Financing Domestic Rainwater Harvesting in the Caribbean

Abstract

Domestic rainwater harvesting (DRWH), an old technology, is playing a key role in meeting some objectives of the UN "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" and building resilience to climate change, particularly in the Caribbean. DRWH projects can be implemented through self-financing, government subsidies, and micro-financing or by external agencies. Most recent promotion initiatives of DRWH have emphasized funding by external agencies, often ignoring the potential financial contributions of beneficiaries. Regional experiences have shown that, generally, the high initial capital costs for DRWH systems is a major constraint. However, in some cases, success in DRWH is possible through self-financing. This study reviews the experiences of some DRWH projects or by external agencies to determine a suitable financing mechanism. This paper shows that households can self-finance DRWH systems if payments are based on 5% of household income and interest rates are less than 5%, It concludes that the product/business cycle pattern of development adequately describes the development of DRWH in some parts of the Caribbean. It is recommended that such a model should be considered in designing DRWH projects through strategic partnerships of the beneficiaries with between local and international NGOs, community based organisations and domestic financial institutions like credit unions.

Sustainable Development Goal 11 and a New Urban Agenda for Caribbean Small Island Developing States: Policy, Practice, and Action

“…Another required step to address service interruptions is the enforcement of planning regulations that mandate households to build cisterns as a supplementary water supply source as obtains in some water scarce Caribbean SIDS (Aladenola et al, 2016). Encouragement of informal and formal urban households to practice rainwater harvesting will also effectively reduce demands on water authorities and improve service reliability (Peters, 2017;Gohar et al, 2019). Additionally, implementation of metering and increasing block tariffs to reduce consumer wastage and improve reliability are recommended.…”

Opportunities for Transforming Informal Settlements in Caribbean Small Island Developing States

“…Some counties have a long history of self-financing domestic rainwater harvesting (DRWH). DRWH encourages incremental improvement of household and community water supply by facilitating user investment over time [21]. Engineering education should promote DRWH projects, which are easily replicable with the use of affordable technologies [21].…”

“…DRWH encourages incremental improvement of household and community water supply by facilitating user investment over time [21]. Engineering education should promote DRWH projects, which are easily replicable with the use of affordable technologies [21]. DRWH systems are also easy to maintain by informal communities in comparison to conventional piped water supply systems.…”

Urban Stormwater Characterization, Control and Treatment

“…Economics and ecosystem services. Economic benefit is one of the determinants of the feasibility of rainwater harvesting and high initial capital cost is a major constraint for rainwater harvesting (Peters, 2017;Gao et al 2017). The economic viability of rainwater harvesting depends on the balance between the fixed investment, operation and maintenance costs of the system, payback period, the public water supply cost savings and other indirect benefits.…”