Rain Water Harvesting and Community Based Climate Change Planning in Rwanda Experience from a Pilot Project

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Christal Potter
6 years ago
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Project By Emmanuel Karulinda, Sustainable

1 Rain Water Harvesting and Community Based Climate Change Planning in Rwanda Experience from a Pilot Project By Emmanuel Karulinda, Sustainable Livelihoods and Environmental Justice, Trócaire Rwanda

2 Project Geographical focus: 3 Districts NYAGATARE MUSANZE MUHANGA KAMONYI NYANZA NYAMAGABE HUYE NYARUGURU GISAGARA

3 CONTEXT Precipitation is the main source of water for agricultural production in Rwanda; The country is blessed with 2 rain seasons (6-7 months in total; Rainfall is sufficient (1200mm 1450 mm) but there is a water shortage for about 90 days (June September) About 4.3 km3 of rainfall is lost as runoff every year causing a high soil erosion; Rwanda is losing 1.4 million tons of soil every year due to the soil erosion and this represent the capacity to feed people per year; Small land size: 0.5 ha / Family of 5 members

4 RWH Project Focus: 4 Pillars Pillar 1: Community Education in Climate Change; Pillar 2: Roof Water Harvesting and use for Homestead gardening; Pillar 3: Runoff water Harvesting and use for irrigation; Pillar 4: Household Waste Water Recycling for homestead gardening; Pillar 5 : Documentation and dissemination of the key lessons Only pillars 2&3 for the Presentation

5 APPROACH USED for the RWH Project 3 poorest Districts have been selected to pilot technologies in Rain Water Harvesting; 4 catchment areas have been identified for the pilot phase; Poorest households (category 1 & 2 of ubudehe categorisation) have been identified for support); Measurement of the houses has conducted to determine the potential volume of water based on available rainfall data; 4 technologies have been identified through a study and tank designed; Baseline to identify the initial situation

6 Baseline Situation: Traditional practices in RWH were existing

7 3 Technologies introduced for the household level : Polyethylene, Bamboo & SUG tanks. BASELINE SITUATION 753 HOUSEHOLDS Harvesting Rain water

8 Runoff Water Pond introduced for communal land: 374 cooperative members

9 Comparison between technologies Polyethylene are very simple and quick to establish but very expensive. No pump required. Bamboo tanks are less expensive compared to the polyethylene but requires time to establish. No pump required. Semi underground tanks are cheap and simple to replicate but requires time to establish as well. Pump required. Both bamboo and SUG are made in material available locally; Runoff water ponds have the capacity to harvest a big quantity of water. However, applicable only in case of a communal large area of land. Pump is required. Both SUG and Runoff water tanks requires pump to lift the water.

10 Results today 1,127 HHs now engaged in RWH for agricultural production 753 HHs engaged in Roof Water Harvesting; 374 HHs using 12 runoff ponds for irrigation: 17 ha of land and increased yield for wheat: 4.6 Tons/ha last year compared to 4.0 Tons/ha for none irrigated areas; HHs establishing the RWH tanks with their own financial resources; NGOs & Gov replicating the technologies in other areas; Vegetables production increased : 5 Vegetables selected for measurement for 75 direct beneficiaries and 90 HHs from the control group within the same areas.

11 Vegetable production: ratio beneficiaries / control group. Vegetables Interventional (A) Control (B) Ratio: A/B Cabbages 19, , Carrots 7, Onions 3, Pepper Beets 3,

12 CHALLENGES Lack of rainfall data at local level; Initial tank volume of 5,000 to 6,000 L insufficient to collect in full the water for the roof. Now 8,000 to 10,000 L; HHs not measuring water used for agric. & other activities; Rain water harvested not yet recommended for drinking; Hard plastic sheeting applicable only to Runoff Water ponds not to SUG Tank; Some construction errors for Bamboo tanks and SUG;

13 Lessons learnt TODAY Technologies have been welcomed as they address the priority need for the communities (Water availability); Reasonably cheap rain water harvesting solutions are available but not known; There are advantages, disadvantages, challenges and limitations with regard to technology; There is a huge need for spreading the Rain Water Harvesting technologies;

14 Trócaire is the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

15 THANKS.

Transformation with technology- The story of a pilot rainwater-harvesting and Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation project in Rwanda.

Transformation with technology- The story of a pilot rainwater-harvesting and Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation project in Rwanda. Type: Long Paper (up to 6,000 words) Authors Lead Author: Karulinda,