Urban populations in cities all over the world are expanding rapidly, placing enormous pressure on urban services such as safe drinking water, sanitation and food production. Municipalities are therefore facing challenges to meet the increasing demands in their cities. Our approach on Urban Water Management supports you to unlock the full potential of rainwater to complement your current water supplies in urban areas by combining low-cost rainwater harvesting solutions with recycling of excess and wastewater. We help you store and revolve water though a 5R approach (Recharge, Retention, Reuse, Reduce and Recycle) leading to increased access to water for multiple uses - from drinking water to agricultural production.
The success of urban water management depends on the level of multi-stakeholder cooperation. At the beginning of a project we therefore help you bring together all relevant stakeholders, including representatives of the local government, community groups, schools and businesses. Having an overview of the needs and capacities of these stakeholders, enables us to give you advice on their specific roles and responsibilities in your project.
We help you to assess the potential of 5R in your city based on its hydrology, rainfall and socioeconomic characteristics. This assessment leads to a selection of the most appropriate 5R technologies and an overview of sites where these can be installed. We support you to develop a plan on how to implement these technological interventions and put in place systems that reduce and recycle (waste) water for productive use in neighborhoods and institutions such as schools and office buildings.
Integrating training and capacity building activities in your urban water management plan is a guiding principle in our approach. Organizations should be capacitated to promote and share information on the 5R approach in their cities and towards their stakeholders. This can also function as a social marketing tool, increasing demand for 5R solutions. We offer specific training programs on Recharge, Retention, Reuse, Reduce and Recycle of rainwater.
To make your urban water management plans financially sustainable, we provide financial and business development advice to attract the right financing, develop low-cost financing mechanisms and develop business plans for 5R interventions. Based on a financial assessment, we can help you, for example, to develop mechanisms to mobilize loans through microfinance institutions, or to set up a business.
Regular monitoring helps to continuously improve your urban water management program. Through our vast expertise and experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning we offer custom-made advice on the monitoring framework and Theories of Change of your project or program. We also provide practical guidance on how to implement this framework and include a learning cycle approach.
We can support you to make optimal use of the water in your city by using innovative 5R techniques that will increase resilience to climate change and support sustainable economic development:
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nepal
In the densely populated Surkhet district in the North West of Nepal local governments are facing an increasing demand for water. RAIN, a brand of Aidenviroment, supported these municipalities and their local partners to address this challenge with selecting innovative 5R solutions, whilst raising awareness on the opportunities of water buffering and recycling in urban areas. For example in the small town of Birendranagar we supported local NGO ENPHO to successfully apply 5R to unlock unused water resources in a sustainable way. After bringing the relevant stakeholders in the town together, we helped them to assess the potential for 5R in the city and to select sites where 5R could be successfully applied. At each site we supported the partners to set up demonstration centers where 5R technologies could be implemented. In a newly built toilet block at a school, rooftop rainwater harvesting systems were installed that could store 10.000 liters of water which could be use for drinking and hand washing, recharging ground water and agricultural purposes in the school garden. At the same time, ENPHO could use the demonstration centers for promoting and raising awareness on 5R in the city, leading to increased demand for 5R technologies. To meet this growing demand, we supported another partner, Environment Development Society (EDS) to develop a micro-finance mechanism enabling households to acquire Rainwater Harvest systems for drinking and productive water.
For more information, please contact Aidenvironment:
info@aidenvironment.org
© 2015 AIDENVIRONMENT - RAIN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED