A look at how rainwater harvesting can provide safe and affordable water in water scarce regions.

1. An approach to Safe, Affordable Drinking Water
for water scarcity regions
Rain Water Harvesting
19th February, 2013

2. It is daily chore for women in scarcity areas, who
walk miles for hours for water!
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3. Transported as well……
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4. Options - open Bawari, Wells/hand pumps/ PWS
Access is the key challenge beside the quality
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5. Key contaminants : fluoride in ground water or
microbial in surface!
Bacteria
17%
Chemical 83%
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6. Western region of country worst affected by
both Chemical & microbial contamination
Open ponds contaminated
Ground water very deep & saline forcing rain water as viable option
Hydro-geothermo regime
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7. Traditionally people have adopted………
Tankas
Bawari (Pond)
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8. • HH structures found most appropriate
• Affordability ?
• No institutional mechanism to support

9. Rain Water Harvesting – a case for water credit
Objective: Develop and implement improved approaches to rainwater harvesting through
construction optimization, quality assurance and new funding products for sustainability and scale-up
Status
 Installed ~ 970 household and 40
community kunds in 55 villages
 Kunds to provide potable water to
~16,750 villagers
 Completed construction / design Members of household with newly Safe Water Network site visit working on
improvements constructed kund design improvements with partners
 Implemented financial product for
households
 Introduced quality assurance
program
Community mobilization Quality assurance, health
Quality assurance and Microfinance funding
Engineering & design
and construction policy whitepolicy
impacts & paper product
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10. Findings of Cash flow study
Savings by Institutions Annual Household Expenditure
Source of Credit
Interest Rate per Month
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11. Microfinance Product
Products JL10 (Cistern 1000 L capacity) JL15 (Cistern 1500 L capacity)
Loan Amount Rs 10,000 Rs 15,0000
Repayment Period 24 months 36 months
Repayment mode Equated Monthly
Service charge SHG 12% per
Monthly Installment Rs 500
Delivery of product Only through SHG, SHG Guarantee
Repayment Starts
After 1 month construction of tank or 2 months of availing credit,
whichever is earlier
Penalty
No prepayment penalty SHG will decide the penalty for missed installments

12. Rainwater Harvesting Operations
• 1016 Tanka (Cistern) & access to
16732
• Recovery 52%
• Provides water security
• 580 Tanka made by other donors
(secondary impact)
• RWH Tanka partially meet water
needs but solves for water security
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13. Community Tank Rejuvenation
40 Community tanks refurbished
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14. Building Local Capability
142 local masons trained
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15. Users views
“This is a gift from heaven. I no longer need to carry water 5 hours each day and have
more time to earn money”
- Below Poverty Line widow who constructed the kund through a loan
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16. Household Water Security
Tanka (Cistern) is the key asset at household for storage of water, people do depend on
common sources -
(i) water resource to supplement requirement (e.g. tanker delivery, ponds, check
dams)
(ii) consumption (e.g. assess needs - drinking, household, livestock etc)
(iii) Ensuring water quality at home, during transit through good protocols
Tankers and Camel carts for Baoris/ Talab (Open Lakes) as an
fetching water in bulk for the alternate RWH storage system
kunds
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17. Mainstreaming……
• Government support and Microfinance seems to hold the key for solving the
drinking water problem
• Financial institutions can play crucial role by providing credit to people
through Self Help Groups to construct RWHS
• Mainstreaming through ongoing schemes like MGNREGA akin to TSC to fund
RWH
• Gujarat has demonstrated the approach to support through programmatic
intervention with partial financial support to BPL & APL families
• Water security at household requires revival of common water storage
structures like pond, Talab, Naadi etc, which supplement the requirement
once water stored in HH Kund exhaust
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18. Thank you..
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