i

Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting System for the Domestic Needs

(A Case Study of Daugha VDC, Gulmi, Nepal)

by

Ramesh Chandra Bohara

PU Registration No. 2013-1-50-0011

Exam Roll No. 13500015

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

of Science (M.Sc.) in Interdisciplinary Water Resources Management

awarded by Pokhara University

Nepal Engineering College – Center for Postgraduate Studies

Pokhara University

Chagunarayan, Bhaktapur, Nepal

March, 2015

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Dedication

I would like to dedicate this thesis to all those who are involved in rainwater harvesting

endeavor to support rural hard hit families to meet their domestic water needs.

iii

ABSTRACT

The installation of Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) system to address the water needs

was initiated in support of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (RWSSP)

funded by Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA) in 1996 following

the successful execution and well performance of a pilot case in Daugha VDC of

Gulmi District. All households of the VDC implemented the systems to systematically

collect rainwater to ease their water needs. Families are still adding on such water

harvesting jars and tanks whenever they feel the need and have money to afford.

Thus, rainwater harvesting has become a “unique water culture” in Daugha. There are

altogether 1,238 water harvesting jars and storage tanks of varied sizes (916 jars of

2,000-liter capacity, 236 jars of 6,500-liter capacity and a total of 86 stones masonry

tanks of bigger size ranging from 15 cum to 85 cum) at present in 663 households of

the VDC. The study attempted to analyze the sustainability of the Rainwater

Harvesting Systems (RWH) implemented 18 years back at the household level of

Daugha VDC. Various participatory tools like household interviews, key informant‟s

interviews, observation and water quality tests were carried out.

To analyze the sustainability of the rainwater harvesting system four key

sustainability dimensions i) Technical ii) Socio-environmental iii) Institutional and iv)

Cost recovery were defined and the corresponding core factors and sub factors

contributing to these dimensions were identified. The core factors and sub factors

were given weightage following the Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) method.

The communities have accepted the rainwater harvesting systems as an appropriate

and effective alternative to meet the domestic water demand in the VDC. The system

has been highly appreciated by the communities as a big relief measure to address the

drudgery of fetching water from long distance especially of the women and school

going children. The study has found that on an average 6.35 hours per family per day

is saved because of rainwater harvesting system. The saved time is being utilized in

some economic, social and childcare activities by the women, however, best

utilization of saved time for economic growth through various income generating

activities and mobilization of local funds to improve income level of the people seems

lacking. Similarly, capacity and skills of local people to upgrade and improve their

RWH systems have been observed as a gap. It has also been observed that the RWH

systems in the VDC have very positive effects on sanitation and hygiene front.

Significant progress was seen in terms of construction and use of toilets, increased

knowledge about the importance of sanitation and hygiene issues and changes in

sanitation and hygiene behavior in the communities. This has resulted in decrease of

water borne and water washed diseases recorded in the local sub health post.

These indicators portray the strong technical and socio-environmental acceptance of

the system. In contrast to this, the study reveals institutional and cost recovery

dimensions are weaker in the case of Daugha VDC which pulls overall sustainability

of RWH system under “sustained but at risk” when compared to sustainability

dimensions and sustainability ranking.

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Declaration

I hereby declare that this study entitled "Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting

System for the Domestic Needs – A Case Study of Daugha VDC, Gulmi, Nepal"

is based on my original research work. Related works on the topic, by other

researchers, have been duly acknowledged. I owe all the liabilities relating to

accuracy and authenticity of the data or any other information included hereunder.

Signature:

Name of Student: Ramesh Chandra Bohara

Date:

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Recommendation

This is to certify that this thesis entitled "Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting

System for the Domestic Needs – A Case Study of Daugha VDC, Gulmi, Nepal"

prepared and submitted by Ramesh Chandra Bohara, in partial fulfillment of the

requirements of the degree of Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Interdisciplinary Water

Resources Management awarded by Pokhara University, has been completed under

my supervision. I recommend the same for acceptance by Pokhara University.

Signature:

Name of the Supervisor: Prof. Suresh Raj Chalise

Organization: Independent Researcher, Formerly with Tribhuvan University and

ICIMOD

Designation: Professor

Date:

vi

Certificate

This thesis entitled "Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting System for the

Domestic Needs – A Case Study of Daugha VDC, Gulmi, Nepal" prepared and

submitted by Ramesh Chandra Bohara, has been examined by us and is accepted for

the award of the degree of Master of Sciences (M.Sc.) in Interdisciplinary Water

Resources Management by Pokhara University.

……………………….

External Examiner

……………………..

Signature

………………..

Date Signed

Prof. Suresh Raj Chalise

Supervisor

……………………..

Signature

………………..

Date Signed

Prof. Dr. Khem Raj Sharma

Director, nec CPS

Nepal Engineering College-

Center for Postgraduate Studies

……………………..

Signature

………………..

Date Signed

vii

Acknowledgement

First of all, the author wishes to extend his profound thanks and gratitude to the

following persons and institutions for their invaluable assistance they extended in the

conduct and final preparation of this piece of work

Author is extremely thankful to Prof. Suresh Raj Chalise, Research Supervisor for his

continuous guidance, encouragement and invaluable comments and suggestions in the

preparation of this thesis. Also, he is thankful to Mr. Robert Dongol, Asst. Professor,

nec-CPS for his continued support to prepare this report and Prof. Dr. Narendra Raj

Khanal for his valuable suggestions in finalization of field questionnaires and

checklists.

Office bearers of Daugha Village Development Committee (VDC), Gulmi District

deserve a high level appreciation for generously providing access to information and

for providing assistance in conducting field study.

Mr. Lok Bahadur Gyawali, Ex. VDC Chairperson including all other local leaders,

school teachers, and community based organizations (CBOs) of Daugha VDC for

their active participation in series of interviews and discussions and for their full

support during the course of field study. The author innumerably owes their valuable

time and effort given in the entire works of the field study.

All respondents of household level interviews from 104 families of 9 wards of the

VDC, who participated actively in the discussion and provided the required data and

information in a very generous and cooperative manner, deserve a high level

appreciation and sincere thanks. Also, all 14 participants of key informants interviews

(KII) equally deserve lots and lots of sincere thanks for their support they provided in

conducting this study.

Last but not the least, author is extremely thankful to his own family members and

especially to his beloved wife Mrs. Pushpa Devi Bohara for her immense moral

support, encouragement, patience and love while performing this task.

Ramesh Chandra Bohara

Roll Number: 013-715

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Table of Contents

Dedication ............................................................................................................................. ii

ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... iii

Declaration ........................................................................................................................... iv

Recommendation .................................................................................................................. v

Certificate ............................................................................................................................. vi

Acknowledgement .............................................................................................................. vii

Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... viii

List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ x

List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... xi

List of Plates ....................................................................................................................... xii

Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................................................ xiii

Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Background ................................................................................................................. 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................ 2

1.3 Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 4

1.4 Research Objectives .................................................................................................... 5

1.5 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................ 5

1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study.............................................................................. 6

Chapter2 .............................................................................................................................. 7

LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................. 7

2.1 Water and Sanitation Service Provision and Millennium Development Goals .......... 7

2.2 Rural Water Supplies in Nepal ................................................................................... 7

2.3 Rainwater Harvesting: A Potential Water Source ...................................................... 8

2.4 Rainwater Harvesting in Context of Nepal ............................................................... 11

2.5 Review of National Policy on Rainwater Harvesting ............................................... 13

2.6 Water Quality ............................................................................................................ 13

2.6.1 Microbiological Aspects .................................................................................... 14

2.6.2 Chemical Aspects............................................................................................... 14

2.6.3 Physical and Aesthetic Acceptability Aspects ................................................... 14

2.7 Sustainability Analysis.............................................................................................. 15

2.7.1 Key Sustainability Dimensions .......................................................................... 15

2.7.2 Sustainability Ranking ....................................................................................... 16

2.8 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................. 16

Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 17

METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 17

3.1 Study Area ................................................................................................................ 17

3.2 Water Drudgery in Daugha Village Development Committee ................................. 18

3.3 Water Sources in the VDC: Springs, Kuwas and Traditional Ponds ........................ 19

3.4 Research Design........................................................................................................ 21

3.5 Research Approach ................................................................................................... 22

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3.6 Sample Size ............................................................................................................... 22

3.7 Sampling Unit and Method ....................................................................................... 23

3.8 Methods of Data Collection ...................................................................................... 23

3.8.1 Household Interview .......................................................................................... 24

3.8.2 Key Informant Interview.................................................................................... 25

3.8.3 Observation ........................................................................................................ 26

3.9 Water Quality Testing ............................................................................................... 26

3.10 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 26

Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 28

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................................................... 28

4.1 Potential of Rainwater Harvesting in Daugha Village Development Committee .... 28

4.2 Historical Background on Rainwater Harvesting Initiatives .................................... 28

4.3 Present Context on Rainwater Harvesting ................................................................ 29

4.4 Sustainability Dimensions of the Rainwater Harvesting Systems ............................ 30

4.4.1 Technical Aspect ................................................................................................ 30

4.4.2 Socio-Environmental Aspect of Rainwater Harvesting System ........................ 36

4.4.3 Cost Recovery: Financial costs (O&M costs, Capital Cost for Upgrading of

Service) ....................................................................................................................... 42

4.4.4 Institutional Dimension ...................................................................................... 45

4.5 Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting System ....................................................... 47

4.5.1 Technical Dimensions ........................................................................................ 48

4.5.2. Socio-Environmental Sustainability ................................................................. 48

4.5.3. Institutional Dimensions ................................................................................... 50

4.5.4 Cost Recovery .................................................................................................... 51

Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................... 54

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................... 54

5.1 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 54

5.2 Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 56

References .......................................................................................................................... 58

Annex I: Schematic Diagram of Rainwater Harvesting System .................................. 61

Annex II: Required Sample Size by Research Advisors ............................................... 62

Annex III: Household Interview Questionnaire ............................................................ 64

Annex IV: Checklists for the Key Informants Interview .............................................. 70

Annex V: Sustainability Dimensions and Factors Weightage List (Adopted from

WaterAid that uses Multi Criteria Analysis, MCA method). In MCA method,

weightage is given to each sub factor based on the field findings and

participatory discussions with the users. ........................................................................ 72

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List of Tables

Title Page

Table 2.1 Water Quality Test parameters ........................................................................... 14 Table 3.1 Population Distribution Ward-wise in Daugha VDC ......................................... 18

Table 3.2 Ethnic Composition of the Daungha VDC ......................................................... 18 Table 3.3 Location of the Springs and Benefited Wards of Daugha VDC ......................... 19 Table 3.4 Average Water Fetching Time from Different Water Sources .......................... 20 Table 3.5 Traditional Water Collection Ponds in the VDC ................................................ 21

Table 3.6 Number of Household Samples Distribution across the Wards ......................... 23 Table 3.7 Number of Respondents in Households Survey ................................................. 24 Table 3.8 Respondents in Household Interview with Economic Status ............................. 25 Table 3.9 Number of Respondent in Key Informants Interviews ....................................... 25

Table 3.10 Sustainability Weightage to the Core Factors..................................................27

Table 4.1 Household Level Rainwater Collection Jars in the VDC ................................... 29 Table 4.2 Storage Capacity with Family Size vs. Sufficiency in Months .......................... 30

Table 4.3 Number of Jars vs. Water Storage Capacity at Households in the VDC ............ 31 Table 4.4 Average Time Saved per Household with RWH Program in the VDC .............. 32 Table 4.5 Sufficiency of Water for Households in the VDC .............................................. 33

Table 4.6 Water Quality Test Result................................................................................... 34 Table 4.7 Overall Access to Service (Technical Aspect) ................................................... 35

Table 4.8 Access to Sanitation Services ............................................................................. 37

Table 4.9 Incidences of Water-borne Diseases Before and After the Project .................... 37

Table 4.10 Equity in RWH System Allocation and Sharing .............................................. 38 Table 4.11 Post-project Impact by type of Water Supply System ...................................... 39

Table 4.12 Number of Patients Recorded in Daugha Sub Health Post ............................... 39 Table 4.13 Income through Agriculture Production ........................................................... 43 Table 4.14 Effectiveness of Services Provided by the Trained Persons ............................. 45 Table 4.15 Functioning of Water User and Sanitation Committee ..................................... 46

Table 4.16 Overall Sustainability of the Rainwater Harvesting System ............................ 53

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List of Figures

Title Page

Figure 2.1 Timeline of the Rainwater Harvesting System in Daugha VDC, Gulmi .......... 12 Figure 2.2 Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................... 16

Figure 3.1 Daugha Village Development Committee (VDC) Gulmi District .................... 17 Figure 3.2 Methodological Framework .............................................................................. 22 Figure 4.1 Average annual precipitation of Ridi Bazar from 1994 to 2013 ....................... 28 Figure 4.2 Time saved in fetching water per day................................................................ 35

Figure 4.3 Reliability of water services .............................................................................. 35 Figure 4.4 Incidence of water-borne diseases before and after the project ........................ 37 Figure 4.5 Technical Dimension for Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability ........................ 48 Figure 4.6 Socio-environmental Dimensions of Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability ...... 49

Figure 4.7 Institutional Dimension of Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability ...................... 50 Figure 4.8 Cost Recovery Dimension of Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability.................. 51

xii

List of Plates

Title Page

Plate 3.1 Rainwater Harvesting System .............................................................................. 26 Plate 3.2 Water Quality Testing of Harvested Rainwater ................................................... 26

Plate 4.1 18 years old Rainwater Harvesting Systems ........................................................ 29 Plate 4.2 Up-scaling of the Rainwater Harvesting System ................................................. 30 Plate 4.3 Physical Status of Rainwater Harvesting System ................................................ 36 Plate 4.4 Improved Sanitary Practices ................................................................................ 36

Plate 4.5 Innovation of Rainwater Harvesting Jar on the roof of toilet .............................. 38 Plate 4.6 Relief from Water Drudgery for Women............................................................. 40

xiii

Abbreviations

CBS Central Bureau of Statistics

CGI Corrugated Galvanized Iron

DWSS Department of Water Supply and Sewerage

ENPHO Environment and Public Health Organization

FINNIDA Finnish International Development Agency

FMC Fund Management Committee

GoN Government of Nepal

HDPE High Density Polyethylene

HHs Households

IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature

KII Key Informants Interview

lpcd liters per capita per day

MCA Multi Criteria Analysis

MDGs Millennium Development Goals

mg/l milligram per liter

MoPPW Ministry of Physical Planning and Works

MoUDWS Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply- Sri Lanka

NDWQS National Drinking Water Quality Standard

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

NMIP National Management and Information Project

O&M Operation and Management

PMS Participatory Monitoring System

PoU Point of Use

QARQ Quality, Accessibility, Reliability and Quantity

RUC Rainwater User Committee

RWH Rainwater Harvesting

RWSSP Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project

SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences

UN United Nation

UNEP United Nation Environment Programme

UNICEF United Nation International Children Education Funds

VDC Village Development Committee

VWASHCC Village- Water Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Committee

WASH Water Sanitation and Hygiene

WHO World Health Organization

WSS Water Supply and Sanitation

WT Weighted Table

WUSC Water Users and Sanitation Committee

WWF World Wildlife Fund

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Millions of people throughout the world do not have access to clean water for

domestic purposes (WHO/UNICEF, 2012). In many parts of the world conventional

piped water is either absent, unreliable or too expensive. One of the biggest

challenges of the 21st century is to overcome the growing water shortage. Population

growth all over the world is causing similar problems and concerns of how to supply

quality water to all. Much actual or potential water shortages can be relieved if

rainwater harvesting (RWH) is practiced more widely. Individual rainwater harvesting

systems are one of the many tools to meeting the growing water demand. RWH is an

environmentally sound solution to address issues brought forth by large projects

utilizing centralized water management approaches (Julius et al.,2013).

RWH is an art of accumulating and storing rainwater for present and future before it

reaches the aquifer. It has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock,

water for irrigation, as well as other typical uses. Rainwater collected from the roofs

of houses and local institutions can make an important contribution to the availability

of drinking water. Rainwater harvesting can be used for ground water recharge, where

the runoff on the ground is collected and allowed to be absorbed, adding to the

groundwater. Water harvesting in its broadest sense can be defined as the collection of

runoff rainwater for domestic water supply, agriculture and environmental

management. Water harvesting systems which harvest runoff from roofs or ground

surfaces fall under the term “rainwater harvesting”.

The precipitation pattern in Nepal shifts generally from east to west inversely

proportional to the distance from Bay of Bangal, the source of summer monsoon.

Eastern Nepal usually gets about 2,500 mm of annual rainfall, Kathmandu receives

about 1,400 mm and the western Nepal about 1,000 mm (DHM, 2013). Nepal, on

average, receives 1,500 mm of rain annually the major part of which is received

during the monsoon (about 60-90%) i.e. during the months June to September. The

remaining part of rain falls during the winter (Nayava, 1980). The average rainfall

data of the nearest rain gauge station of Daugha VDC located in Ridi Bazar of Gulmi

District shows 1,330 mm for the period of last 20 years (DHM, 2014). Because of the

geography of the country, most part of the received rain quickly flows down to the

valleys, catches rivulets and streams to join the big rivers and the sea. As the country

receives such a big amount of rainwater, harvesting it could, therefore, be one of the

most appropriate and suitable methods for the water scarce communities. The

rainwater harvesting projects are environmentally feasible in all parts of Nepal, except

in the rain shadow areas that lie beyond the high mountains where annual rainfall

drops as low as 160 mm, creating cold semi-desert like conditions (NEWAH, 2012).

Because of its feasibility, many agencies today are involved in supporting

communities with rainwater harvesting programs in different parts of the country. At

this point of time, when several agencies, both Government Organizations (GOs) and

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) are involved in building Rainwater

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Harvesting (RWH) systems, it is imperative to check the sustainability aspects and the

use of those systems.

Dimensions are the highest level of sustainability monitoring indicators adopted in

Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) sector in Nepal. For WSS facilities, four

monitoring dimensions are used: technical, socio-environmental, financial and

institutional (WaterAid Nepal, 2010).

Each sustainability dimension is significantly governed by many factors (parameters).

For example, „technical‟ as one of the sustainability dimensions of water supply

services is greatly governed by four key parameters: Quantity, Accessibility,

Reliability of the source and Quality of water (QARQ) and also the physical condition

of engineering components. Similarly, other sustainability dimensions also are

governed by the various other factors.

Each of the sustainability dimensions has been rated equally, as all of them have

similar level of potentiality and significance in making the system sustainable.

Further, all key factors under the sustainability dimensions were rated considering

their significance to make the particular dimension sustainable. A Rainwater

Harvesting (RWH) system, thus, could be ranked in terms of either “Sustained” or

“Sustained but at risk” or “Not sustained” projects.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Rainwater harvesting is the art and science of collection and productive utilization of

runoff from rooftops and ground surfaces as well as from intermittent watercourses.

Rainwater harvesting, though an old-age practice, is emerging as a new paradigm in

water resource development and management due to the recent efforts of both

government and non-governmental organizations to promote water harvesting and

groundwater recharge in urban and rural areas (Dey & Sikka,2010).

884 million people on the Earth are deprived of the access to an improved water

source and many more do not have access to safe and sustainable water supply.

Similarly, about 2.5 billion people live without improved sanitation and 1.1 billion

people still practice open defecation. It is a dreadful fact that by 2050, there will still

be a total of about 1.4 billion people without access to sanitation (WHO/UNICEF,

2012). Diarrhea alone is the cause of death of about 2.2 million people annually. The

sanitation sector suffers largely for having low priority from the states on allocation of

funds. The most recent estimates suggest that globally, the benefits of achieving

universal access to sanitation outweigh the costs by a factor of 5.5 to 1, whereas for

universal access to drinking‐water, the ratio is estimated at 2 to 1 (Hutton, 2012).

Public service alone is inadequate to meet the demand of water and sanitation services

to the population of rural areas especially where there is a huge technical challenge to

establish a water supply system. The idea of collaborative effort of states and 'non-

state providers‟ can possibly improve the service related to water supply in the areas

as mentioned above. In case of Nepal, about 19.6% of the total population lack access

3

to the clean and potable water supplies (NMIP/DWSS, 2011). The reason behind

could be one or more of the following:

Lack of viable water sources in the vicinity

Reliability of the existing water source(s) is questionable i.e. seasonal scarcity

Scattered or isolated households along the ridges or up hills

Settlement(s) in the Bhabar zone (bolder belt)

Disadvantaged and excluded groups etc.

The declining water sources in some areas of Nepal as a result of climate change and

many other factors provides a great challenge for meeting the National target of 100%

coverage by 2017 (GoN, 2011). To work towards meeting the water needs of the un-

served population and to overcome the challenges of climate change, promoting RWH

as a high quality drinking water source and for recharging groundwater supplies to

revive the spring sources, seems quite viable. In general, by harvesting and storing the

rain that falls during the monsoon season can reduce water scarcity in the dry season.

Nowadays, RWH is also known as one of the best adaptations to impact of climate

change on water resources (NAPA, 2010).

Daugha Village Development Committee is situated in the Southern remote part of

Gulmi district. Considering the alarming water scarcity in Daugha VDC of Gulmi

District, Nepal, where people used to spend more than three hours to fetch a pitcher of

water, Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA) supported Rural Water

and Sanitation Support Programme (RWSSP) introduced rainwater harvesting

technology (Schematic diagram is shown in Annex I) at household level in 1996.

RWSSP developed and designed appropriate technology suitable for the area. The

entire system consists of rainwater harvesting jar, gutter system with water flushing

apparatus. The system consisted of 2000-liter capacity jars to collect water from the

Corrugated Galvanized Iron (CGI) roof catchment through High Density Polythene

(HDPE) pipe gutters (Bohara, 2001). Later, jars with capacity of 6,500 liters were

designed and construction was started. During the first phase, each household has

been supported with 2 jars of 2000 liters (i.e. storage capacity of total 4,000 liters per

household) and during the phase two, they were supported with one jar with capacity

of 6,500 liters each. Though there are various methods of household level rainwater

collection used in the different parts of the world, the above mentioned systems with

ferrocement jars have also been proved to be the appropriate in context like Nepal as

this has been implemented in many Districts of the country so far.

Safe handling of the stored water in the jars and proper and regular maintenance of

the system (roof catchment, gutter system, jars and all other parts) are critical aspects

to be taken into account all the time. As the water quality is to be maintained safe for

a long period of time inside the jar, it is very important to maintain the whole system

in a proper way on a regular basis. Considering this fact, RWSSP oriented all

households in the matter and established a Participatory Monitoring System (PMS) in

facilitation of Rainwater Users' Committee (RUC). Also, 14 local rainwater harvesters

were trained in the village to build and support maintenance of systems on need basis.

4

Equally important aspect to look at is the quantity of water in terms of its availability

and reliability. How much water is used per day in a family of average size and for

how many months it lasts with the given quantity of stored rainwater? For how long

(months) the stored water is enough to meet the minimum basic needs of the

households and how they manage for the remaining duration? It is also important to

evaluate whether they have added some more jars to increase their water storage

capacity by themselves during the period or still have the same quantity and are

somehow managing with that. Also, it is necessary to find out if there is any system

like micro-credit facilities, revolving funds etc. established in the community from

where the poor people can also get support to upgrade their rainwater storage

capacity.

Hence, this study intends to analyze a case of RWH program, which has been

implemented for nearly two decades in Daugha VDC, Gulmi, from the point of view

of its sustainability.

1.3 Research Questions

Key Question

Is rainwater harvesting a sustainable solution for the rural communities to meet their

domestic water needs in context of Nepal?

Sub Questions

1. What is the water supply service level to the people from the rainwater

harvesting project in terms of Quantity, Accessibility, Reliability and Quality

(QARQ)?

2. How much time on average do people save per day from fetching water, do they

utilize the saved time and energy in some kind of income generating activities,

how is status of community health after receiving water, do they notice

reduction in water borne diseases because of water, are there any environmental

benefits like reduction in landslides, erosion, gulley cutting etc. due to reduced

runoff?

3. How people manage the financial requirement for operation and maintenance of

the rainwater harvesting system? And how they manage financial costs for

upgrading their systems?

4. How the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the RWH systems take place, is

there functional Rainwater User‟s Committee, is there any support mechanism

like micro-credit facilities or revolving funds in the VDC to support the poor

families to upgrade their water storage capacity, how is the local capacity in

terms of RWH system building and maintaining and what kind of support the

community is receiving from the locally trained rainwater harvesters?

5

1.4 Research Objectives

The general objective of the study was to assess the sustainability of rainwater

harvesting system for the rural communities to meet their domestic water needs in

context of Nepal through study of rainwater harvesting (RWH) case in Daugha VDC.

The specific objectives were as follows:

To find out the water supply service level of Daugha VDC people in terms of

QARQ and determine how far the rainwater collection system has been useful

to fulfill their domestic water needs.

To assess the tangible and non-tangible socio-environmental and health related

benefits.

To find out the cost recovery mechanism to maintain and upgrade the system;

how the people (especially the poor households) have been managing the

O&M of the system and how they manage to upgrade their water storage

capacity.

To appraise the institutional roles and functioning towards maintaining and

sustaining the system.

1.5 Significance of the Study

As RWH systems have also been replicated in many other parts of the country by

different agencies, the findings from the Daugha VDC serve as the basis for further

improvement of rainwater harvesting systems to a larger context ensuring its

sustainability.

By far and largely, this study tries to contribute some practical and essential elements

of sustainability that need to be considered as a significant input to the National

Rainwater Policy and the implementation guidelines that are in the process of

finalization in Nepal. As of now, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works

(MoPPW) has prepared the working policy on rainwater harvesting which is being

used mainly by the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) (MoPPW,

2009). This study provides lots of insights coming from the real ground as policy

inputs and the inputs to the national guidelines.

In true sense, the study is meant to highlight the areas that need further improvements

to ensure sustainability of the rainwater harvesting systems. This compiles the

knowledge, experience and learning gained by the people of Daugha VDC, in

implementation and use of the rainwater as their primary source of water for about

two decades. This largely supports achieving the Government of Nepal‟s (GoN‟s)

goal of universal coverage (100%) of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) by the

year 2017 (GoN, 1997), through implementation of sustainable water systems.

6

1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study aims to draw the lessons and experiences gained by the people of Daugha

in relation to use of rainwater for nearly last two decades. This is the very first case in

Nepal where systematic rain harvesting project at household level was initiated in the

year 1996. There are several VDCs, at present, in the country using the same

technology. Hence, to look at the sustainability aspects of the system is a big scope in

itself. It is also obvious that there remain some limitations in the study as briefly

mentioned below:

1. While analyzing the quality of stored rainwater in the jars, WATER TEST

KIT developed by Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO)

was used to check different parameters. This kit provides only the range of

contamination. Results are presented based on the findings of the field kit

tests.

2. In terms of cost recovery, the study focused mainly on the financial costs

(operation and maintenance and the upgrading of services) but not on the

economic cost recovery in detail through cost benefit analysis.

3. Quantity of water i.e. liters per capita per day (lpcd) taken into account to

analyze water supply service level of the households is based on Sphere

standard due to absence of National standard.

4. This study covered only one VDC, conclusions and recommendations based

on the findings might be difficult to generalize for the larger context.

7

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature review was done to form a theoretical background for the research study

related to RWH. In the first place, literature review focused on drawing background

of study with the issues of RWH and its impacts on people. It proceeded with the

discussion on century-long traditional practices of rainwater uses, emergence of

community based management of rainwater in different forms like collection of rain

in traditional ponds, development of systematic community level rainwater collection

and management systems, initiatives of household level rainwater collection systems

and their management. It also included the capacity building, participation and

sustainability parts of the systems.

2.1 Water and Sanitation Service Provision and Millennium Development Goals

With the lessons from UN sanitation decade (1981-1990), a need to deal with the

problem of drinking water and sanitation led to the declaration of Millennium

Development Goals (UN, 2000), a step forward to deal with the problem. The

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) form a set of political commitments aimed

at tackling the major development issues faced by the developing world, within a

fixed deadline. In the United Nation summit held in September 2000, 189 UN

member states including Nepal adopted the millennium declaration, from which

emerged the "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)". Since Nepal was lacking

behind in sanitation coverage, the commitment of GoN was to achieve at least 53%

toilet coverage by 2015 to meet the MDG target (GoN, 2010). However, as a result of

collaborative effort of all sector agencies, the sanitation coverage has reached to 62

percent in 2011 (CBS, 2011).

Though almost all the MDGs can be indirectly linked to Water Supply and Sanitation

(WSS) issues, goal 7 to ensure environmental sustainability addresses them directly:

one of its targets, target 10, is to halve the proportion of people without sustainable

access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

2.2 Rural Water Supplies in Nepal

Remoteness and sparse population in the rural areas of Nepal have direct implications

on infrastructures development cost. In addition to these factors, the risk in collecting

fees after investment for the private sectors pull back the private sectors from

investing in rural drinking water services leaving the responsibility solely on the state

agencies. The states in the meantime, face various challenges to ensure the

sustainability of water projects from different dimensions, especially in case of

developing world.

In response to these market and government level challenges, community based water

supply approaches are adopted in the rural as well as in urban areas. Nevertheless,

community-managed approach also faces some constraints such as elite capture,

8

limited capacity and knows how etc. which may fail the approach in ensuring

effective services.

Nepal with rugged topography, most often faces problems of water stresses at various

parts of the country though it is considered to be one of the richest countries in the

world in terms of water resources. According to the National Management and

Information Project (NMIP) report published by the Department of Water Supply and

Sewerage (DWSS), the quantitative water supply coverage of Nepal is 80.4% of

population. This means 19.6% of the population is still unreached from the service

provision point of view in Nepal as of 2011. However, while assessing the actual

functionality of the coverage, the actual functional coverage is found to be only about

56.8%, out of which well functional is 17.9% and coverage needing minor repair is

about 38.9% of the population (NMIP/DWSS, 2011). Due to uphill-scattered

settlements and low lying water sources, it is difficult and relatively expensive to lift

water to serve such water-stressed areas. For such areas, rainwater harvesting schemes

may prove to be the best alternative for water supply provision.

2.3 Rainwater Harvesting: A Potential Water Source

Rainwater is a universal resource, harvested from roofs and ground catchments, safely

stored and/or infiltrated, treatable as required for its end use. It has potential energy

and, capability of supplementing other sources currently used (MoUDWS, 2005).

Water harvesting systems which harvest runoff from roofs or ground surfaces fall

under the term “rainwater harvesting”. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses

and local institutions can make an important contribution to the availability of

drinking water. Rainwater harvesting has, thus, regained its importance as a valuable

alternative or supplementary water resource, along with more conventional water

supply technologies. Much actual or potential water shortages can be relieved if

rainwater harvesting is practiced more widely. Water harvesting in its broadest sense

can be defined as the collection of run-off rainwater for domestic water supply,

agriculture and environmental management.

The human civilization, entirely depend upon rivers, lakes and ground water to fulfill

their water demands. However rain is the ultimate source that feeds all these sources.

The implication of rainwater harvesting is to make optimum use of rainwater at the

place where it falls i.e. to conserve it without allowing it to drain away. Rainwater

harvesting is an ancient technique enjoying a revival in popularity due to the inherent

quality of rainwater. Rainwater is valued for its purity and softness. It has a nearly

neutral pH, and is free from impurities such as salts, minerals, and other natural and

man-made contaminants. Archeological evidence attests to the capture of rainwater as

far back as 4,000 years ago. The concept of rainwater harvesting in China is as old as

6,000 years. Ruins of cisterns built as early as 2000 B.C. for storing runoff from

hillsides for agricultural and domestic purposes are still standing in Israel (Dwivedi &

Bhadauria, 2009)

National Rainwater Policy and Strategy of Sri Lanka states that the “Rainwater

harvesting shall be made mandatory, yet introduced in phases, in all areas under

Municipal and Urban council jurisdiction within a prescribed time period, as will be

9

prescribed in law, for certain categories of buildings and development works, and

shall be strongly promoted in all Pradeshiya Sabha areas” (MoUDWS, 2005).

Rainwater Harvesting has been practiced in Sri Lanka for many centuries; a good

example is the sophisticated rainwater-cum-reservoir systems in 5th century Sigiriya

fortress complex. In recent years many of these rain water collection skills have

become obsolete due to introduction of pipe supplies, boreholes or protected wells or

springs (Ariyananda, 1999)

In Bangladesh too, the possible solution to address the water hardship is the regionally

sustainable production of durable building materials, which would resist the actions of

flooding and provide a roof surface suitable for the harvesting of rainfall, to provide a

source of clean drinking water in the context of rural and peri-urban centers (Moore &

Mclean, 2008). Rainwater harvesting is an ancient technique that has been practiced

for thousands of years in different part of the world. It has been often found that areas

where surface water or groundwater is not available in sufficient amount, rainwater

harvesting is the best available option and popular also. In Bangladesh, rainwater

harvesting is very much in practice in coastal areas where salinity has left only a few

scarcely located ponds as a source of potable water (Dakua et al., 2013).

Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) is an economical small-scale technology that has the

potential to augment safe water supply with least disturbance to the environment,

especially in the drier regions. In the Northeastern part of Nigeria, where the average

annual rainfall is around 915 mm, the potentiality for water harvesting has been

calculated as 63.35 m3 per household with the existing roof catchments. The amount

could meet the water demand for the villagers round the year (Ishaku et al., 2012).

Similarly, in the history of India‟s water sector, the past two decades are characterized

by a boom in rainwater harvesting. They are markedly different from the years of

traditional harvesting in two ways; first, in terms of the context; and second, in terms

of the purpose. As regards the context, the two decades are able to use recent

advancements and modern day techniques and technologies. As regards the purpose,

modern water harvesting systems are employed as resource management solutions,

and not as resource development solutions (Agarwal & Narain, 1997).

Water scarcity has become a serious global threat due to rapid population growth,

frequent droughts and changing climate pattern. Now a day, the need of domestic

water is magnifying tremendously in a developing country like India which has long

tradition of rural culture. Attempts have been made to harvest the rainwater to satisfy

the total annual drinking and cooking requirement of the people in this village. Rain

water harvesting techniques are proficiently useful to tackle down the water scarcity

problem in rural areas (Patil & Mali, 2013).

Rainwater harvesting emerges as the most suitable alternative to combat the water

scarcity issues throughout the world, especially for India where adequacy of

monsoonal rainfall is perhaps not a major concern but its un thoughtful wastage

through overland flow and surface runoff pose a scope for enhanced attention.

Harvesting rainwater and making it available in the dry season could have major

implications for agriculture and livelihoods in the rural areas and make living easy in

10

urban areas. The city of Kolkata is carrying unbearable load of population where the

civic facilities are insufficient, poor and old for the growing population. Thus various

efforts are made in order to reduce such problems both at the macro level and micro

level. One of such efforts has been the establishment of a new urban area. The new

area has been the brainchild of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, and the

project is highly appreciable in the view of sharing excessive population loads on the

city of Kolkata. The new area provides residences for families of lower, middle and

high-income groups with proper sanitation and other civic facilities including newer

methods of Rainwater Harvesting for solution of water scarcity (Sen, 2012).

Roof-top rain water harvesting is mandated by law for all buildings in Bermuda and is

the primary source of water for domestic supply. The average rate at which rain water

is harvested at the typical house with four occupants is, however, insufficient to meet

average demand. While just over one-third of households have access to

supplementary water either from mains pipelines or private wells, the majority rely on

deliveries from water “truckers” (tankers) to augment their rain water supply.

Assuming a reasonably constant daily demand, there is a linear relationship between

the “maximum optimum capacity” of a water storage tank and the size of the rain

water catchment area, which depends on the characteristics of the rainfall at a given

geographic location. Because of this reason, law has been enforced to design and tap

the rainwater from the roofs of the buildings (Mark, 2011).

The Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH) is the largest storehouse for the fresh water in the

lower latitude and as such is important water towers for almost 500 million people.

The two volume document “Waters of Life-Perspectives of Water Harvesting in the

Hind Kush Himalayas” discusses the methods of water harvesting throughout the

HKH Mountains amongst a wide variety of human groups, focusing on efforts being

made by communities on harvesting water (Banskota & Chalise, 2000).

The mountainous region in China accounts for 70% of its territory and water

harvesting is both very useful and also holds promise for the future. Besides the

Alpine areas, all the arid and semi-arid regions which occupy two third of Chinese

territory , including the rain shadow areas of Himalayas and 6,600 or more island

along the sea coast are introducing rainwater harvesting to overcome the water

shortage (Liu & Cheng, 2000).

In 1995, Ganshu Province government began its rainwater catchment policy to put its

1-2-1 rainwater harvest projects into operation. This means that each household in the

project area makes use of the house, roof and the yard to catch rainwater by forming a

one hundred square meter of compressed surface with poor permeability to collect

rainwater. The collected rainwater is stored in two cisterns or tanks separately for

drinking and production uses. One of them is projected to supply water for one mu (15

mu per hectare) of the land so that cash crops can be planted in the yard around the

house. So this is called 1-2-1 project (Liu & Cheng, 2000)

Water harvesting technologies are of special importance to the people in hills where

traditional services can no longer meet the present needs of rapidly growing

population. The technology has to protect and meet the needs of communities as well

as protecting and conserving the environment. The technology used for water

harvesting varies according to the available sources and supply. Although there are

11

various technologies in use, water can be harvested from roofs, from catchment area

runoff, diverting flowing water and so on (Saravanan, 2000).

2.4 Rainwater Harvesting in Context of Nepal

Rainwater harvesting practice is based on the concept of “old wine in new bottle”,

which has been practiced in Nepal since ages. Collection of rainwater in natural or

manmade ponds for communal uses and collection in improvised containers at

household level have traditionally been practiced during the rainy season (MoPPW,

2009) in Nepal.

Rainwater harvesting and utilization is not a new technology, it is an ancient legacy.

On top of hills and mountains of Nepal, ponds were dug in ancient times to collect

rainwater mainly for livestock use. At present, significant number of ponds are filled

and put to other uses. Stone spouts were constructed in the hills and also in urban

areas. The ancient people had a good knowledge of the hydrological cycle and they

constructed ponds to collect water for dry season and also recharge the springs and

increase soil moisture (Sainju et al., 2000).

Rainwater harvesting is an appropriate solution for the households situated on hilltops

and along the ridges where gravity flow systems are not feasible and lifting water

through electric powered pumps is not economically viable. This technology is

equally feasible in the Bhabar zone, foot hill of Siwalik, commonly known as the

bolder belt.

Also, the technology of collecting rainwater at household level in city areas has

proved as an additional reliable, easy and economic source of water to meet various

domestic needs. Cities like Kathmandu where there is an acute shortage of water in

most of its parts; rainwater harvesting may prove as an effective and supplementary

practice to solve the problem. Investments in this underutilized resource would

definitely support the present state of people in terms of water, and a gift to be

bestowed for the future. Hence, its economic benefits outweigh its costs, especially in

the city areas.

It was in 1996, the systematic rooftop rainwater harvesting in a large scale was

implemented by RWSSP, a project supported by the Governments of Nepal and

Finland. The technology piloted in Daugha VDC, Gulmi was replicated all over the

country following its large social acceptance and promising outcomes both in terms of

environment and economies of the households. After successful implementation of

the system and well accepted by the community, RWSSP replicated it in other VDCs

of project districts, Gulmi, Palpa and Arghakhanchi. In a very short period of time, the

same technology of RWH System gained very good popularity and other sector

agencies also started its replication in different part of the country.

Timeline showing key achievements in RWH System in Daugha VDC is shown in

figure 2.1

12

13 Rainwater collection

traditional ponds (4

perennial and 9 seasonal),

11 Springs (8 seasonal and

3 perennial) and 9

community water

collection tanks of 20 cum

each in the VDC.

Piloting of

rainwater

harvesting systems

in 45 households of

the VDC @ 5

households in each

ward

Completion with full

installation of about 250

RWH systems consisting of

about 500 jars. With this the

total jars in the VDC reached

to 545.

14 local Rainwater harvesters

trained for future up scaling

and replication support

Additional 150 RWH

system with 300 jars

of 2,000 liters capacity

and about 150 RWH

systems of 150 jars

with 6,500 liters

capacity.

Daugha people themselves

continued to construct the additional

RWH systems to upgrade their

water storage capacity. At present

there are 1,238 number of RWH

systems in 663 households of the

VDC (Field Visit, 2014). People

also used the revolving fund money

to upgrade their storage capacity

created in the VDC.

(Before 1996)

(1996-1997)

(1997-1999)

(2000-2002)

(2003-2014)

With full financial

support from

RWSSP/FINNIDA

With financial support from RWSSP/FINNIDA,

Daugha VDC and Users family on a certain

matching ratio (Bohara, 2001) and technical support

from RWSSP

RWH systems are still being

implemented in Daugha VDC by the

people themselves. They invest to

upgrade their water storage capacity

when they can afford. Some families

have taken loan from the revolving

fund to implement the RWH systems in

their households. Its' easier for them

that they have trained skilled persons in

their own village.

Also, nine revolving funds at

ward level @ NRs. 100,000

each were established, with

the support of Gulmi

Arghakhanchi Rural

Development Project

(GARDP), as seed money.

Figure 2.1 Timeline of the Rainwater Harvesting System in Daugha VDC, Gulmi

13

Other major donor and implementing agencies involved in support and

implementation of rainwater harvesting systems in different Districts of Nepal are;

EU funded Gulmi Arghakhanchi Rural Development Program (GARDP)

Water Aid/NEWAH

World Bank Funded Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Fund Development

Board.

ICIMOD at the regional level (Hindu Kush Himalayan Region)

Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS)

Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC)

Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agriculture Roads

(DoLIDAR)

Helvetas Nepal

Plan Nepal

Biogas Support Programme (BSP)

Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO)

RAIN Foundation

IDE Nepal

Including other various national and local level NGOs in different Districts

There are around 11,000 RWH systems in use in hilly regions of Nepal and the users

satisfactory level is reported as 78 % with these RWH systems (NEWAH, 2012)

2.5 Review of National Policy on Rainwater Harvesting

To ensure proper utilization and conservation of water resources, the Government of

Nepal, MoPPW has prepared a working policy on rainwater harvesting in 2009 to

promote suitable developments in rainwater harvesting for human consumption and

domestic use, and facilitate guidance and capacity building (MoPPW, 2009).

The GoN, working policy aims to:

• Foster optimum utilization of rainwater to cater for the needs of rural and urban

households that face shortages of water for daily uses

• Stimulate development of technical and financial solutions to effective rainwater

harvesting in domestic and institutional settings

• Provide an enabling framework for local government and NGOs to encourage

and facilitate application of rainwater harvesting in all suitable situations.

2.6 Water Quality

Absolutely pure water is rarely found in nature. The impurities occur in three

progressively finer states – suspended, colloidal and dissolved. These may be present

14

also in floating state. Although appearance, taste and odor are useful indicators of the

quality of drinking water, suitability in terms of public health is determined by

microbiological, physical, chemical and radiological characteristics. However, the

radiological characteristics have not been specifically mentioned in the National

Drinking Water Quality Standards (NDWQS, 2005).

2.6.1 Microbiological Aspects

In all cases and all types of water supply systems, the fecal coliform and coliform

organisms should always be zero.

2.6.2 Chemical Aspects

Thousands of individual organic compounds enter water bodies as a result of human

activities. The compounds have significantly different physical, chemical and

toxicological properties. Monitoring every individual component is not feasible.

2.6.3 Physical and Aesthetic Acceptability Aspects

Though in setting up water quality standard parameters those are capable of producing

direct health impact should get priority, the drinking water should be acceptable in

appearance, taste and odor as well. Some of these constituents are color, taste and

odor, temperature and turbidity.

Key water quality parameters, of microbiological, physical, chemical, as mentioned in

the following table 2.1, were tested in all sample households using the field kit and

the result will be analyzed and presented in the report.

Table 2.1 Water Quality Test parameters

S/N Parameter National Standard WHO Standard

1 Temperature °C

2 Odour (observe) Unobjectionable Unobjectionable

3 Taste (observe or ask) Unobjectionable Unobjectionable

4 Colour (observe) 5(15) TCU* 5(15) TCU

5 Turbidity (observe) 5(10) NTU** 5(10) NTU

6 pH 6.5-8.5 6.5-8.5

7 Ammonia mg/l 1.5 mg/l 1.5 mg/l

8 Iron mg/l 0.3 (3) mg/l 0.3 mg/l

9 Hardness mg/l 500 mg/l 500 mg/l

10 Coliform bacteria (present/absent) not to be present

not to be present

(Source: GoN, 2005)

Note:

* TCU: True Color Unit (measured in water samples from which particulate matter

has been removed by centrifugation.

** NTU: Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (measures scattered white light at 90 degree

from incident light beam)

15

2.7 Sustainability Analysis

“Sustainability” is a well-liked term in modern development practices and discourses

and is understood in many ways according to the situation in which it is applied. It has

become a complex term that can be applied to almost every system on earth. In fact,

the earth‟s resources are limited and all human activity should emphasize the

sustainable use of it. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature

(IUCN), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World

Wildlife Fund (WWF), sustainability consists of “improving the quality of human life

while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems”. Therefore,

sustainability of drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects need to be

viewed as a crucial cross-cutting element that impacts on overall human development.

Longer-term sustainability is certainly a desired end result expected from most of the

human undertakings in the infrastructure sector, which is governed by a number of

complex sustainability dimensions, corresponding factors and sometimes many sub-

factors.

As setting indicators for sustainability monitoring is a complex job, selecting the most

reliable and pragmatic analysis tool for decision support is also an equally complex

undertaking in the development sector. Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) is a process of

integrated assessment of a finite set of projects in a structured way to determine

overall preference among alternatives, where the alternatives accomplish several

objectives. The advantage of the MCA process is that it enables an integrated

assessment of subjective and objective information with stakeholders‟ values in a

single framework. While various MCA tools are available, the appropriate integrated

decision modeling tool for developing countries, single or in combination with other

MCA or non-MCA tools is still a subject of research. However, the simplest form of

MCA, called the Weighted Table (WT) method, is found to be appropriate for micro

projects to use at the local level at the initial stage (Kanta & Bhattarai, 2010).

2.7.1 Key Sustainability Dimensions

Sustainability Dimensions are the highest level monitoring indicators adopted by

WaterAid in Nepal. For water supply and sanitation facilities, four monitoring

dimensions are used: technical, socio-environmental, financial and institutional.

Each sustainability dimension is significantly governed by many factors and sub-

factors. As per the principles of multi-criteria approaches, each set criteria is rated

depending upon its potential contribution or its significance in making the case

sustainable. The comparative weights given to dimensions, factors and sub-factors

were determined through participatory methods involving sector professionals and

field workers. Further, each factor and sub-factor is rated considering its significance

to make the case sustainable (Kanta & Bhattarai, 2010).

16

2.7.2 Sustainability Ranking

A project‟s services are ranked in terms of sustained, sustained but at risk (sustained

risk) and not sustained projects. The objective of this type of ranking was to help

decisions for future investment. The assumption is that Water Aid does not need to

provide any support for „sustained‟ projects, needs to provide some follow up support

to „sustained but at risk projects‟ and needs to provide significant project

rehabilitation support to „not sustained‟ projects. The ranking was made using the

following definitions (WaterAid 2010):

Sustained project: The project obtains equal to or more than 70% score in all

four sustainability dimensions individually.

Sustained but at risk project: The project obtains a 70% score in overall

sustainability dimensions, but fails to obtain 70% score in all four

sustainability dimensions individually.

Not sustained project: The project fails to obtain 70% score in overall

sustainability dimensions.

2.8 Conceptual Framework

Sustainability for WASH facilities is determined by four major dimensions (i)

technical (ii) Socio-environmental (iii) Cost Recovery (iv) Institutional, which are

further governed by many factors and factors. The figure 2.1 below shows the

conceptual framework for the study to assess the sustainability of Rainwater

Harvesting System in Daugha VDC.

Figure 2.2 Conceptual Framework

Technical

Socio-

Environmental

Cost Recovery

Institutional

Verification of QARQ (quantity, accessibility,

reliability and quality) level and physical status

of the systems

Health benefits, saved time, health status/water

borne diseases, environmental benefits and

GESI aspect

Financial costs (O&M costs, capital cost for

upgrading of service), income generation

O&M practices, operation and functioning of

Users‟ Committee or any other form of

committees, existence of micro credit or

revolving fund facilities, capacity and use of

local trained people

SU

ST

AIN

AB

ILIT

Y

17

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Study Area

Daugha Village Development Committee is situated in the South, remote part of

Gulmi District as shown in figure 3.1. It is located between Siddheshwor VDC of

Palpa District in the East, Chidika VDC of Arghakhanchi in the West, Kharjyang

VDC of Gulmi in the North and Bhuwanpokhari VDC of Palpa in the South.

Demographic Information of the VDC

There are altogether 663 households with a population of 3,032; 1,320 males (43.50

%) and 1,712 females (56.50 %) in nine wards of the VDC with the literacy rate of

75.25 %, of which the female percentage is 70.09 % and that of male is 83.25% (CBS,

2011). The main occupation is the subsistence farming with livestock and goat

rearing. There is neither any industry in the VDC nor any other type of permanent

employment opportunities for the people. Many male youths migrate seasonally to the

urban centers and cities for the employment. Table 3.1 below shows the demographic

information of Daugha VDC.

Figure 3.1 Daugha Village Development Committee (VDC) Gulmi District

18

Table 3.1 Population Distribution Ward-wise in Daugha VDC

Ward No. No. of HHs Male Female Total Percentage

1 54 112 112 224 7.3

2 66 155 195 350 11.5

3 57 93 155 248 8.2

4 91 184 242 426 14.2

5 65 107 176 283 9.3

6 103 168 236 404 13.3

7 86 184 212 396 13.1

8 88 197 227 424 14.0

9 53 120 157 277 9.1

Total 663 1,320 1,712 3,032 100

(Source: CBS, 2011)

Ethnic Composition

Daugha VDC is inhabited by different caste groups like Brahmins, Chhetri, Magar,

Sarki, Kami, Damai, Newar, Sunar, Kumal and others. Magar is the predominant

caste with population of 1,050 followed by Brahmins with that of 819. The following

table 3.2 provides data on population distribution in term of caste groups.

Table 3.2 Ethnic Composition of the Daungha VDC

S.N. Ethnic group Population Percentage

1 Magar 1050 34.6

2 Brahmins 819 27.0

3 Chhetry 390 13.0

4 Sarki 290 9.5

5 Kami 161 5.3

6 Sunar 126 4.2

7 Newar 67 2.2

8 Damai 63 2.0

9 Kumal 58 1.9

10 Others 8 0.3

Total 3,032 100

(Source: CBS, 2011)

3.2 Water Drudgery in Daugha Village Development Committee

Daugha used to be the most hardship VDC in terms of water supply situation until

mid-nineties out of 79 VDCs in Gulmi. Scarcity of water for domestic uses was so

severe that people had to spend more than three hours to fetch a pitcher of water

(RWSSP, 1995). Elderly people of Daugha still remember their decade-long

continued efforts to avail water in their village. Unfortunately, the efforts never got

19

materialized until the mid-nineties mainly because of unavailability of viable water

source in the vicinity, which could serve their area. They tell the story about how they

approached the then King Mahendra during his royal visit to Arghakhanchi District

and put forward the then burning problem of water in their village. King Mahendra,

generously had listened to their problems and instructed the then His Majesty

Government (HMG) of Nepal to solve the water problem of Daugha with high

priority (order of the Crown -1959 AD). This also could not get materialized because

of unavailability of technically feasible water source in the nearby area. Water for

Daugha was such a big issue that many politicians and political parties cheated local

people now and then with false promises to solve the problem, and in turn they

demanded people‟s favour especially during the elections. Also, people remember and

talk openly about the bitter truth that marrying a girl from outside the village used to

be a real big challenge for them and their proposal would often be refused by the

girl‟s parents because of the water drudgery prevailing in the village.

Women and children mainly bear the responsibility to collect water and manage it to

meet the daily demand. Before start of the rainwater project (until mid-nineties), it

was quite usual that school-going children used to carry jerry cans of suitable size

(ranging from 1 to 10 liters) every morning and bring the water on their way back

home from school in the evening. So, water used to be the main responsibility of

women partly shared by their children.

3.3 Water Sources in the VDC: Springs, Kuwas and Traditional Ponds

Daugha VDC is situated at an altitude of about 1,150 meters from sea level. There are

altogether 10 springs used regularly in the past for drinking water purpose. Many of

them are the seasonal sources, which dry during summer. Only few of them are the

perennial ones like Nigata (Hingya) mul, Dharapanimul and Gokulemulof ward

numbers 1, 5 and 6 respectively. Table 3.3 below shows the details about the springs

(Mul) used for drinking water purposes in the VDC.

Table 3.3 Location of the Springs and Benefited Wards of Daugha VDC

S.N. Spring (Muhan) Situated ward Benefited ward

1 Nigata (Hinga) spring* Ward No. -1 Ward No 1 & 2

2 Gokul spring Ward No.-4 Ward No 4

3 SimleMuhan Ward No.-4 Ward No 4

4 Jimirepandhero Ward No.-4 Ward No 5,7,8 & 3

5 Deep panimuhan Ward No.-5 Ward No 3,5,7,8 & 6

6 Dharapani spring* Ward No.-5 Ward No 6

7 Gaunda Sano Padhero Ward No.-6 Ward No 6 & 9

8 GokulePandhero* Ward No.-6 Ward No 6

9 SapangdiPandhero Ward No.-6 Ward No 6

10 KumalPani Ward No.-6 Ward No 6

11 Bhulke Spring Ward No.-8 Ward No 8

Note: * denotes the perennial Water Sources

(Source: RWSSP, 1995)

20

Almost all of them are situated in the lower altitude and people need to walk for about

2 hours per trip to fetch water from these sources (Table 3.4). A very conservative

estimate shows that one family of 3-5 members, on an average, needs around 60 liters

of water per days for the domestic purpose. That means each family had to make 4

round trips (one pitcher of 15 liters capacity) to the water sources to fetch water. As

the sources are located at a far distance (average round trip time of 2 hours), it takes

about 6-7 hours per day per family on average to be devoted for water collection. This

question of water fetching time was raised and discussed during the household

interviews in all the wards. Based on their response, a simple calculation has been

made for various categories of families depending upon the distance to the sources or

time required for one round trip. This gave an average of 6.35 hours of fetching time

per family per day.

Table 3.4 Average Water Fetching Time from Different Water Sources

S.N. Source Name Type of Source Average time for one round trip

(in minutes)

1 Hingya Spring 120 minutes

2 Gokule Spring 30 minutes

3 Simle Spring 90 minutes

4 Jimire Kuwa 60 minutes

5 Deeppani Spring 75 minutes

6 Dharapani Spring 180 minutes

7 GandasanaPadhero Kuwa 30 minutes

8 GokulePandhero Spring 90 minutes

9 Sapangdi Kuwa 45 minutes

10 Kumalpani Spring 45 minutes

11 Bhulke Spring 180 minutes

(Source: RWSSP, 1995)

Apart from the (Mul) springs, people of the study area depend mostly on the water

collected in traditional ponds for various domestic needs like; washing, bathing,

feeding cattle and also for the community needs like religious events, marriage

ceremonies, funeral activities etc. Some families also used the same water for cooking

especially during the peak time of agricultural works. These traditional ponds receive

water during the rainy season and the same lasts for couple of months in many of

them whereas few serve even for the year round. Bhuwane Pokhari (pond), situated in

ward no. 6 of the VDC is the largest one and it serves a large number of people from

wards 3,5,7,8 and 9 for the whole year. The list of traditional ponds in the VDC areas

follows in table 3.5;

21

Table 3.5 Traditional Water Collection Ponds in the VDC

S.N. Name of the pond Location Water availability

(seasonal/perennial)

Served population

(wards)

1 Mohare Sano Pokhara Ward –2 Seasonal Ward 1 & 2

2 MohareThuloPokhara Ward-2 Seasonal Ward 3

3 KaulePokhari Ward-3 Seasonal Ward 4

4 GofleGairaPokhara Ward-4 Seasonal Ward 4

5 HalgadePokhari Ward-4 Seasonal Ward 5

6 LaptanPokhara Ward-5 Seasonal Ward 5 & 7

7 Tare Pokhari Ward-5 Seasonal W. 3,5,7,8

8 ThuloPokhara Ward-7 Seasonal W. 3,5,7,8

9 GagalePokhara Ward-8 Seasonal W. 5,7,8

10 BhuwanePokhara Ward-8 Perennial W.5,7,8

11 PuccharPokhari Ward-8 Perennial W.5,7,8

12 AmalePokhari Ward-9 Perennial W 9

13 KhanePokhari Ward-8 Perennial W.5,7,8

(Source: RWSSP, 1995)

Also, there were nine 20 CUM capacity ferrocement tanks constructed in all nine

wards of the VDC, to collect rainwater, with support from the District Water Supply

Office, Gulmi during early nineties to cater the water needs of the community mainly

for the events like marriage ceremonies, religious events and festivals, funeral

activities etc.

3.4 Research Design

The research study followed step-by-step procedure starting chronologically from the

proposal preparation phase, preparation for fieldwork phase, field study phase, data

management and analysis phase and the thesis report preparation phase. The detail

tasks break down structure showing set of activities covered in each phase is

presented below in figure 3.2, the methodological framework.

22

Proposal Phase

Proposal Preparation

(Draft)

Submission and

Presentation of Research

Proposal

Finalization of the

Proposal

Preparation Phase for Field Work

Coordination with VDC/VWASHCC Formulation, administration and

finalization of the questionnaires

Field Work Phase

Rapport Building

with Communities

Conduct Household

Interviews

Conduct Key Informants

Interviews

Field

Observations

Data Management and Analysis Phase

Finalize Data base,

entry Formats

Coding

Questions and

Answers

Data

Entry

Checking of Data

completeness

Data Analysis &

Interpretation

Thesis Report

Draft Report Submission of draft report and

pre defense of the findings

Final presentation

to the nec CPS

Final

Report

Figure 3.2 Methodological Framework

3.5 Rresearch Approach

The research study followed both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. In

other words, this has been a mixed method of study that comprised set of

questionnaires to collect the quantitative data and also comprised set of checklists for

individual level interviews.

Both types of data i.e. quantitative data and the perceptions and experiences of people

in terms of qualitative data have been collected and processed using the SPSS

software to produce the final report.

3.6 Sample Size

The sample size, for the given universe of 663 households, has been estimated based

on some basic assumptions like:

i) Confidence level or the measure of reliability as 95% or the significance level

5%.

ii) Degree of accuracy as 91% or the margin of error as 9%

23

iii) Variability as moderate

The sample size is derived for the above conditions from the published tables as;

n= 104 nos.

Where, the formula used is;

n = N/(1+N e2) ………………………………………(i)

Where:

n = Sample Size

N = Population

e = Margin of error

Also, the derived sample size was further verified with the sample advisor

table downloaded from Google (Annex II).

3.7 Sampling Unit and Method

The sampling unit for the study was the household. While conducting the study in the

VDC, total households of nine wards constituted the study universe. The total number

of samples determined by equation (i), were divided in each ward based on

representative distribution principle with that of the ward households as shown in

table 3.6. In each ward samples were selected in a systematic way for which sampling

class intervals were determined by dividing the total number of households of the

ward by the total number of samples required as shown in equation (ii).

Sampling Class Interval = (Total Number of Households in a Ward/Total Number

of Samples required from the ward) ………….. ii

Table 3.6 Number of Household Samples Distribution across the Wards

Ward No Total Households Households

Interviewed

Sample Interval

1 54 8 7

2 66 10 7

3 57 11 5

4 91 14 7

5 65 10 7

6 103 15 7

7 86 16 5

8 88 13 7

9 53 7 8

Total 663 104

3.8 Methods of Data Collection

Primary data was collected for the study purpose through various participatory tools

of inquiry. While the secondary data was obtained through various literatures,

journals published and unpublished documents and reports.

24

3.8.1 Household Interview

The total VDC samples were distributed in each ward based on proportionate size of

ward household. The number of sample households in each ward was selected

following the systematic sampling method. The interview plan with the selected

households was made and the concerned households were pre-informed about the

date, time and purpose of the visit to their houses. Ideally, both the heads of

household (man and woman) were requested to attend the interview. However, it was

not possible in all cases to attend interview by both male and female mainly because

of other important household works. In this manner, a total of 104 households in all

nine wards were visited and interviewed with a help of semi-structured questionnaire

(Annex III). A total of 154 respondents participated in the household interviews with

92 males and 62 females as shown in table 3.7.

Table 3.7 Number of Respondents in Households Survey

Ward

No

Total

Households

Households

Interviewed

Total Interview Respondents

Male Female Total

1 54 8 8 0 8

2 66 10 8 2 10

3 57 11 9 7 16

4 91 14 12 12 24

5 65 10 8 6 14

6 103 15 13 3 16

7 86 16 14 12 26

8 88 13 13 13 26

9 53 7 7 7 14

Total 663 104 92 62 154

The respondents of household level interviews were of different age groups. This

helped to capture the feelings and perception of the varied aged groups, regarding the

RWH systems.

Also, interviewed people belonged to various economic strata ranging from the small

farmers to the large farmers and general middle class people as shown in table 3.8.

This has helped to listen the voices of all the social groups like pro poor and better

offs in terms of the facility that they are getting from RWH systems in the VDC.

25

Table 3.8 Respondents in Household Interview with Economic Status

Land holding (ropani) Livestock (number) Average annual

income (class)

HH

Count

Total

HHs

Land

less

Small

farmer

(1-10)

Middle

farmer

(10-20)

Large

farmer

>20

Less

than or

equal

to 5

5-10 >10

Upto

1

lakh

1-2

lakh

More

than

2

lakh

# 104 0 38 46 20 49 41 14 41 31 32

% 100 0 36.5 44.2 19.3 47.1 39.4 13.5 39.4 29.8 30.8

3.8.2 Key Informant Interview

Semi-structured checklists were used to conduct the Key Informants Interview (KII)

in the VDC. The key informants included the local elites and elderly persons,

teachers, VDC personnel, User‟s Committee representatives, the trained rainwater

harvesters, mother‟s group representatives and the representatives of the cooperative

groups. A checklist (Annex IV) was taken as a reference, which was followed by the

several probing questions during the discussion. Purpose of this exercise was to hear

and compile the voices of users, their local leaders and elderly people and then

triangulate the data that have been collected from the household interviews.

People from different walks of life have participated in this KII and expressed their

views and experiences related to the service they are getting from this system. A total

of 14 key informants were interviewed consisting of 9 male and 5 female from

different wards of the VDC as shown in table 3.9.

Table 3.9 Number of Respondent in Key Informants Interviews

Occupation Male Female Total

Skilled rainwater harvesters (Masons) 5 (14) 0 5

Health worker 0 (1) 1 (1+9*) 1

User‟s committee members 2 (5) 3 (4) 5

Teachers 2 0 2

Business person 1 0 1

Total 9 5 14

Note: * represents Female Community Health Volunteer (FCHV)

26

3.8.3 Observation

The rainwater harvesting systems at households were

observed thoroughly during the visit to all nine

wards of the VDC. The observation focused mainly

on physical condition of the installed RWH systems,

their functioning and level of service delivery,

operation and maintenance aspects of the systems,

available water quantity and quality and the overall

durability of the systems (plate 3.1). This helped

validation and cross check of data gathered from

households and the individual person‟s interviews.

3.9 Water Quality Testing

An extensive task of water quality testing

covering all 104 sample households was carried

out using the water test field kit. Key water

quality parameters of microbiological, physical,

chemical were tested in all the household

systems studied. The tested parameters of water

quality at the households included;

Physical: Temperature, Odour, Taste, Colour and

pH value,

Chemical : Ammonia, Iron, Hardness and Free

Residual Chlorine

Microbiological: Coliform bacteria (present/absent)

The results was compared with the National Drinking Water Quality Standard

(NDWQS), 2005 and also with the World Health Organization (WHO) Standard and

verified.

3.10 Data Analysis

Every day after completion of interviews, a proper and fair recording of the data was

done. The quotes and the stories that came up during discussion were clearly noted

down on the same day.

All primary data were translated into English, entered into Statistical Package for

Social Sciences (SPSS) format and coded and analyzed accordingly. Relevant tables

and charts have been generated for the reporting purpose.

Triangulation of findings from household interviews, key informant‟s interviews and

observations were made for verification of data obtained. It was proved as an effective

way of eliminating the errors and cleaning data for further processing.

The report presents the findings through statistical quantitative and semi-quantitative

data. The qualitative information was presented both in the descriptive and

Plate 3.1 Rainwater Harvesting

System

Plate 3.2 Water Quality Testing of

Harvested Rainwater

27

graphical/tabular forms. Case stories and beneficiaries views have been reflected as

box cases and „quotes‟. Photographs have also been placed and presented in the report

as deemed relevant.

To analyze the sustainability of the system four key sustainability dimensions i)

Technical ii) Socio-environmental iii) Institutional and iv) Cost recovery, were

defined and the corresponding core factors and sub factors contributing to these

dimensions were identified. The core factors and sub factors were given weightage

following the Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) method. Table 3.10 below shows the

weightage given to the core factors of the sustainability dimensions.

Table 3.10 Sustainability Weightage to the Core Factors

Sustainability

Dimensions

Core factors to assess the Sustainability Dimensions Weightage

Technical (25) Quantity of water (5) 5

Quality of water (5) 5

Accessibility/Time to fetch water (5) 5

Reliability/Availability Months per year(5) 5

Physical status of the system (5) 5

Institutional

(25)

Users‟ committee/Fund management Committee(5) 5

VWASHCC functioning (5) 5

Trained rainwater harvesters (5) 5

Coordination and linkage of the committees (5) 5

Transparency on loan disbursement, other

expenditures, procurement and repayment of loan (5)

5

Socio-

environmental

(25)

Water facility to the families and social equity (5) 5

Improved health status, improved sanitary practices

and improved hygiene behaviors (5)

5

Reduction in women‟s burden of fetching water,

utilization of saved time in IG activities, caring

children and their education (5)

5

Gender and Social inclusion in the program (5) 5

Environmental aspects and climate change effects on

RWH systems (5)

5

Cost Recovery

(25)

Managing O&M fund for the RWH systems(10) 10

Managing system replacement fund (10) 10

Availability of local fund and its diversified use (5) 5

Similarly each core factor under each sustainability dimension includes various sub

factors. Each sub factor is further given weightage based on the field findings and

participatory discussions with the users (refer Annex-V).

28

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Potential of Rainwater Harvesting in Daugha Village Development

Committee

The annual precipitation recorded in the nearby meteorological station in Ridi Bazar

from 1994 to 2013 was observed. The average precipitation recorded for the given 20

years comes to be 1,330 mm. Based on the observed data the total annual rainfall

trend from 1994 to 2013 is shown below in Figure 4.1, which shows the decreasing

trend.

Figure 4.1 Average annual precipitation of Ridi Bazar from 1994 to 2013

4.2 Historical Background on Rainwater Harvesting Initiatives

In 1996, Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA) supported Rural

Water Supply and Sanitation Support Programme (RWSSP) in Lumbini Zone, under

which RWH technology at household level, on a pilot basis was introduced. A total of

45 RWH systems (jar systems) were installed at the rate of five households in each

ward. After one rainy season, people of Daugha were found highly convinced with the

technology and their acceptance level was found to be quite high (Bohara, 2001). The

demand to cover the whole VDC with the same RWH technology was put forth to

RWSSP by the local people through the VDC. They also committed to contribute

certain part of the capital cost plus required unskilled labour and the local materials.

29

Thus, the real project implementation started in 1997 and nearly 500 jars of 2,000-

liter capacity were installed in 250 households at the rate of 2 jars in each household.

The second round of implementation started in 1999 with modified design of 6,500-

liter capacity jars with provision of one jar in each household. Thus, the rainwater

collection jars of two sizes representing two generations can be found in Daugha

VDC. Also, to make local people able to build the system on their own, a total of 14

rainwater harvesters in Daugha were trained. This has largely helped to replicate the

system not only in other VDCs of Gulmi but also in different districts of the country

as such. As of now, many people have gained the skills on „how to build the system’

working together with the trained rainwater harvesters as on the job trainee.

4.3 Present Context on Rainwater Harvesting

After successful piloting of household level RWH

system in the VDC in 1996, upscaling and

replication of the technology took place rapidly

within and outside of Daugha. All nine wards of the

VDC formed their RWH users‟ sub committees

under the lead of VDC level main committee and

started implementation of the project. RWSSP in

support of FINNIDA, provided support to each

household with 2 jars of 2,000-liter capacity

(ferrocement jars) plus the gutter system and the

Corrugated Galvanized Iron (CGI) roofing sheets

equivalent to 180 sq. ft. area during the first round

of implementation. Later on the same, ferrocement jars of 6,500-liter capacity were

designed and households were supported at the rate of one jar each. Families with

better economic standing also started building bigger size stone masonry tanks to

store enough water for the whole year. In this manner, Daugha people started a huge

and wonderful campaign to collect rainwater to meet their daily water demand.

Altogether 14 rainwater harvesters were trained by RWSSP in the VDC to support

implementation of the project. Families are still adding on such water harvesting tanks

whenever they have money to afford. The table 4.1 below shows number of water

collection tanks in the VDC with different capacity.

Table 4.1 Household Level Rainwater Collection Jars in the VDC

S/N Description Number of jars/tanks

1 2,000-liter capacity jars 916

2 6,500-liter capacity jars 236

3 Stone masonry of different size ranging from 15 to 85 cum 86

Total 1,238

(Source: Field Visit, 2014)

Plate 4.1 18 years old Rainwater

Harvesting Systems

30

4.4 Sustainability Dimensions of the Rainwater Harvesting Systems

Dimensions are the highest level of sustainability monitoring indicators for water

supply and sanitation facilities which are known as; technical, socio-environmental,

financial and institutional (WaterAid, Nepal, 2010).

Each sustainability dimension is significantly governed by many factors and sub-

factors. As per the principles of multi-criteria approaches (MCA), each factor is rated

depending upon its potential contribution or its significance in making the case

sustainable. The comparative weights given to dimensions, factors and sub-factors

were determined through participatory methods.

4.4.1 Technical Aspect

In terms of water facility, the findings of the study, in line to the sustainability core

factors as explained earlier, have been presented in the following sections. Users were

asked about the level of water supply services reaching to the users in terms of

Quantity, Accessibility, Reliability and Quality (QARQ).

i. Quantity

In terms of adequacy, 22 households (21%), with

privately installed additional storage tanks, mentioned

that they have water availability all-year-round in

required quantity. A total of other 6 households (5.8

%) having family members equal to or less than 3,

who lived with the same storage capacity (4,000-

6,000 liters) as provided initially by the project

mentioned water sufficiency for about 10 months, the

other 56 households (53.8 %) having family members

up to 5, who lived with the same storage capacity

4,000–6,000 liters) as provided initially by the project

mentioned water sufficiency equal to nearly 6

months, and the rest 20 households (19 %) having family members more than 5 up to

7 who lived with the same storage capacity (4,000–6,000 liters) as provided initially

by the project mentioned water sufficiency just up to 4-5 months only. Hence, it is

clearly seen that in case of families with 3-5 members, an additional storage capacity

i.e. storage of about 12,000 liters is needed to fulfill the demand for the year round.

Finding of the study in relation to the storage capacity with family size and

sufficiency in months per year is shown in table 4.2 below.

Table 4.2 Storage Capacity with Family Size vs. Sufficiency in Months

S/N Households

(number)

Storage Capacity (liter) Family size

(number)

Sufficiency

(months/year)

1 6 4,000-6,000 < or = 3 10

2 56 4,000-6,000 Up to 5 6

3 20 4,000-6,000 >5 up to 7 4.5

4 22 >12000 >5 12

Plate 4.2 Up-scaling of the

Rainwater Harvesting System

31

The above data also reveals that, the water availability per family on average in months per year is;

M= (H1*m1+H2*m2+H3*m3+H4*m4)/(H1+H2+H3+H4) ……………………………(ii)

M= (22*12+56*6+20*4.5+6*10)/104

M=7.2 months,

Where, M= average months/year

H1, H2, H3, H4 = Number of households having sufficiency of water in range of

months m1, m2, m3, m4 = number of months with water availability for respective

households

Finding of the study in terms of water availability in the jars during the year is shown

in table 4.3 below.

Table 4.3 Number of Jars vs. Water Storage Capacity at Households in the VDC

Count of Jar number

per family

Jar capacity

(liter)

Households

with family

size of less

than or equal

to 3

Households

with family

size of

3 to 5

Households

with family

size of

more than

5

Total

1

2000 1 4 5

4000 2 2

6000 10 10

28000 1 1

Total families with 1 jar 3 1 14 18

2

4000 4 7 20 31

8000 2 6 13 21

16000 1 1

27000 1 1

29000 1 1

31000 1 1

34000 1 1

37000 1 2 3

41000 1 1 2

47000 1 1

52000 1 1

56000 1 1

Total families with 2 jars 9 16 40 65

3

6000 1 2 3

10000 1 5 6

39000 2 2

44000 1 1 2

54000 5 5

Total families with 3 jars 1 4 13 18

4

12000 1 1

16000 1 1

89000 1 1

Total families with 4 jars 3 3

Grand Total 13 21 70 104

32

ii. Accessibility

Of the total 104 sample households with rainwater harvesting systems in the VDC, the

time saved was reported to be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours per

trip in 25 (24 %), 25 (24 %), 7 (6 %), 22 (21 %) and 25 (24 %) households

respectively. A calculation has been made for the saved time per day per family based

on the responses received from the households in terms of total number of pitchers

(gagries) of water they need per day. As presented below, the time saved per family

ranges from 42 minutes to 12.96 hours per day. An average saving of 6.35 hours per

day per family has been derived and presented in the table 4.4 below;

Table 4.4 Average Time Saved per Household with RWH Program in the VDC

Saved

time

range

HHs in

corresponding

range

Total

fetching trip

per day

Total time

saved/day

(min.)

Total time

saved/day/H

H (min.)

Total time

saved/day/HH

(hour)

1-15 min 25 130 1040 42 0.69

16-30

min 25 163 3749 150 2.50

31-60

min 7 40 1800 257 4.29

1-2hrs 22 151 13590 618 10.30

2-3hrs 25 162 19440 778 12.96

Total 104 646 39619 381 6.35(Average)

Before implementation of rainwater scheme, on average a household had to spend

about 6.35 hours per day to fetch water. So with the RWH system in place, if a

household saves 6.35 hours per day for a prolonged period of 7.2 months (average

storage duration), it can be calculated as time saved of 190.5 hrs. per family per

month or about 24 person days per family per month. It implies that one family saves

173 person days in 7.2 months, which can be utilized for income generation activities

for the family. With a very conservative calculation based on the prevailing labor

wage of NRS. 200.00 per day (local level), one household can gain as much as NRS.

34,600.00 per year from the time saved from fetching water. The saved time can be

also used in different activities such childcare, family care, household work, income

generating activities etc.

iii. Reliability

As mentioned earlier, stored rainwater is enough for domestic uses based on the

storage capacity and the number of users in the family. The study found that, out of

104 families, it is enough for 4-5 months for 20 families, 6 months for 56 families, 10

months for 6 families and the whole year for 22 families. The above mentioned 22

families who have enough water for the year round, have installed additional

rainwater storage tanks in their households and 6 families who have enough water for

about 10 months have less number of users (below 3 members in family). Similarly,

the trend shows that families with members up to 5 have water just enough for about 6

months with about capacity of 4,000-6,000 liters. Interestingly, it was found that at

the time of social bifurcation of the joint families, the rainwater harvesting tanks are

33

also divided among the nuclear families (Field Observation, 2014). This is the reason

amongst other, the insufficiency of the stored water. Thus, it shows that one family

with 5 members would require storage of about 12,000 liters to be able to fetch

needed quantity of water from the RWH system for the year round. Table 4.5 below

shows the storage capacity with number of users vs. reliability of service

(months/year);

Table 4.5 Sufficiency of Water for Households in the VDC

Count of Jar

number per

family

Jar capacity

(liters)

Sufficiency in

months for family

size of less than or

equal to 3

Sufficiency in

months for

family size 3

to 5

Sufficiency in

months for family

size of more than 5

1

2000 4 4

4000 9.5

6000 7.5

28000 12

2

4000 9 6 5

8000 12 9 7

16000 12

27000 12

29000 12

31000 12

34000 12

37000 12 2

41000 12 12

47000 12

52000 12

56000 12

3

6000 10 7

10000 10 7

39000 12

44000 12 12

54000 12

4

12000 10

16000 12

89000 12

iv. Quality

In terms of quality of the stored water in the jars, most of the user families replied as

suitable for drinking. However, it was learnt that more than 80% of the households

use water for drinking purpose after properly boiling it. A thorough testing of water

34

quality in all 104 sample households was carried out during the field study period.

The results obtained from the test are shown below in table 4.6

Table 4.6 Water Quality Test Result

Water Quality

Parameters

Result

Result within

the permissible

limit (OK) –No.

of HHs

Result outside

of the range

(objectionable)

–No. of HHs

WHO Standard

Limit

National

Standard Limit

Temperature °C 104 (average

25.6061 S.)

Odour (observe) 99 5 Unobjectionable Unobjectionable

Taste (observe

or ask)

99 5 Unobjectionable Unobjectionable

Colour (observe) 101 3 Unobjectionable Unobjectionable

Turbidity

(observe)

102 2 Free Free

pH 82 22 6.5-8.5 6.5-8.5

Ammonia mg/l 94 10 1.5 mg/l 1.5 mg/l

Iron mg/l 103 1 0.3 (3) mg/l 0.3 (3) mg/l

Hardness mg/l 104 0 500 mg/l 500 mg/l

Coliform

bacteria

(present/absent)

54 50 not to be present not to be present

The above quality test result shows that about 48% samples of stored water in the jars

have been found contaminated with the coliform bacteria. Further, 22 out of 104

samples have been observed to have acidic nature, pH values lower than the normal (5

to 6.5) and 10 out of 104 samples were having low Ammonia content between 0.5 to

1.5. As man y as 5 household water samples were found to be questionable in terms of

odour and taste. More than 80% of the households were found to consume water only

after boiling; it is an excellent practice to address the problem of coliform bacteria and

to some extent the solution to improve other physical properties like odour and tastes. Chemical contaminants persistence in Nepal includes pesticides through agricultural

spray drift and hydrocarbons from wood smoke emissions. Rainwater is very low in

dissolved minerals but slightly acidic as it dissolves carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

rendering it relatively aggressive. Rainwater can dissolve heavy metals and other

impurities from materials of catchment and storage tank. Normally, chemical

concentrations in rain water are within acceptable limits, however possibility of Zinc

and Lead leaching from metallic roofs and storage tanks cannot be ruled out. Rain

water lacks minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Iron and Fluoride, which are

considered essential for health. However most of them are derived from food stuffs

(DWSS, 2014).

With the above findings of RWH systems in terms of QARQ, the following summary

(table 4.7) can be generated as overall access of the people to the water service:

35

Table 4.7 Overall Access to Service (Technical Aspect)

Access to water services HHs %

Time saved in water fetching/day (2-3 hours) 25 24

Time saved in water fetching /day (1 -2 hours) 27 26

Time saved in water fetching (up to 1 hour) 52 50

Average time saved in fetching water per day = 6.5 hrs. 104 100

Quality of available water (good round the year- as people‟s perception

and practice of boiling in most cases)

85 82

Sufficiency of water (sufficient quantity round the year) 22 21

Sufficiency of water (sufficiency partly) 82 79

Regularity of service (sufficient up to 4-5 months per year) 20 19

Regularity of service (sufficient up to 6 months per year) 56 54

Regularity of service (availability up to 10 months per year) 6 6

Regularity of service (availability up to 12 months) 22 21

The time saved in fetching water per day and the reliability of water services are

shown below in Figures 4.2 and 4.3 respectively:

Figure 4.2 Time saved in fetching water per day

Figure 4.3 Reliability of water services

36

v. Physical Status of the RWH Systems

RWH systems building in Daugha VDC started in 1996 as

a pilot work. Rainwater collection though used to be a

traditional practice for centuries in Nepal, harvesting

systematically through installing a properly designed

collection system at household level is first piloted in

Daugha VDC in Nepal. With the promising results from

this test case, a rapid and wider replication of the system

took place in several parts of the country by various

agencies.

The RWH system in Daugha VDC has already crossed the normal design lifetime of

water project i.e. 15-year time period. The first round systems constructed during

1996 have crossed even 18 years of age. As mentioned earlier, the first generation of

the jars was made of 2000-liter capacity followed by 6500-liter capacity later as the

second generation. During the study, all nine wards of the VDC have been visited and

the systems were thoroughly observed in terms of their functioning and durability and

overall physical status. Almost all the systems are found intact and functioning well

except only few requiring minor repairs.

4.4.2 Socio-Environmental Aspect of Rainwater Harvesting System

i. Access to Sanitation Services

Respondents‟ awareness levels about the importance of

sanitation and hygiene in the study areas was also a

subject of inquiry. The findings indicate significant

progress on that front. All 104 households were found to

be reasonably aware of the importance of sanitation and

hygiene. The extent of open defecation seems to have

gone down drastically in the VDC. More than 80 % of

the households in the VDC reported to have toilets in

their homestead. Similar trend is noticed in case of hand

washing with soap during critical times. Interestingly,

about 9 % of the respondents in the wards did not respond to the question related to

hand washing with soap. Accordingly, the significant positive changes in washing

clothes and bathing in post-project situation was reported. Tables 4.8 and 4.9 below

describe the sanitation related details in the VDC and incidences of water borne

diseases before and after the project in the VDC.

Plate 4.3 Physical Status of

Rainwater Harvesting System

Plate 4.4 Improved Sanitary

Practices

37

Table 4.8 Access to Sanitation Services

Access to sanitation services HHs %

General awareness of people regarding proper sanitary practice (acceptable

level)

104 100

Households use to defecate openly before the project 67 64

Households with and using toilets at present 92 88

Hand washing with soap practiced after using toilet and at other critical

times (+ve response)

95 91

Hand washing with soap practiced after using toilet and at other critical

times (no response)

9 9

Interval of bathing and washing clothes before the project (average once in

two weeks)

85 82

Interval of bathing and washing clothes at present (average twice in a week) 90 87

Table 4.9 Incidences of Water-borne Diseases Before and After the Project

Project

status

Occurance of

Diarrheal disease

Worms related

infectious cases

Skin diseases

among the

children

Other water borne

diseases

HH

with

cases

HH with

no cases

HH

with

cases

HH

with no

cases

HH

with

cases

HH

with no

cases

HH

with

cases

HH

with no

cases

Before

(HH) 98 5 57 47 71 33 97 6

% 95 5 55 45 68 32 93 7

After (HH) 10 94 22 82 14 90 15 89

% 9 91 21 79 13 87 14 86

The incidences of various water-borne diseases declined remarkably after the

implementation of the project as shown in the Figure. 4.4 below:

Figure 4.4 Incidence of water-borne diseases before and after the project

Incidences of

water-borne

diseases in the

VDC

38

ii. Sharing Water Supply Facilities in the Community

The century-old notion of caste structure, although gradually breaking down, is still

persisting in Nepalese society led with Hindu structures. Moreover, caste hierarchy

also has implications in socio-economic standing in Nepal. In considering this reality,

an attempt was made to assess the equity issue related to the sharing of the facilities in

terms of allocation and building RWH systems in the poor and dalit‟s households. It is

noteworthy that no discrimination (table 4.10) against the caste and economic

hierarchy existed in the VDC as all the household interviews and key informants level

interviews confirmed this fact.

Table 4.10 Equity in RWH System Allocation and Sharing

Equity Issues in Sharing the Facilities HHs %

All the members of community have equally treated in allocation of the RWH

systems

104 100

All households in the community have received the RWH systems on an equal

basis without any discrimination based on the castes. All households have

installed the system and getting water facility from the beginning regularly.

104 100

Discrimination based on castes and classes do not persists in the VDC 104 100

Capacity building and training events have also been organized without any

discrimination.

104 100

Local skilled Masons (Mistries) belong to all castes like Brahmin/Chhetri, Janjati

and Dalits

104 100

Behavioral Changes and its Effects

Many development interventions in society are linked to

objective of anticipated output and it is also true in case of the

RWH project under study. RWH project also has common

objectives, as in other Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

projects, of reduction if not total elimination of the vectors

causing various diseases. Accordingly sanitation & hygiene

components are also to save human beings from various diseases

in addition to elevate the people to live with human dignity. In

this regard, the existing situation in the project area under study

was assessed.

Findings made from the household level interviews reveal a decline in incidence of

waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid etc., as reported by around

90 % of households as shown in table 4.11. Accordingly, more than four-fifth of the

respondent households reported that the time saved after the implementation of the

RWH schemes in their community is being used in livestock raising, vegetable

cultivation and other income generation activities. In addition, the saved time is

reported to have been used in household chores and off-farm activities like small

business in the village.

Plate 4.5 Innovation of

Rainwater Harvesting Jar

on the roof of toilet

39

Table 4.11 Post-project Impact by type of Water Supply System

Impact of RWH systems Number of

respondent

households

Number of

respondent

key persons

Yes % Yes %

Decline in the incidence of water borne and water washed

diseases

95 94 14 100

Saved time used for kitchen gardening and livestock

rearing

104 100 14 100

Saved time used for taking rest, caring children and other

household chores

104 100 14 100

Saved time used for non-farm activities (small scale

businesses)

8 7.5 2 14

Saved time used for skilled labor and unskilled wage labor

works

53 51 5 36

Increased monthly income with utilization of saved time 77 74 10 71

Household level interviews and KII revealed that accessibility of water in the VDC

has improved significantly and confirmed the cases of water borne and water washed

diseases have gone down significantly. Likewise, with regard to use of time saved

from fetching water, all 104 respondent households affirmed that they use the time

saved in vegetable cultivation, fodder/firewood collection and also in giving more

time in caring children.

In this manner, the results of the interviews and discussions indicated significant

positive changes to have occurred in all communities. Achievements made in regard

to household toilets in and their uses the VDC, reduction in incidence of water borne

diseases due to availability of clean water in the community, reduction in time

consumed for fetching water and alternative use of the saved time (in economic

activities and household chores), were the notable changes in the scheme areas as

reported by the users. It is worth noting that there have also been spillover effects

especially in building RWH systems in the neighboring VDCs and districts of the

country.

The records of a decade-long outpatient cases in sub-health post substantiate the

observed information and data collected from the Key Informants Interview and

household Interviews. The sub-health post's annual report for two years (year 2000

and 2014) is shown in table 4.12 below:

Table 4.12 Number of Patients Recorded in Daugha Sub Health Post

Months Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Total

2000 16 10 10 13 35 38 42 45 42 36 30 20 337

2014 2 0 0 3 10 13 15 20 16 12 8 5 104

(Source: Field Visit, 2014)

40

iii. Changes in Women's Status

The women of study area had to walk for hours

and hours every day to fetch water. In fact

women were heavily burdened with various

household tasks including fetching water from

long distance. The situation used to be more

worsened during the peak agriculture period

(during planting and harvesting) when women

work in the fields almost for the whole day. It

was the night time when they used to go to the

water sources to collect it to meet the

requirements of next day. People remember

those days as several groups of women going

to different water sources during night time

with fire torches (bundle of pine wood sticks)

in their hands. One can see hill slopes around

the water sources in the VDC full of fire lights

during the night time. The life of women used to be so hard and miserable that one

had to work for about 13-14 hours every day just to solve the daily needs of hand to

mouth.

After implementation of RWH project, women of Daugha expressed drastic positive

changes in their life as quoted “they feel like living in the heaven” by them. Most of

the girls are sent to school these days. Women can apportion more time to productive

activities. Now they have time to take rest, more time devoted for bringing up the

children and growing vegetables and similar activities at homes. They also participate

in various development activities in their village. They have formed various Self Help

Women Groups (SHWGs) such as mothers‟ groups and women groups in their wards.

In such manner, they take part in educational and infrastructural development

interventions hand-in-hand with male counterparts. Thus, with the implementation of

RWH program in the VDC, not only the drudgery of women from enormous

workload has reduced but also their confidence level for participation in development

works is gearing up and hence, the social status has been expressed increasing

gradually. Community development concept through balanced gender participation

was found increased in the VDC. The male members have realized that the

involvement of women in water and sanitation sector is crucial. In this manner, the

rainwater harvesting program in Daugha has proved to be the key milestone in

improving and uplifting the women‟s welfare.

Plate 4.6 Relief from Water Drudgery

for Women

41

iv. Environmental Changes

The perception and experiences of people in Daugha regarding the environmental

effects on RWH system were collected during the households and key informant‟s

interviews. The information revealed that there are many environmental related issues

that people have been experiencing over the period of about two decades. Briefly they

can be summed as:

gfn em/]b]lv bf+t embf{ ;Dd kfgLsf] clgsfn

Mrs. Indra Gharti, a 76-year-old lady of Daugha VDC ward no. 9, who suffered a lot in

her life just because of water scarcity and inadequacy, mentioned “gfn em/]b]lv bf+t embf{

;Dd kfgLsf] clgsfn” (Scarcity of water in Daugha since birth to death). Indra, born in

Amararbathok VDC ward no. 5 of the Gulmi District, was married at an age of 16 to a

Daugha resident Bhim Bahadur Gharti. It was ever since then she had suffered due to

the water related problems. She mentioned that she never faced any kind of trouble

related to water before her marriage. Indra used to live with her mother and two

brothers. Upon receiving proposal for her marriage to a fellow from Daugha, her elder

brother straight denied that. But, her mother and younger brother were in the favor of

marriage as they believed it was her age to get married. Finally, she got married. On

the day of her marriage, some people and her brothers from her village came to her

house and stayed overnight. During morning hours, her relatives asked for water so that

they can wash their faces but there was no water available. They were told to use the

water of a pond nearby. The water of the pond was so dirty and full of mud that the

relatives got furious. Her brothers apologized to her for making her life a living hell

and left.

In the following days, she suffered lack of sleep as the woman in the village had to

wake up early in the morning and fetch the water for the whole family. She said that

she could barely have 3-4 hours‟ sleep. She had to walk 2 hours to reach the water

sources. She had to collect water for her whole family of about 10 members and bring

it home before dawn. She recalls a moment when she was bitten by a snake on her way

back home after collecting water. The situation was horrifying as she was 7 months

pregnant. Fortunately, both she and her baby were saved with the help of local healers.

It was normal to encounter small accidents as the way used to be slippery and it used to

be so dark. She said, “I have broken around 8 water pitchers (copper gagris) by falling

off the slippery roads.” Unable to bear the burden, she even wanted to finish her life so

many times but could not do it. She had never imagined that there will ever be easy

access to water in this place. Indra said that they are fortunate that FINNIDA project

reached the place and helped the people there with RWH systems. She considers her

life to be blessed because of the FINNIDA project. She further considers the brides

nowadays are very lucky as there is plenty of water available at their homes.

She finally wished happiness for all those who supported them with such a miraculous

commodity in her old age.

42

i) Rainwater harvesting has been proved as the most appropriate and the best

option in the given context and is the most suitable adaptation to the given

environment.

ii) It has several benefits as it reduces soil erosion, gulley formation and

triggering landslides by catching rain before reaching to the ground

iii) They expressed the experience regarding possible effect of climate change.

They mentioned that for about half a decade after construction of the system,

there used to be regular winter rain, which used to be sufficient to fill the jars.

But, since last few years the winter rain has stopped and the water jars mostly

remain empty during the dry season. This has become a big climatic problem

for RWH projects.

iv) They further added that monsoon rain is also highly fluctuating in terms of its

timing. The normal trend is that the monsoon rains are getting pushed further

expanding the dry duration gradually.

4.4.3 Cost Recovery: Financial costs (O&M costs, Capital Cost for Upgrading of

Service)

Cost recovery is the concept that contributes to sustainability and it‟s planning

requires an appropriate strategy. Indeed, it will help define processes as well as

determine a structure upon which the management of a service will operate in short

and long term perspective. Cost incurred to establish a WASH project can be summed

as; (Cardone, Rachel ; Fonseca , Catarina, 2003)

Financial costs (operating costs, capital costs, cost of servicing capital)

Economic costs/benefits (lost value of water for other uses, gains from

productive use, time savings, pollution created or alleviated) and

Support costs (institution building, HRD, information systems, monitoring and

assessment, regulation, planning and strategy development).

The following questions can be used as a starting point while discussing about the

cost recovery.

Should only basic O&M costs be recovered, and by whom and how?

Should initial investment costs be recovered, and by whom and how?

Should replacement and rehabilitation costs be recovered, and by whom and

how?

How and where will the money be generated to recover these costs?

In case of RWH system, being a household asset, it is the full responsibility of the

concerned household to bear all the costs related to its operation, maintenance and

replacement over the period of time. The major question here is: how and where will

the money be generated to recover these costs? Does RWH systems have created

opportunities for the families to earn money at least equivalent to the above-

mentioned level of amount? Have people realized and started utilizing their time and

43

energy saved through implementation of RWH systems which otherwise would have

been spent on fetching water.

A simple calculation showed that saving time of 6.35 hour per day per family on

average for a period of 7.2 months (average storage duration) per year saves about

173 person days of labor. This is quite a big amount of time that can utilized to earn

money in any manner either working as a wage labor, working on farm productions

like vegetable farming, rearing goat, promoting poultry, starting own small business,

starting small scale cottage industry etc. This is an excellent opportunity created by

the RWH system for the families to earn money for better livelihoods including cost

recovery of the RWH systems.

It is also true that people‟s livelihood do not consist entirely the goods and services

that have only the market value, they depend also on home productions defined as

activities which improve the quality of life without involving market transactions. In

many cases, the greater convenience of the RWH show benefits for home production

activities such as cooking, housework and childcare to a greater extent than benefits

measurable in market values. Through improvement of these small but essential

facilities, families achieve greater benefits of improved health and hygiene. Also,

RWH systems have contributed in minimizing conflict in the communities which

often is seen in the shared water facilities like gravity flow systems, community

pumps etc.

i. Income through Agriculture Production

The main occupation of people is the subsistence agriculture in the VDC. Almost all

families depend on agricultural production. The main crops that are grown are the

maize, wheat, pulse and mustard. The comparison of income level before and after the

project is shown below table 4.13.

Table 4.13 Income through Agriculture Production

Crops Before the project (per family) After the project (per family)

Average

production

Average income

(Rs.)/year

Average

production

Average income

(Rs.)/year

Food crops

(maize, wheat)

20 muri 10,000 25 muri 12,500

Mustard (oil) 20 ltr. 3,200 30 ltr. 4,800

Cash crops sell

(vegetables)

0 0 LS 4,000

Sell of milk

products

LS 1,000 LS 1,500

Total 14,200 22,800

(Note: The unit price for the commodities is as of 2014)

Apart from above mentioned average income, some families have started goat rearing

and poultry farming in the village. Thus, it is evident that many families have been

doing income generation activities utilizing the saved time. The above table shows

that people's income through sell of agriculture products was NRs. 14,200 (US$ 142)

before the implementation of RWH project whereas it has increased to NRs. 22,800

44

(US$ 228) per year after implementation of the project with an exchange rate of US$

1 = NRs 100 as of 2014).

ii. Employment Opportunities

They utilize the saved time in many activities. Some of them have also been trained as

rainwater harvesters. Rainwater harvesters are almost busy for the whole year. They

are able to earn hundreds of thousand rupees every year. In turn, they have attained a

well-improved livelihood. Because of their increased income, they have been able to

send their children in better schools within and far from the area.

During implementation of RWH project, sand mines with good quality sand were

identified at the local level. Some families have been still involved in making sand

business. They mine the local sand reserves and sell it to the construction sites.

Similarly, some families are involved in goat rearing poultry farming and other

various agriculture related activities in the VDC. Apart from this, many others are

involved in wage labor and have been earning quite a reasonable amount of money. In

such manner, because of saved time several employment opportunities have been

generated in the VDC. Most people in the VDC do utilize their saved time in

productive ways.

iii. Establishment of Revolving Funds for Rainwater Harvesting Extension

The concept of revolving fund has been the part of the sustainable RWH program. In

case of Daugha VDC, RWSSP supported families with 2 jars of 2000 liters each at the

initial stage. The calculation was made to have at least 12,000 liters of storage per

family with an average member size of 5. The rest of the storage capacity was

supposed to be added by the families themselves on a gradual basis. In case of poor

families it was rather difficult to arrange such a huge amount to invest on jar

construction. Hence, the concept of the revolving fund was introduced and discussed

among the VDC people. It was agreed finally that all wards would have a fund of

certain amount and the user‟s committee would manage the same initially until the

project implementation phase. Later on, the committee would be reorganized as the

fund management committee at ward level.

With this consensus, people of Daugha in support of RWSSP approached various

agencies to seek support to establish the revolving funds. The then ongoing European

Union (EU) supported Gulmi Arghakhnachi Rural Development Project (GARDEP)

accepted their proposal of revolving fund and supported with a seed amount of NRs.

900,000.00, NRs 100,000 for each ward as ward level revolving funds. Fund

Management Committees (FMCs) at the ward level manage the fund. These

committees are formed with seven to nine members in each based on the size of ward

both area and population wise. All of these committees are represented by at least two

women members and minimum one member from Dalit group. The committees

sanction the loan based on the need and priority among all requests. A nominal

interest rate of 18% per annum is fixed for the loan and the maturity period of one

year is fixed all nine revolving funds. The management committees have developed

the grounded rules to operate this fund.

45

The fund created in 1999, mainly was meant to target the poor families, who are not

able to upgrade and upscale the rainwater harvesting system despite its beneficial

impacts on the households and a community as a whole, with a loan. In addition, it

was also agreed that the fund be lent for diversified uses in the VDC rather than just

keeping ideally in the bank. This had created an avenue for the people to start their

own small business. The fund is still maintained in the VDC and the amount has

reached NRs. 2.5 Million as of 2014. Many families have been benefitted from this

fund so far to upgrade their RWH systems, to build the household toilets and some

have also taken loan to start their small business at the local level.

4.4.4 Institutional Dimension

i. Effectiveness of Services of Trained Persons at Local Level

Information on the views of the respondents about service rendered by the locally

trained rainwater harvesters (mistri) during the course of the implementation of

scheme was solicited. Altogether 14 such rainwater harvesters were trained in the

VDC and almost all of them have been engaged fully in implementing RWH systems

in different parts of the country and in neighboring country. Few of them reported that

they were also engaged in installing such systems in Tehari Gadhwal area,

Uttarakhand, India. The table 4.14 of the household survey indicated that the services

of such technicians were useful to the communities. Information indicates that 75 %

of the respondents mentioned their performances as good. It was mentioned by them

during the key informant‟s interviews that they are earning handsome amount of

money with the skills they acquired as a rainwater harvester. Some harvesters said

that the earnings come up to around NRs. 500,000.00 per year. However, 25% of

respondents of the household level interviews mentioned that since the trained

persons mostly work outside the village, availability of their service is rather difficult

to get when required by the villagers.

Table 4.14 Effectiveness of Services Provided by the Trained Persons

Responses HHs %

Rainwater harvesters in the VDC were selected and trained in an

inclusive manner representing from all castes and social groups.

104 100

Trained rainwater harvesters have good skills and knowledge about the

systems.

104 100

Performance level of rainwater harvesters is very high and excellent. 78 75

Services rendered by the rainwater harvesters in the village are

satisfactory.

78 75

Water User and Sanitation Committees and Village Water Sanitation & Hygiene

Coordination Committees

Functioning of Water User and Sanitation Committee

Water User and Sanitation Committee (WUSC) is the grass root level institution and

its nature of functioning has strong bearing on the sustainability of the schemes in

46

communities. Therefore, an attempt was made to learn about user‟s knowledge and

perception of the existence of WUSC, its composition and functioning. The findings

indicate that all the respondent households of rainwater harvesting systems confirmed

their knowledge about WUSC. With regard to WUSC functioning, more than 90 % of

the respondents at household level affirmed that it is virtually inactive at present. The

WUSC remained active during implementation of the project and turned inactive soon

after completion of the project. The same WUSC has been made responsible for

handling the revolving funds and is commonly known as fund management

committee at present. Related to transparency of the system, knowledge among the

respondents about the total fund, about its deposition and uses was found to be very

low as only 25 % of the respondents have know-how about it (Table 4.15).

Table 4.15 Functioning of Water User and Sanitation Committee

Description HHs %

Know-how about WUSC 104 100

WUSC turned inactive after completion of project

construction

104 100

WUSC managing the revolving funds at ward level 104 100

Know-how of revolving fund management (including size) 26 25

Know-how on fund loaning and its processes 26 25

WUSC functioning was also discussed during the key informant‟s interviews (KII)

and the findings were in confirmation and in line with the findings made at the

household level interviews.

Functioning of Village Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Committee

(VWASHCC)

A newly constituted Village Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Committee

(VWASHCC) coordinates all WASH activities at VDC level as per the policy

formulated in the National Hygiene and Sanitation Master Plan, 2011 (GoN, 2011), in

the direction to achieve universal coverage of WASH in Nepal by 2017. The finding

reveals that the VWASHCC in Daugha VDC is active in coordinating the WASH

activities as per the stipulated mandate. Activities of VWASHCC mainly in

coordinating and organizing sanitation awareness campaigns, hygiene promotion

activities leading towards Open Defecation Free (ODF) are highly appreciated and

acknowledged by the ward people. However, it is constrained by physical facilities,

and fund resources for its effective regular functioning.

Local Organizations

There are some local organizations, groups and cooperatives in the VDC. They work

together with VWASHCC in promotion of WASH activities at VDC level. They

actively support the VDC in all sorts of coordination and social mobilization works.

Mother‟s groups, local youth club, revolving fund management committees at VDC

and ward levels, forest user‟s group etc. are some main local level institutions that

support various WASH activities to plan, implement and manage. This issue of local

47

institutions and their support was discussed mainly during the KII. The major areas

discussed included;

Orientations/trainings organised at WUSC and community (both hardware and

software)

awareness raising and sanitation improvement campaigns

community mobilisation for WASH activities

sanitation promotion issues

transparency and public auditing mainly for the revolving fund

technical fesibility for water projects with other technologies

Responses received in terms of supports rendered by the local instituitons, in general,

was found to be at the satisfactory level. However, it was reported that the fund

management needs to be user-friendly and should be made easily available to the

poorest of the poor group in an easy pay back system.

4.5 Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting System

To analyze the sustainability of the system four key sustainability dimensions i)

technical ii) socio-environmental iii) institutional and iv) cost recovery were defined

and the corresponding core factors and sub factors contributing to these dimensions

were identified. The core factors and sub factors were given weightage following the

Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) method.

48

4.5.1 Technical Dimensions

Under the “Technical” dimension, five core factors of Quantity, Accessibility,

Reliability, Quality (QARQ) and the physical status of the system have been

considered and is shown in figure 4.5. Users were asked about access to the water

supply services in terms of quantity, accessibility, reliability and quality (QARQ).

Regarding quantity, 21% of the total interviewed households responded to have water

sufficiency for all year round whereas 79% of the households mentioned availability

of water ranging from 5 to 10 months a year based on the storage capacity and the

number of users. Regarding accessibility to water, 50% households mentioned time

saved as up to 1 hour per trip, 26% mentioned from 1-2 hours saved per trip and 24 %

mentioned the time saved as 2-3 hours per trip to fetch water. This comes to be on

average 6.35 hours of saved time per family per day. Similarly, reliability aspect

shows that 21% of the total families interviewed have availability of water throughout

the year, 6% have availability up to 10 months, and 19 % have water availability up to

6 months whereas remaining 21% have availability up to 5 months a year. Concerning

the quality of stored rainwater in the jars, people have perceived it to be of good

quality.

Quality test results obtained with the field kit test also indicate that most of the

parameters are in the permissible range. There was large number of samples found

with bacteriological contamination. However, most families (82%) use water for

drinking after proper boiling.

Figure 4.5 Technical Dimension for Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability

4.5.2. Socio-Environmental Sustainability

Under “Socio-Environmental” dimension of rainwater sustainability, the core factors

were identified as improved sanitary practices, health status and hygiene behaviors,

water facility to the families and social equity, gender and social inclusion in the

program, reduction in women‟s burden of fetching water and environmental aspects

and the climate change effects as shown in figure 4.6. The findings indicate

significant progress on that front. All 104 households were found to be reasonably

49

aware of the importance of sanitation and hygiene. The extent of open defecation

seems to have gone down drastically in the VDC. More than 80 % of the households

in the VDC reported to have toilets in their homestead. Similar trend is noticed in case

of hand-washing with soap during critical times. Decline in incidences of waterborne

diseases, such as diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid etc., was reported by nearly 90 % of the

households. Regarding water facility to the families and social equity, it is noteworthy

that no discrimination against the caste and economic hierarchy existed in the VDC as

all the household interviews and key informant level interviews confirmed this fact.

Regarding gender and social inclusion, there has been a remarkable positive change in

this front. Women, because of their saved time from fetching water, have started

participating in various development activities and have formed various Self Help

Women Groups (SHWGs) such as mothers‟ groups and women groups in the village.

They have started taking part in educational and infrastructural development

interventions hand in hand with male counterparts. This equally implies in case of pro

poor and dalit families as well. Dalits have found representing in all the groups and

committees on a proportionate basis. In this manner, the rainwater harvesting program

in Daugha has proved to be the key milestone in improving gender and social

inclusion in development. Similarly, the perception and experiences of people in

Daugha regarding the environmental effects on RWH system were collected during

the households and key informant‟s interviews. The information revealed that there

are many environmental related issues that people have been experiencing over the

period of about two decades. Briefly it can be summed that, rainwater harvesting has

been proved as the most appropriate and the best option in the given context and is the

most suitable adaptation method to the given environment.

Figure 4.6 Socio-environmental Dimensions of Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability

50

4.5.3. Institutional Dimensions

In the similar manner under “Institutional” dimensions of the sustainability core

factors identified include functioning of users committee/fund management

committee, functioning of VWASHCC in the VDC, skills and capacity of trained

rainwater harvesters, transparency about the fund and linkages with other government

and non-government organizations in the District and is shown in figure 4.7.

Regarding functioning of users committee, the findings indicate that more than 90 %

of the respondents at household level affirmed that it is virtually inactive at present.

The users committee remained active during implementation of the project and the

same committee has been made responsible for handling the revolving funds,

commonly known as fund management committee at present. Related to transparency

of the system, knowledge among the respondents about the total fund, about its

deposition and uses was found to be very low as only 25 % of the respondents have

know-how about it. Information on the views of the respondents about service

rendered by the locally trained rainwater harvesters (mistri) was solicited. 75 % of the

respondents mentioned their performances as good. All 14 trained rainwater

harvesters remain mostly outside of the village implementing RWH systems in

different parts of the country. Some of them also engaged in installing such systems in

Tehari Gadhwal area Uttarakhand Pradesh, India. However, 25% of respondents of

the household level interviews mentioned that service is rather difficult to avail when

required by the villagers as they remain mostly out of the village.

Similarly, regarding functioning of Village Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Coordination Committee (VWASHCC), though active in the VDC related to WASH

coordination issues, it is constrained by physical facilities, and fund resources for its

effective regular functioning.

Figure 4.7 Institutional Dimension of Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability

51

4.5.4 Cost Recovery

Under “Cost Recovery”, the core factors identified are managing funds for O&M of

RWH systems, managing replacement fund of systems and diversified use of the local

fund as shown in figure 4.8. Cost recovery in case of RWH system is the full

responsibility of the concerned households. Cost needed for annual repair and

maintenance of the system was calculate to be NRs. 2,000.00 per household on

average based on the information provided by the households. It basically includes the

cost of chlorination at frequent intervals for maintaining water quality, cost of white

cement or lime to paint two coats both inside and outside the jars, some nails to repair

and properly fix the gutter system, few HDPE/GI fittings (occasional), and mosquito

net to replace in the jar lid. However, to add one more jar of 2,000-liter capacity, it

requires an amount of nearly equivalent to NRs. 15,000.00 excluding own labor.

The major question here is: how and where will the money be coming from to recover

these costs? Have RWH systems created opportunities for the families to earn money

at least equivalent to the above-mentioned level? Have people realized and started

utilizing their time and energy saved through implementation of RWH systems which

otherwise would have been spent on fetching water. A simple calculation showed that

saving time of 6.35 hour per day per family on average for a period of 7.2 months

(average storage duration) per year saves about 173 person days of labor. This is quite

a big amount of time that can be utilized to earn money in any manner either working

as a wage labor, working on farm productions like vegetable farming, rearing goat,

promoting poultry, starting own small business, starting small scale cottage industry

etc. Also, there exists a revolving fund originally established with support from the

then ongoing European Union (EU) supported Gulmi Arghakhnachi Rural

Development Project (GARDEP) worth NRs. 900,000.00 in the VDC focusing to

increase the WASH facilities, which is also used for various purposes in the village.

The fund created in 1999, mainly to target the poor families, who are not able to

upgrade and upscale the rainwater harvesting system. In addition, this fund was also

agreed to lend for diversified uses. This had created an avenue for the people to start

their own small business. The fund is still maintained in the VDC and the amount has

reached NRs. 2.5 million as of 2014.

Figure 4.8 Cost Recovery Dimension of Rainwater Harvesting Sustainability

52

4.5.5 Overall Sustainability of the Rainwater Harvesting System

Thus the sustainability of the RWH system has been tested and found that the

institutional and cost recovery parts of the system remain weaker (Table4.16). Best

utilization of saved time for economic growth through various income generating

activities and mobilization of local funds to improve income level of the people seems

lacking behind the expected level. Similarly, capacity and skills of local people to

upgrade and improve their RWH systems have been observed as a gap. However, the

Technical and Socio-environmental dimensions have been found to be strong enough

in the system.

The above result, by definition, indicates that the RWH project in Daugha VDC is a

“sustained but at risk” category project with reference to the sustainability figures as

prescribed by WaterAid Nepal (section 2.7). There are two sustainability dimensions

i.e. Institutional dimension and the cost recovery dimension which draw the project at

risk from sustainable point of view. However, the technical and the socio-

environmental dimensions have proved to be strong enough to bring the whole project

in category of two i.e. “sustained but at risk”. In Daugha VDC, local people have

taken rainwater harvesting as their inherent culture, which itself shows high social and

environmental acceptance for the system. It is now very clear from the above results

that an urgent step towards the improvement of the institutional and cost recovery

aspects of the project is needed.

53

Table 4.16 Overall Sustainability of the Rainwater Harvesting System

Sustainability

Dimensions

Core factors to assess the

Sustainability Dimensions

Weightage Allocated

based on

Field

survey

Individual

Cumulativ

e score

Percentage

(100%)

Technical (25) Quantity of water (5) 5 3.3

18.7

74.8

Quality of water (5) 5 4

Accessibility/Time to fetch

water (5)

5 3.6

Reliability/Availability

Months per year(5)

5 3.3

Physical status of the system

(5)

5 4.5

Institutional

(25)

Users‟ committee/Fund

management Committee(5)

5 3.0

17

68

VWASHCC functioning (5) 5 3.5

Trained rainwater harvesters

(5)

5 4.5

Coordination and linkage of

the committees (5)

5 2.5

Transparency on loan

disbursement, other

expenditures, procurement

and repayment of loan (5)

5 3.5

Socio-

environmental

(25)

Water facility to the families

and social equity (5)

5 5

21

84

Improved health status,

improved sanitary practices

and improved hygiene

behaviors (5)

5 3.5

Reduction in women‟s

burden of fetching water,

utilization of saved time in

IG activities, caring children

and their education (5)

5 5

Gender and Social inclusion

in the program (5)

5 4

Environmental aspects and

climate change effects on

RWH systems (5)

5 3.5

Cost Recovery

(25)

Managing O&M fund for the

RWH systems(10)

10 6.5

14.0

56 Managing system

replacement fund (10)

10 5.0

Availability of local fund

and its diversified use (5)

5 2.5

Overall Sustainability Score 70.7

54

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusions

Mainly to “reach the unreached”, government of Nepal and many of the Non

Governmental Organizations are installing Rainwater Harvesting System in various

parts of the country where the water drudgery is pronounced. The installation of RWH

system not only helps individual households to secure their water resources but in the

mean time, also increases the water supply coverage in the nation as envisioned in

national and international policy documents. Mainly this system is in place in the mid

hills of Nepal, where the water sources are located below the settlement and hence has

proved to be viable option for them. Daugha, a mid hill water scarce VDC in Gulmi

District, was the pioneer in installing Rainwater Harvesting System in 1996 with

support from RWSSP/FINNIDA. These installed systems are still intact even after 18

years from its first installation. The aim of this study was to examine the sustainability

of the system in terms of the four key sustainability dimensions; Technical, Socio-

environmental, Cost recovery and Institutional as well as to check how far these

dimensions comply with the sustainability criteria and contribute to overall

sustainability of the system. Various participatory tools and methods were applied in

carrying out the study. These included household level interviews, key informants

interviews, observations, rainwater quality testing at the households and series of

formal and informal interactions with the community people during the field visit.

This study ultimately allowed appraising the level of service to community people

with respect to water supply from the rainwater harvesting systems. The analysis of

the data was done mainly to check the sustainability against each sustainability

dimension and their contribution to overall system‟s sustainability. This initially

examined the changes due to RWH systems on the core factors of each dimension of

sustainability separately and analyzed status of each dimension and its contribution to

the overall sustainability of the system with the help of thus obtained results.

In light of the insights arising from the RWH case study of Daugha VDC, Gulmi, the

thesis infers that the explicit adoption of RWH systems at household level, especially

in the hard hit areas where there are no viable sources in the nearby vicinity to

establish a cost effective water supply system, it can be concluded as below;

Results of the study indicate that the average service level is satisfactory when

seen in terms of key parameters like Quantity, Accessibility, Reliability and

Quality (QARQ).

The rainwater harvesting system has been accepted by the communities as an

appropriate and effective alternative to meet the domestic water demand in the

water scarce areas. The RWH system has been highly appreciated by the

communities as a big relief measure to address the drudgery of fetching water

from long distance especially of the women and school age children. It has

been estimated that the time saved per family per day in Daugha comes to be

around 6.35 hours on average. The above saved time is being utilized in

economic, social and childcare activities by the women.

55

Findings indicate that the people have been able to earn additional income

from various income generation activities. Earning through vegetable

production has been reported in many cases as a result of water availability.

Likewise, earning from goat rearing, poultry, from small business,

employment as daily wage labour and skilled labour are other means of

income from the saved time and energy.

On the sanitation and hygiene front, significant progress was seen in terms of

construction and use of toilets, increased knowledge about the importance of

sanitation and hygiene issues and changes in sanitation and hygiene behavior

in the communities. This is directly seen on decreased cases of water borne

and water washed diseases recoded in the sub health post in the VDC.

The service level in case of RWH systems is just at the very basic level

(almost emergency level service) where quantity is a major nagging issue. The

storage of 4,000-6,000 litres per family is just enough to provide drinking

water for about six months for a family of average 4-5 members.

The sustainability of the RWH system has been tested and found that the

institutional and cost recovery parts of the system remain weaker. Best

utilization of saved time for economic growth through various IG activities

and mobilization of local funds to improve income level of the people seems

lacking behind the expected level. Similarly, capacity and skills of local

people to upgrade and improve their RWH systems have been observed as a

gap.

The other aspect needing action is the planning, implementing and

maintaining of water quality issue. It is important that water quality needs to

be taken into account by the concerned households and the communities. The

water quality test results reveal that there are various ways and possibilities to

pollute stored water in the jars making it questionable for drinking purpose. As

most families consume drinking water after boiling, this has largely taken care

for making drinking water safe.

Loan from the revolving funds for upgrading water storage capacity, mainly

for the poor households has not been seen as very friendly as the payback

period is of just one year and the interest rate of 18% is also higher for the

poor households to pay.

Likewise in sanitation front, findings indicate that some newly built toilets

have been observed in need of repairs mainly because of their very temporary

nature. Daugha VDC is approaching to the stage of declaration of ODF. This

makes sometimes VDC to ignore the quality of structures and their durability

but somehow go for declaration of ODF. Sometimes VDCs even provide

subsidies to build toilets to all households and sometimes they even put

pressure by withholding people‟s administrative support or certification from

the VDC.

56

5.2 Recommendations

In view of the problems identified from the results of the study, the following are

suggested for schemes to function as expected:

I. The water shortage situation (quantity part) in RWH systems could be

addressed by gradual increase of the storage capacity. Additional jars at the

family level could be made through installing;

i) Smaller sized jars like 2000 litres (this largely reduces the net amount

of fund required)

ii) Local availability of the trained rainwater harvesters in order to

facilitate households who can afford themselves to add required

number of jars on a gradual basis

iii) Proper management of the revolving fund at the VDC level to support

families who cannot afford to make jars on their own. An easy pay

back system by reducing the interest rate and also by increasing the

payback period should be established in the VDC.

A wealth ranking method can also be adopted to support poor families,

to upgrade their water storage capacity, through easy loaning system.

iv) Harvesting of other local water sources (tapping mini/small water

sources from nearby vicinity) could be suggested during the wet and

moist season. Ponds and springs are very important traditional sources

for human as well as animal usage. There is an obvious need to protect

them properly.

II. Quality of water is a very essential issue to be taken into account urgently and

properly. A regular surveillance of water quality stored in the jars seems very

important to carry out.

Further the study recommends to carry out an in depth water quality

assessment of the stored rainwater at households so that it could provide user‟s

friendly recommendations to ensure the water quality at Point of Use (PoU)

i.e. various household treatment methods like; boiling, chlorinating, using

SODIS method, WATA, use of bio sand filters etc.

The study should also look at the institutionalization of development and

maintaining the water safety plans at the community level through capacity

building of VWASHCC as a monitoring institution and capacity building of

secondary level schools to conduct regular quality surveillance and to support

families to follow the household treatment methods on a regular basis.

III. Efforts are warranted to enhance the capacity of VWASHCC to ensure

functioning of the schemes and ensure safe drinking water to help families to

be able to carry out regular repair and maintenance works of the systems.

57

IV. IGAs need to be promoted to make the saved time productive through

increased linkages and coordination with concerned district line agencies such

as District Agriculture Office , District office under Department of Cottage

and Small Industries etc.

V. VDCs are seen to play increasingly important roles in the WASH sector,

however, are normally not equipped for such roles. Therefore, the project

implementing agencies should support training events on monitoring and

generating resources for VWASHCCs. This equally applies for Daugha VDC

as well.

VI. School level awareness activities regarding the rainwater harvesting systems

including maintaining its quality should be initiated. The Ministry of

Education should encourage the concerned district education offices to include

this subject in the secondary level school curriculum.

VII. Preparation of simple Nepali written handbook on how to repair and maintain

the RW systems including household level water treatment methods would

help largely the community people to understand and maintain the system.

VIII. GoN policy on RWH should elaborate the support to VDC/VWASHCC in

terms of their capacity development.

58

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61

Annex I: Schematic Diagram of Rainwater Harvesting System

62

Annex II: Required Sample Size by Research Advisors

Confiden

ce =

95.0

%

3.841

459

Confiden

ce =

99.0

%

6.6348

97

Population Size

Probability of

Success

Degree of Accuracy/Margin of

Error

Degree of Accuracy/Margin of

Error

0.5 0.05 0.09 0.025 0.01 0.05 0.09 0.025 0.01

10 10 9 10 10 10 10 10 10

20 19 17 20 20 19 18 20 20

30 28 24 29 30 29 26 30 30

50 44 35 48 50 47 40 49 50

75 63 46 72 74 67 55 73 75

100 80 54 94 99 87 67 96 99

150 108 66 137 148 122 87 142 149

200 132 75 177 196 154 101 186 198

250 152 81 215 244 182 113 229 246

300 169 85 251 291 207 122 270 295

400 196 92 318 384 250 136 348 391

500 217 96 377 475 285 145 421 485

600 234 99 432 565 315 153 490 579

700 248 102 481 653 341 159 554 672

800 260 103 526 739 363 163 615 763

900 269 105 568 823 382 167 672 854

1,000 278 106 606 906 399 170 727 943

1,200 291 108 674 1067 427 175 827 1119

1,500 306 110 759 1297 460 180 959 1376

2,000 322 112 869 1655 498 186 1141 1785

2,500 333 113 952 1984 524 189 1288 2173

3,500 346 115 1068 2565 558 194 1510 2890

5,000 357 116 1176 3288 586 197 1734 3842

7,500 365 117 1275 4211 610 199 1960 5165

10,000 370 117 1332 4899 622 201 2098 6239

25,000 378 118 1448 6939 646 203 2399 9972

50,000 381 118 1491 8056 655 204 2520 12455

75,000 382 118 1506 8514 658 204 2563 13583

100,000 383 118 1513 8762 659 204 2585 14227

250,000 384 119 1527 9248 662 205 2626 15555

500,000 384 119 1532 9423 663 205 2640 16055

1,000,000 384 119 1534 9512 663 205 2647 16317

2,500,000 384 119 1536 9567 663 205 2651 16478

10,000,000 384 119 1536 9594 663 205 2653 16560

100,000,000 384 119 1537 9603 663 205 2654 16584

264,000,000 384 119 1537 9603 663 205 2654 16586

† Copyright, The Research Advisors (2006). All rights reserved.

The recommended sample size for a given population size, level of confidence,

and margin of error appears in the body of the table.

63

For example, the recommended sample size for a population of 1,000,

a confidence level of 99%, and a margin of error (degree of accuracy) of 3.5%

would be 575.

Change these values to select different levels of confidence.

Change these values to select different maximum margins of error.

Change these values to select different (e.g., more precise) population sizes.

64

Annex III: Household Interview Questionnaire

Code NEP-DAUGHA-WARD

No.-……

Cluster Name: RWH Jar Yes/No

Household No.

Latrine Yes/No

Date

Venue

Participants SL Name Age/Yr. Relation Sex

1

2

Total Family

Member

Occupation of

the family

Land holding

size

Average

family income

(yearly)

Livestock Number

Cow Buffalo Goat/ships Poultry Others

Contact

Number

Start Time

Ending Time

Signature of Interviewer:

65

Questions

Q.1: Access to

Water Services

When was this system installed in your house? Month: Year:

Were you able to get sufficient water before the project or

was there acute shortage of water?

Enough water

Acute shortage

Do you get sufficient quantity of water now (from the RWH

system)?

Yes

No

How much water is needed for your family per day (in

liters)?

If rain harvested water is not sufficient, then how many

months it serve for (no. of months)?

Name of the months when you get water from the RWH

system for your domestic needs?

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Where do you go to fetch water in case if there is no water in

the jar (secondary sources name)?

1.

2.

How long it takes to fetch water from the secondary source at

present (one round trip)?

Up to 1 -15 min. 16-30 min 31-60 min 1-2 hrs. 2-3 hrs >3 hrs.

How much time it used to take to fetch water for your family

before installation (one round trip)?

Up to 1 -15 min. 16-30 min 31-60 min 1-2 hrs. 2-3 hrs >3 hrs.

Who was mainly responsible to fetch water in your family

before the project?

Female Male Children

Who is mainly responsible to fetch water presently when

there is no water in the rain jars?

Female Male Children

How is the quality of rainwater in your opinion?

Good

Moderate

Poor

For what purpose you use the collected rainwater?

Drinking Cooking Washing clothes Bathing Cleaning utensils For animal Kitchen garden

How do you rate the level of your satisfaction with RWH

system?

Good Moderate Poor Not satisfied

Do you share the collected rainwater with other

families/people also?

Yes Just for own use Share only rarely

If you share the water, what you take in turn?

Against labor Against money Free

How do you utilize the waste water? Use for

kitchen garden

Use for cattle Throw away

66

Q.2: Access to

Sanitation

Services

Where your family members used to defecate before the project

intervention?

Own Latrine

Shared Latrine

Fields

River side

Bush

Others

Where your family members used to defecate now? Own Latrine Shared Latrine Fields

River side Bush

Others

With what stuff you used to wash your hands after defecation

before the project?

Soap Ash

Sand & Soil Others

No wash

With what stuff you used to wash your hands after defecation

before the project?

Soap Ash

Sand & Soil Others

No wash

How regularly you used to take bath before the project? Everyday Weekly 2/3 times

Once in a week

Once in 15 days

Once in a

month

How regularly you used to take bath now? Everyday Weekly 2/3 times Once in a week Once in 15 days

Once in a

month

How frequently you use rainwater for bathing?

During the rainy season Only Sometime Never

67

Q.3: Effects due

to changes in

WASH

How are the

incidences of

water borne and

water washed

diseases before

and after the

project, at your

family?

Diarroheal cases ( before the project) Frequently Sometime No

Diarroheal cases (after the project)

Frequently Sometime No

Worms related infectious case (before the

project)

Frequently Sometime No

Worms related infectious cases (after the

project)

Frequently Sometime No

Skin related diseases among children (before

project)

Frequently Sometime No

Skin related diseases among children (after

project)

Frequently Sometime No

Others major water borne

diseases:(Dysentery /Cholera

/Jaundice/Typhoid before the project)

Frequently Sometime No

Others major water borne

diseases:(Dysentery /Cholera

/Jaundice/Typhoid after the project)

Frequently Sometime No

How much time

is saved per day

in your house

from fetching

water?

Up to 1 -15 min. 16-30 min 31-60 min 1-2 hrs. 2-3 hrs >3 hrs.

How do you use

saved water

fetching time

now?

Farming (kitchen

gardening)

Small Business

Caring children

Taking rest

Others

Time not

saved

Do you really utilize & earn more money because of the saved time? Yes No

If Yes, how much on average you earn with that utilized time?

Monthly equal to NRS…………

How you utilize the earned money for your family?

Food Cloths Child education Other

When you used to fetch water during the peak season like; during

planting and harvesting time?

Morning Noon Evening Night

Who was mainly responsible to fetch water during night in such busy peak days? Female Male Children

How far the RWH system has been Fully To large extent Moderately Not at all

68

able to address/solve the above

situation of water fetching at night?

How the system has served different

castes or classes and social sections in

the VDC?

Fully on equal basis Equal basis to large extent Partly (have

made few efforts)

Differences do exist

If differences do exist, explain them in

detail

Do you feel any environmental benefits

from RWH system in your area (like;

control in erosion, gulley formation

etc.)? Please explain

In your opinion, how is the effect of

climate change in RWH system (like;

very less or no winter rain, decrease in

rainy days etc.). Please explain

If the system is affected due to the

climate change, then how you manage

your water needs in such a case? Please

explain

Q.N. 4

Financial

Management

aspect

How regularly you do the maintenance

of your RWH system?

On annual basis On two yearly basis

On need basis Others

Q.5 Institutional

Aspect

What main tasks you undertake for the regular maintenance of RWH system?

How much it costs for the regular maintenance of the system and how do you

manage the required fund (source of money)?

Have you added any water storage jar in your house so far? If yes, then how many

of what capacity, please explain?

If you have added some storage jars, then how you managed the required fund for

it (farm income, utilizing saved time, loan from any funds etc.)? Please explain

5.1 Managerial skills

and performance level of

the User‟s committee

(O&M arrangements

including O&M funds)

How is the functioning of User‟s Committee? Good Poor UC does not exist

Does UC meet on a regular basis? Quarterly Half yearly Yearly

69

How the discussed/agreed issues are

implemented?

Promptly on time

Moderately

Poorly

Never

implemented

How the repair and maintenance of the RWH

system takes place and how UC supports to do it?

Please mention briefly?

Is there any funding mechanism to support poor

families to do the maintenance of the existing

system and to add the new jars? If yes how the

fund is managed and how the poor families can

approach it? Please explain.

How do you rate overall functioning of the

committees?

Excellent Very Good

Good

Moderate

Poor

5.2

Locally trained persons

(Rainwater Harvesters‟

performance level and

promptness)

In your view how is the skills/capacity of trained

rainwater Mistries to perform their tasks?

Excellent Very Good

Good

Moderate

Not enough

No use

How do you judge their readiness for work and

the performance level?

Excellent Very Good

Good

Moderate

Not enough

No use

How do you get their services? On wage basis Against some commodity or food stuffs Free service

Others Remark (Based on your long experience, what could be done to make the system sustainable, please advice) :

70

Annex IV: Checklists for the Key Informants Interview

Nep-Daugha-

Ward

No…

Cluster

Name:

RWH Jar Yes/No

House

Symbol:

Toilet Yes/No

Date

Venue

Participant Name Age Sex

Occupation

Family member

Land Holding

Size

Average Annual

Income

Livestock

Number

Cows Buffalos Goat/Ships Poultry Others

Contact Number

(Phone)

Interview Start

Time

Interview End

Time

Signature of Interviewer

1. When the RWH system was implemented in this VDC and how was the water

supply situation before in each ward of this VDC?

2. What do you say about the facility that people of this VDC have received with

implementation of RWH system?

3. How many months do you get water from this system and how do you manage

water for your domestic needs when there is no water in the jars?

4. Who used to be mainly responsible for fetching water before and who is

responsible now when jars become empty?

5. How do you utilize the saved time from fetching water in your family and how do

you see this in other families in the VDC? And how is the trend of utilizing the

wastewater in the families and for what purposes?

6. How do you see the differences in sanitary practices of the people and differences

in incidents of water borne diseases before and after the project in this VDC?

7. As per your knowledge, what is the percentage of household toilets in this VDC

and what percentage would be in proper use?

8. Have the user‟s committee been formed during implementation of this project? If

yes, what is the status of the above UC at present?

71

9. How many rainwater harvesters were trained in this VDC and how is their level of

skills and capacity? How busy they have been in the past years to install the RWH

systems in different places and how is their improved earning level than before?

10. Mention the name of the other projects where you have been involved in

implementation of the system? (ask to RWH Mistries only)

11. How much you earn on average from installing the system in different places,

annually? And for what main purposes you spend that earned money? (children‟s

education, treatments, agriculture and livestock etc.)? ---- (ask to RWH Mistries

only)

12. Do you have any established funds like micro credit funds or revolving finds etc.,

in the VDC, to support poor families to construct additional water storage jars in

their households?

13. How is the trend of O&M of the RWH system in general and what percentage of

the families, in the VDC, have added RW jars in their houses? And, how they

manage the required financial costs for regular O&M and for upgrading the

system?

14. Do you feel any environmental benefits from RWH system in your area (like;

control in erosion, gulley formation etc.)? and how is the effect of climate change

in RWH system (like; very less or no winter rain, decrease in rainy days etc.). If

there is any affect of climate change in the RWH system, then how you manage

your water needs in such a case? Please explain

15. Could you please explain/enumerate the benefits mainly to the women and

children of this VDC due to implementation of the RWH systems at households?

16. Do you think this project has benefited all classes and castes equally in this VDC

or there remains some discrimination among the rich or stronger and poor or

weaker families?

17. Based on your long experience, what key elements need to be considered to make

this system a long term sustainable system for all families of a community?

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Annex V: Sustainability Dimensions and Factors Weightage List (Adopted from WaterAid that uses Multi Criteria Analysis, MCA

method). In MCA method, weightage is given to each sub factor based on the field findings and participatory discussions with the

users.

Sustainability

Dimensions

Total Score (100)

Core Sustainability

Factors

Sustainability Sub factors Score obtained Remarks

Technical (25) Quantity of water (5)

(Using Sphere standard

and the National RWH

standard draft)

* Equal to or > 10 lpcd (5)

* 7-10 lpcd (4)

* 5-7 lpcd (3)

* 3-5 lpcd (2)

* = 3 lpcd (1)

* < 3 lpcd (0)

3.3

Average of 9 wards;

Equal to or > 10 lpcd = 22 Hhs

(21 %)

7-10 lpcd = 6 Hhs (5 %)

5-7 lpcd = 56 Hhs (54 %)

3-5 lpcd = 20 Hhs (19 %)

= 3 lpcd < 3 lpcd

Quality of water (5)

*Good (5)

*Moderate (3)

*Poor (0)

4 (Lies between

good and

moderate)

7 out of total 10 tested parameters

were found to be within the

allowable range whereas, 2

parameters pH and Ammonia

have found violated in some

households, however, that is not

health hazardous. However, the

presence of E-coli in 50

Households out of 104 is a

serious one but most of the

families boil water before its use

73

Accessibility/Time to

fetch water (5)

*<15 minutes per trip (5)

* 16-30 minutes (4)

* 31-45 minutes (3)

* 46-60 minutes (2)

* > 1 hour (1)

3.6 Average of 9 wards;

22 HHs <15 min

6 HHs = 75% <15 min, 25% 1 hour

56 HHs = 50% < 15 min, rest 1 hour

20 HHs = 30% <15 min, rest 1.5 hrs.

Reliability/Availability

Months per year(5)

* 12 months per year (5)

* 9-upto 12 months per year (4)

* 6- up to 9 moths per year (3)

* up to 4- 6 months (2)

* up to 4 months (1)

* < 3 months (0)

3.3 This corresponds with the

available quantity of water

Physical status of the

system (5)

*System intact (5)

*Jars ok but gutters requiring some

repair (4)

*Jars and gutters requiring repairs

(2)

*System not functioning (0)

4.5 Almost all the hoses jars are ok

some of the gutters need minor

adjustments or repair

Institutional (25)

Users‟ committee/Fund

management Committee

(5)

*Existence, functioning, meetings

and record keeping (2 )

*Representation of women in

WUSC (1.5)

* Representation of excluded group

in WUSC (1.5)

*Existence, functioning and

meetings (2)

*Representation of women in

WUSC (1)

* Representation of excluded

group in WUSC (0.5)

VWASHCC functioning

(5)

*VWASHCC in place and active (2)

*Coordinating and leading in the

WASH issues in the VDC (2)

*Systematic record keeping of

VWASHCC(1)

*VWASHCC in place and active

(1.5)

*Coordinating and leading in the

WASH issues in the VDC (1.5)

*Systematic record-keeping of

VWASHCC (0.5)

74

Trained rainwater

harvesters (5)

*Trained rainwater Mistries

sufficient in number (1)

* Trained rainwater mistries

included from the excluded group

also (1)

*Trained mistries promoting RWH

systems regularly (1)

*Quality of work of the trained

mistries(1)

*Trained mistries providing support

in repair and maintenance of the

systems in the VDC timely (1)

*Trained rainwater Mistries

sufficient in number (1)

* Trained rainwater mistries

included from the excluded group

also (1)

*Trained mistries promoting RWH

systems regularly (1)

*Quality of work of the trained

mistries (1)

*Trained mistries providing

support in repair and maintenance

of the systems in the VDC timely

(0.5)

Coordination and linkage

of the committees (5)

*With local authority & other

agencies. Like; Health, Education

and Agriculture line agencies in the

district for necessary diverse

supports (3)

*With other projects at national and

district level to promote WASH (1)

*With other organizations for

capacity building and IG related

activities (1)

*With local authority & other

agencies. Like; Health, Education

and Agriculture line agencies in

the district for necessary diverse

supports (1.5)

*With other projects at national

and district level to promote

WASH (0.5)

*With other organizations for

capacity building and IG related

activities (0.5)

Transparency on loan

disbursement, other

expenditures, procurement

and repayment of loan (5)

*Fund management committee‟s

account operating properly and all

expenditure are kept transparent (2)

*Loan from the fund is sanctioned

*Fund management committee‟s

account operating properly and all

expenditure are kept transparent

(2)

Interaction

with the

WUSC

75

based on set criteria (1)

*Repayment of loan is not disturbed

and smoothly running (1)

*75-100 % beneficiaries aware of

the fund (1)

*Loan from the fund is sanctioned

based on set criteria (1)

*Repayment of loan is not

disturbed and smoothly running

(0.5)

*75-100% beneficiaries aware of

the fund (0)

members, users

plus checking

all expenditure

bills,

quotations and

vouchers.

Social (25) Water facility to the

families and social equity

(5)

* RWH Systems running properly in

all households (2)

* Equal access to the RWH facility

by all social sections (2)

* No discrimination to poor and

dalits in provision of RWH systems

(1)

*RWH Systems running properly

in all households (2)

* Equal access to the RWH facility

by all social sections (2)

* No discrimination to poor and

dalits in provision of RWH

systems (1)

Improved health status,

improved sanitary

practices and improved

hygiene behaviors (5)

*Improved awareness about

sanitation and hygiene in the

community (1)

*Household toilets and ODF status

(2)

*Hand washing practice with soap at

critical times (2)

*Improved awareness about

sanitation and hygiene in the

community (1)

*Household toilets and ODF status

(1.5)

*Hand washing practice with soap

at critical times (1)

Reduction in women‟s

burden of fetching water,

utilization of saved time in

IG activities, caring

children and their

education (5)

*Women‟s time and energy saved

from the burden of fetching water

(2)

*Women‟s rest/sleep hours during

the night have increased (1)

*Women involved in IG and other

*Women‟s time and energy saved

from the burden of fetching water

(2)

*Women‟s rest/sleep hours during

the night have increased (1)

*Women involved in IG and other

76

social activities (1)

*Women giving more time to take

care of their children and themselves

(1)

social activities (1)

*Women giving more time to take

care of their children and

themselves (1)

Gender and Social

inclusion in the program

(5)

*Inclusion of all social groups

(including DAG, rich and poor) in

decision making about RWH (2)

*Inclusion of both male and female

in decision making about RWH (1)

*Inclusive selection of rainwater

harvesting trainees (Mistries) from

all social groups and all trained

equally (1)

*No discrimination to disabled

families, female headed families and

pro poor families regarding the

RWH facilities (1)

*Inclusion of all social groups

(including DAG, rich and poor) in

decision making about RWH (1.5)

*Inclusion of both male and

female in decision making about

RWH (0.5)

*Inclusive selection of rainwater

harvesting trainees (Mistries) from

all social groups and all trained

equally (1)

*No discrimination to disabled

families, female headed families

and pro poor families regarding

the RWH facilities (1)

Environmental aspects

and climate change effects

on RWH systems (5)

*Awareness of communities

regarding the environmental benefits

of RWH (1)

*Awareness of communities

regarding climate change effects to

the RWH systems (2)

*Adaptation practices of

communities against climatic

consequences (2)

*Awareness of communities

regarding the environmental

benefits of RWH (1)

*Awareness of communities

regarding climate change effects to

the RWH systems (1)

*Adaptation practices of

communities against climatic

consequences (1.5)

77

Cost Recovery (25) Managing O&M fund for

the RWH systems (10)

*Utilization of saved time to earn

money for O&M purpose through

agriculture activities (3)

*Utilization of saved time to earn

money for O&M purpose through

small business/cottage industries (3)

*Utilization of saved time to earn

money for O&M purpose through

wage labor (3)

*Getting loan from the revolving

fund and repayment of it on time (1)

*Utilization of saved time to earn money for

O&M purpose through agriculture activities

(2)

*Utilization of saved time to earn money for

O&M purpose through small

business/cottage industries (2)

*Utilization of saved time to earn money for

O&M purpose through wage labor (2)

*Getting loan from the revolving fund and

repayment of it on time (0.5)

Managing system

replacement fund (10)

*Utilization of saved time to earn

money for O&M purpose through

agriculture activities (3)

*Utilization of saved time to earn

money for O&M purpose through small

business/cottage industries (3)

*Utilization of saved time to earn

money for O&M purpose through wage

labor (3)

*Getting loan from the revolving fund

and repayment of it on time (1)

*Utilization of saved time to earn money

for O&M purpose through agriculture

activities (1.5)

*Utilization of saved time to earn money

for O&M purpose through small

business/cottage industries (1)

*Utilization of saved time to earn money

for O&M purpose through wage labor

(1.5)

*Getting loan from the revolving fund

and repayment of it on time (0.5)

Availability of local fund

and its diversified use (5)

*Establishment of revolving fund and

its management (2)

*Transparency (1)

*Use of revolving fund for various

purposes at the VDC level (2)

*Establishment of revolving fund and its

management (1)

*Transparency (0.5)

*Use of revolving fund for various

purposes at the VDC level (1)

78