection of rainfall and
runoff in rural areas’, Pacey and Cullis by IT
Publications (Practical Action Publishing).
Information has also been used from a recent
EU funded Water and Sanitation Programme in
Tanzania.
This type of water container was originally
developed in Thailand but has also been used
widely, often with modifications, in East
Africa. Many variations on this type of tank
have been developed over the years.
Construction details
The mould or formwork for a 1m3 cement
mortar jar is made from 2 pieces of gunny
cloth or hessian sacking, cut and stitched
together with twine as shown in Figure 2.
After sewing, the resulting bottomless bag is
turned inside out.
x = 120cm
Figure 1: 'Thai Jar' being built as part of a
water and sanitation programme in Tanzania
y = 180cm
Figure 2: Dimensions for cutting
sacking
z = 200cm
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