Better, faster, cheaper: research into roofwater harvesting for water supply in low income countries

The water situation in many low-income countries is grim. More than one billion people have no access to clean drinking water and those that do often spend considerable time walking and queuing to collect it. Many water professionals are becoming worried about the increasingly difficult problems of finding and improving water sources while some existing water sources are now becoming depleted or polluted. Domestic roofwater harvesting (DRWH) provides an innovative solution to meeting water needs and can be implemented quickly and modularly. It is also very robust against risks of unexpected change. Renewed interest in the technology is reflected in the water policies of many developing countries, where it is increasingly being cited as a useful source of household water. This paper brings together a number of findings from two studies into DRWH by the Development Technology Unit of the University of Warwick and its partners the Lanka Rainwater Association, FAKT Germany, The Rural Development and Appropriate Technology Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, ACORD Uganda and Water Action in Ethiopia. The results presented here are a summary of a number of papers being presented at IRCSA 11, Mexico City.