This document discusses solutions for increasing access to safe drinking water in India through rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge projects. It proposes that small-scale, community-led projects utilizing traditional knowledge and materials can effectively and inexpensively provide water. Business partnerships supporting training and funding for these projects could help spread their benefits while aligning with social and business priorities. The document concludes by outlining specific roles businesses and donors could play to help scale up these solutions.

1. AGRICULTURE & WATER
SDI-13 14/4
Water and community development:
Rainwater harvesting and ground-
water recharge
A sustainable approach to human development at the global level
Robert Davies, International Business Leaders Forum & Bunker Roy, The Barefoot College, Rajasthan, India
The following is based on a briefing paper prepared for a seminar hosted by The Prince of Wales International Business
Leaders Forum (IBLF) in December 2004. The paper aims to present some ideas and practical applications with regards to
rainwater harvesting in India and other countries as well as public-private partnerships that can make a critical difference
to one of the greatest global challenges – access to safe drinking water.
New world economy
India is a fast growing market for
consumer goods, technology and global
investment. According to investment
bank Morgan Stanley (in “New Tigers
of Asia”) the rise of India is tipped to
become one of the most important
economic forces in the world and the
worlds largest economy. According to
research firm IDC (India Brand Equity
Foundation), India will also be one of the
three leading IT markets in the Asia
Pacific. But at the same time it has a
major social challenge of poverty, where
business can play a key role in tackling
this serious task along with community
based partners. Increasingly business
is looking for ways to develop their Figure 1. Lack of adequate management leads to poor allocation of resources.
business relationships, reputation and
community engagement, aligned to Most Indians have extremely limited rainwater harvesting, ground-water
the social priorities of the new and unreliable access to what they need recharge and small-scale urban
Indian Congress Government and their most. Around three-quarters of the sanitation.
Common Minimum Programme where population have no public sanitary There can also be a greater part for
their commitment to rural development facilities (such as toilets). They decentralised solar power to meet basic
is one of their highest priorities. experience a daily crisis. Many even die needs. According to the UK Financial
Many national and international from it: microbes in their drinking Times Supply and demands, rainwater
companies have both direct and indirect water kill every year more than one harvesting and community
interests in, and impacts on, water in million Indian children. 700 million empowerment projects are one of the
their products and processes water people still living in villages, and the most hopeful and cost effective
treatment, purification, products that 200 million or so who constitute the solutions to water crisis whose solutions
require water, and water infrastructure urban poor lack access to safe water and have eluded Governments and
and can benefit from practical, down to sanitation. The United Nations claims development agencies for decades
earth partnerships to channel resources, each person needs 30 to 50 litres a day because they have not taken it seriously
skills and goodwill to meet the for their needs.
development challenge. It is our belief that something very Meeting needs with
Access to water for drinking and practical and inexpensive can and intelligent solutions
sanitation is a central target in the UN should be done involving corporations There are many approaches to water
Millennium Development Goals (Target and donors, where the impact is felt access but rural and remote areas have
10: to halve by 2015 the proportion of immediately on women and children distinct challenges and opportunities.
people without safe access to drinking with a high impact on life expectancy One solution already tested is Rooftop
water). The stark fact is that in India and health and where the partnership Rainwater harvesting, which is a well
80 per cent of the population simply can be sustainable. They can enter established traditional approach over
lacks access to safe drinking water, but community partnerships for water hundreds of years, collecting natural
helping solve this problem may not be access, using time tested, low cost, rainfall and channelling it into
such an impossible task. decentralised methods for roof top underground tanks that can store and
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WATER & SANITATION
provide safe water for daily needs for materials. The financial accounts for the Why does business have an
weeks and months. projects are sometimes painted in large
The other low cost complementary columns of figures on the school walls.
interest in access to water?
solution is ground water recharge. By This demonstrates transparently the The answers are not complicated.
constructing small dams across dry costs, and where the money went to, Investors need to demonstrate practical
tributaries and riverbeds and allowing thus tackling the notorious corruption concern with one of India’s key
the rainwater collected to percolate, that has come in the way of large public problems. Companies cannot prosper in
it is possible to replenish wells and infrastructure projects. consumer markets that lack safe water
aquifers. By channelling surface and suffer from attendant health
rainwater into unused and dry open problems. Markets grow better in areas
By channelling surface well served with water and with
wells some several hundred feet
deep, it is possible to revitalise the rainwater into unused and dry open healthier consumers. Many
thousands of dry hand pumps wells some several hundred feet deep, it companies have direct experience
and traditional open wells for is possible to revitalise the thousands of of water as a factor in production,
irrigation. Local people can be and are major industrial users of
trained to repair or maintain their dry hand pumps and traditional precious water supplies that demand
own hand pumps. open wells for irrigation. a sustainable approach. Some are in the
With the onset of so-called modern water business and benefit from diverse
and large, if expensive and often To date there are many projects approaches to meeting needs in poor
unreliable, public water infrastructure starting up, offering water at a fraction urban and rural communities.
projects and technology, rainwater of the cost of water sellers and out of They can make a difference through
harvesting in the main became scale water infrastructure projects. In entering practical partnerships offering
unfashionable in public policy. It is being addition to the pioneering work of the a sustainable approach that is scalable.
reintroduced on a local scale across a Barefoot College, the Jal Bhagirathi Philanthropic funds can be made more
wide area by the Barefoot College in Foundation, Tarun Bharat Sangh, Wells effective, bringing long-term returns to
Tilonia, Rajasthan, under the leadership for India and work of organisations communities.
of Bunker Roy where a model approach such as WaterAid, together with How can business help?
to roof top rainwater harvesting with the hygiene education work of
Business can contribute by partnering
community empowerment has been organisations such as Arpana, are
projects at the location or area of
developed and is being replicated more engaged in many projects.
factories, plants and offices, as part
widely. Roofs of schools and community What is needed to spread the vision,
of market entry or new investments
buildings are adapted to catch the provide technical assistance and training
in India, as part of community
infrequent and precious rainwater and for Barefoot engineers and builders, to
programmes, or as an extension of
channel it to underground tanks built in provide low cost finance for projects and
employee engagement or philanthropic
the foundations. Traditional knowledge, materials. A typical roof top rainwater-
programmes. The potential role for
local materials and community skills harvesting project in a remote rural
business and donors is on four levels:
have been applied in the construction of school to collect 100,000 litres would
these tanks by Barefoot architects and cost a one-time investment of less than • Entering partnerships with
this has given the community a sense of $10,000. This would provide drinking community organisations providing
ownership. In turn this brings a water to about 40 children and cost effective and high return
substantial community contribution in functioning toilets in a school for more donations to support the development
voluntary labour, supervision and raw than five months in a drought region. of roof top rainwater harvesting;
• Providing project funds for rainwater
harvesting projects at the village level;
• Providing funding to support training
in hand-pump maintenance and
technical assistance to spread the
methods and techniques more widely;
• Supporting decentralised sanitation
and drinking water projects.
Other areas of businesses involvement
include companies engaging staff in
direct support through fundraising,
project visits and, where possible,
technical support. Development funds
can also be established to help channel
resources for innovation and
replication.
Summary of seminar
conclusions
The International Business Leaders
Forum workshop held at Clarence
House in December 2004 included
Figure 2. Shared water resources engage community participation.
participants from organisations as
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3. SDI-13 14/4
WATER & SANITATION
diverse as Alcan, Shell International,
Coca-Cola,WaterAid, GlaxoSmithKline
and Wells for India and community
leaders from Rajasthan UNDP and
UNICEF. Each made a variety of
commitments to help and agreed with
the following conclusions:
• Community-based solutions to
water challenges, which draw upon
local knowledge and skills and
utilise traditional, low-cost and low-
technology techniques;
• Local ownership over projects,
facilitated by consultation with local
communities to give them an
emotional and where possible,
financial stake in project success; Figure 3. HRH, The Prince of Wales with Robert Davies and Bunker Roy.
• Reducing local dependency by
involving local authorities and villages Participants also identified a • Promotion of the business case
for why companies should get
at ‘planning’ as well as doing stages of need for: involved in the water issue.
project and programme development,
• Good examples of projects and
and empowering local people by Our view is simple, the above makes
partnerships, as well as opportunities
providing them with the skills clear that there is much that business
to see these examples in practice and
required to sustain projects over the and donors can do and by choosing to
to learn from, evaluate and understand
long term; accept the challenge facing them, a
the business model that drives them;
• Integrating issues by merging the solution to the provision of clean water
• Strong policy and regulatory for India and other countries could be
concept of rainwater harvesting with
frameworks that recognise the close at hand. Following the workshop,
broader issue of watershed management
interests of everyone involved (such as the feasibility of these ideas will
and, similarly, analysing water access and
control of excess groundwater use of be explored further, and IBLF will
sanitation issues in terms of wider
deep well digging) and take into facilitate greater business engagement
implications for health, education and
account the views and needs of civil in solutions and partnerships.
energy (for example);
society;
• Training and capacity building
• Analysis of finance implications.
need to be delivered at the community
How do you access funding for a
level using organisations with grass
project? What role should village and
roots credibility to facilitate replication
municipal finances play?
of projects;
• Multilateral partnerships that draw ABOUT THE AUTHORS ENQUIRIES
upon the core competencies of
Robert Davies is the founder Chief Executive International Business Leaders Forum
all partners involved, and include
Officer of The Prince of Wales International Tel: +44 (0)20 7467 3600
mechanisms for monitoring successes/
Business Leaders Forum, and has lead its activities E-mail: robert.davies@iblf.org
failures, managing conflicts and
maintaining relationships in the long since 1990 with global corporations promoting Web site: www.iblf.org
term; responsible business practices globally to benefit
business and society. In turn this is helping to Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective
• The private sector to be part of
achieve social, economic and environmentally E-mail: bunker@vsnl.com
the solution rather than the problem
bringing core competences, contributing sustainable development, particularly in new and Web site: www.globalrainwaterharvesting.org
funding mechanisms and adopting emerging market economies. The IBLF currently
projects within the areas of their has over 80 corporate members and is active in For more information on rainwater harvesting and
facilities and operations; partnerships for development in over 50 countries. how to help through funding or direct involvement
• Using schools, which provide both Bunker Roy has been living and working in the see www.globalrainwaterharvesting.org or
a symbolic starting point (because small village of Tilonia for the last 34 years.The www.iblf.org/water.
they are public buildings) and an
Barefoot College which he started is the only
environment for pushing concepts
College in India built by the rural poor for the rural
and technologies as an integrated part
poor. The idea was to identify the poorest of the
of learning in the curricula, as the
focus for projects; poor unemployed and unemployable youth from
remote villages who are cop outs, wash outs and
• Funding mechanisms need to be
drop outs and train them to be competent and
explored that enable projects to be
scaled, with more precise financial confident “barefoot” water and solarengineers,
costings and specifications and a teachers, doctors, communicators, architects and
variety of approaches to pay back computer programmers. The barefoot approach
including micro-credit, community has been replicated in 13 States of India.
contributions etc.
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