Nepal
RAIN is a non-governmental organisation based in the Netherlands. RAIN works
across Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia RAIN collaborates with
partners in Nepal.
“Rainwater harvesting has built my
confidence and health.”
– Nepalese proverb
Nepal is one of the most water-abundant countries in
the world, with an average annual rainfall between 1500
and 3000 millimetres. Nevertheless, Nepal faces severe
water challenges hampering economic development
and poverty alleviation. Nearly 85 percent of the annual
rainfall falls during the monsoon months from June to
September. In this period, there is an overabundance
of water resulting in floods in the low-lying areas and
landslides in the hilly and mountainous areas. During the
dry months, springs slowly dry up and recede more and
more downstream, leading to severe shortages of water
both in urban and rural areas. Predictions for Nepal show
a general trend towards more extreme climatic events,
with even more intense rainfall during shorter time
periods as well as prolonged periods of drought.
Increased pressure on and competition over water
resources coupled with erratic rainfall has made the
daily struggle for water challenging. Water, agriculture,
forests and biodiversity predominantly sustain people’s
livelihoods in Nepal – and these resources are under
serious threat due to climate change. People largely
depend on rain-fed agriculture and the disastrous effects
of droughts, flooding and landslides greatly affect
livelihoods and the country’s development.
However, the country has tremendous water potential.
The challenge is to retain as much water as possible
within the short rainy period. Better water management
and effective storage of rainwater can overcome water
scarcity and pressure on water resources and provide
water for both domestic and productive use, like
agriculture.
RAIN in Nepal
RAIN’s projects in Nepal are mainly situated in the rural
hilly areas where conventional means of water supply
are not feasible. These projects are
all about resourcefulness:
harvesting rain for multiple
purposes like drinking,
agriculture and biogas;
boosting income
generating activities;
and increasing local
ownership by providing
microcredit instead of
subsidies. This leads to the
empowerment of people, allowing
them to better manage their own water
resources. In addition to implementing water
harvesting systems in areas under severe water stress,
RAIN and its partners work on developing financially and
institutionally more sustainable programmes. By building
partnerships with banks and microfinance institutes,
by working with local entrepreneurs and through
the development of water management
planning tools, RAIN and its partners
have substantially increased the
uptake of water harvesting
in Nepal.
Kathmandu
Water for the environment & ecosystems
RAIN, together with its partner HELVETAS Swiss
Intercooperation Nepal, developed a water planning
guideline based on an approach called WUMP+3R.
The Water Use Master Plan (WUMP), as developed
by HELVETAS, is a holistic planning tool that focuses
on the planning and allocation of water resources
based on the decisions made by local communities
and governments. It is a participatory and transparent
planning tool that empowers communities and
enhances accountability. Integrating the 3R approach
(Recharge, Retention and Re-use) in the WUMP allows
local communities and governments to make more
informed decisions at catchment level, placing an
emphasis on water harvesting solutions.
3R stands for the Recharge, Retention and Reuse of water.
It covers the broad process of retaining and intercepting
rainwater and runoff, conserving it in the soil and allowing
it to percolate and refill the underground water table.
Groundwater can be extracted with different techniques
and retained in above-ground and below-ground tanks.
Households and communities can easily reach and reuse this retained water in dry periods. The improved
soil moisture regenerates and conserves the landscape,
benefitting both the farmers as well as the environment. For
more information go to www.bebuffered.com.
Water for health
RAIN has been implementing and promoting sustainable
WASH services in Nepal for over ten years. RAIN and local
partners have constructed rainwater harvesting systems
at schools, community centres and households, and they
have organised trainings on hygiene and sanitation. By
ensuring safe access to water at the doorstep, families
do not have to spend time fetching water and are less
exposed to the dangers such activities pose on the steep
hills in Nepal. The rainwater harvesting systems not only
provide water for consumption, but also for washing,
kitchen gardening and biogas production, which in turn
supports healthy livelihoods. Nepal Water for Health
(NEWAH) is a long trusted partner of RAIN, working
actively on improving WASH service delivery to rural
communities.
Multiple Use water Services (MUS) is an
approach that meets people’s domestic and productive
needs while making the most efficient use of water
resources. The approach takes into account different
water sources and their quality, quantity, reliability
and distance from point of use. A MUS approach can be
used to plan a new water service or to upgrade existing
domestic or irrigation services. For more information go to
www.musgroup.net.
Water for food & agriculture
RAIN promotes the use of rainwater harvesting to
improve agricultural production and food security. RAIN
and Biogas Sector Partnership (BSP) in Nepal showed that
combining different rainwater harvesting systems can
generate more crops and thus a higher income for rural
families. For example, a toilet connected to a biogas plant
will generate clean energy and fertilizer. Similarly, the
combination of a rainwater harvesting tank and a pond
will lead to water for both domestic and productive use.
Surface runoff ponds have been implemented by BSP and
HELVETAS. These ponds are equipped with drip irrigation
systems to create more water efficiency and therefore
increased agricultural production.
Water for financial sustainability
Microfinance offers promising opportunities to financially
enable more projects to take place. As people use
rainwater for productive purposes, they generate income
and therefore contribute to local development. People are
able to repay small loans as their agricultural production
increases, making microcredit an affordable alternative to
make projects less dependent on external donor funding.
Together with BSP, RAIN developed and implemented
rainwater harvesting projects including microfinance
opportunities. Current experiences show that farmers are
able to repay their loans within three years. Microfinance
has proven to be an effective solution to sustainably
finance a rainwater harvesting project and to create local
ownership. Currently, RAIN is scaling up these practices.
RAIN: our role and services
We aim to make our approaches and processes easy
to understand, scalable to other areas and we provide
a platform for knowledge exchange, generating ideas
through discussions and sharing. We bring together
various actors under our Rain-for-Food community of
practice. The evidence generated from our own and our
partners’ projects is the strength of such a knowledge and
sharing platform.
Implementation
RAIN has extensive experience
in programme and project
management in the field of water
harvesting and buffering. We
have implemented programmes
and projects in various countries
in East and West Africa as well
as Southeast Asia. Our strength
lies in our local and international
partner network and our handson experience in applying unique
approaches to rainwater harvesting.
RAIN actively promotes the 3R and
MUS approaches in which rainwater
harvesting plays a key role. Our
experience, network, expert
knowledge and skills have proven
to be valuable to international
programmes and projects on
rainwater harvesting.
We would like to grow our partnership and increase
collaboration with you. We welcome you to contact us for
experience sharing, programme design and development;
technical assistance through consultancy; and (joint)
project implementation.
Intelligence
RAIN provides knowledge
management services that link
information and theory with
practice and people. Drawing on
our experience in implementing and
advising on rainwater harvesting
technologies and programmes
in various countries, we deliver
knowledge products and provide
knowledge sharing activities such
as workshops, training courses
and webinars. Regular discussion
and collaboration with experts and
partners in our extended network
allow us to keep our expertise fully
up to date as well as spread new
ideas and innovative practices.
Contact us
RAIN
Barentszplein 7
1013 NJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Telephone: +31 (0)20 58 18 250
info@rainfoundation.org
www.rainfoundation.org
Advice
RAIN’s consultancy services
support programmes from the field
level to the institutional level. We
help to integrate the technical,
institutional and social aspects of
water harvesting and buffering,
from project and programme
design to technical advice at the
landscape level as well as strategic
advice and capacity building. We
use approaches like 3R, MUS and
landscape approaches, all based
on environmental sustainability
principles. Our programme advice
is practical and geared towards
results. We help project officers
and management staff to translate
programme objectives into tangible
actions and outputs.