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Access to safe water supply has great influence on the health, economic productivity and quality of life of the people. But meeting this need is one of the major challenges facing the rural communities of Nigeria today. The purpose of this review paper is to determine whether water supply have contributed effectively to health, social, and cultural development of Nigerian rural communities. Over 70% of households in rural communities do not have access to improved water supply. They rely solely on self-water supply (free source) such as rivers, perennial streams, water ponds and unprotected wells which is susceptible to water borne diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, malaria parasites etc. These rural populations are engaged in farming activities with low income level living in small scattered settlements thus, making provision of piped water supply very difficult. Governments’ interventions towards rural water supply have been through the provision of hand-operated boreholes and wells. These sources yield little or no water during the dry season and are prone to frequent breakdown; leading water crisis and shortages. This situation forces households especially the women and children to spend more time walking longer distances during the dry season to trot water for domestic purposes. Given the fact that the publicly operated water supply have not been able to cope with increasing demand, there is a need for a paradigm shift from the public monopoly of water supply to an innovative approach. Rainwater harvesting technology appears to be one of such alternative approaches

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is an economical small-scale technology that has the potential to augment safe water supply with least disturbance to the environment, especially in the drier regions. In Nigeria, less than half of the population has reasonable access to reliable water supply. This study in northeastern Nigeria determined the rate of water consumption and current water sources before estimating the amount of rainwater that can potentially be harvested. A survey on 200 households in four villages namely, Gayama, Akate, Sidi and Sabongari established that more than half of them rely on sources that are susceptible to drought, i.e. shallow hand-dug wells and natural water bodies, while only 3% harvest rainwater. Taraba and Gombe states where the villages are located have a mean annual rainfall of 1,064 mm and 915 mm respectively. Annual RWH potential per household was estimated to be 63.35 m 3 for Taraba state and 54.47 m 3 for Gombe state. The amount could meet the water demand for the village of Gayama although the other three villages would have to supplement their rainwater with other sources. There is therefore sufficient rainwater to supplement the need of the rural communities if the existing mechanism and low involvement of the villagers in RWH activities could be improved.

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