Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) technology continues to be highly recommended as a potential solution to deal with water scarcity in developed as well as developing countries such as India and includes various methods such as Rooftop rainwater harvesting (RRWH), surface runoff collection, flood runoff harvesting, and in-situ RWH.
Among these, the rooftop rainwater harvesting technique is commonly adopted at the domestic level by installing RWH systems informs this paper titled 'New technology adoption in rural areas of emerging economies: The case of rainwater harvesting systems in India' published in Technological Forecasting & Social Change.
RWH technologies have multiple economic, environmental and societal benefits and can minimise the reliance on fresh water sources such as rivers, lakes and ground water and help in conserving water resources while preventing water stress. Diverting the rainwater falling on the roofs into a storage tank also helps in preventing soil erosion as the runoff volume is controlled indirectly. The stored water can be used at the household level as well as for agriculture and irrigation depending on the quality of collected water.
Rainwater harvesting technologies across the globe include Centralised Rainwater Harvesting (CRH) and De-centralised rainwater harvesting (DRH) technologies. In the case of CRH, a common storage tank is constructed for a group of dwellings, while separate collection barrels are used in the case of DRH. Although CRH has the potential to meet a significant part of the water demand, its high costs have made DRH technologies more popular. Harvested water is free from contaminants and salinity, potable and serves as an economically viable solution where the water tariff is high. RWH systems can also aid in reducing the risk of floods.
Despite of the associated benefits with RWHS technology, its uptake continues to be limited in rural India. and there is very little information on the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that can help in the adoption of RWH technology in rural India.
The present study aimed at exploring:
The study used focus group discussions involving local stake holders, scientific experts and policy makers and included a survey with experts who had a minimum of 10 years' experience in implementing RWH technologies in rural India was conducted.
India has taken several policy initiatives to promote water harvesting. For example, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), launched in year 2015, aims to promote rainwater harvesting to prevent water scarcity . Similarly, the Jal Shakti Abhiyan started in 2019, promotes the construction of rainwater harvesting systems. The National Water Policy 2021 also encourages the State Governments to create state-level implementation plans to promote the implementation of rainwater harvesting systems.
However, the laws and policies have been formalised by only a few states. In some cases, the byelaws are confined to few buildings as they make it mandatory only for buildings with rooftop area above 300 m2. This threshold is substantially high for rural dwellings, which prevents their inclusion within the remit of these byelaws. Thus, it is important to explore factors that can help in promoting wider adoption of RWH systems and help in formulating and refining current policy.
The study identifies eight critical success factors (CSFs) that promote the adoption of RWH technologies in rural India. These include:
The study develops a new roadmap/ action plan to promote the adoption of RWH technologies in rural areas. The proposed roadmap includes critical components that are derived from the CSFs and include steps such as: