Rainwater harvesting/WASH Environmental Sustainability Assessment

In both rural and urban contexts, the quality of life of local communities largely depends on a functioning ecosystem. Water, land and other resources are all part of a single ecosystem, whose components cannot be dealt with separately. WASH interventions always affect the ecosystem and vice versa. This is why it is important to make your WASH project environmentally sustainable.

How do I make my WASH project environmentally sustainable?
These three steps will provide information on how you can make your WASH project environmentally more sustainable. We are working on an assessment tool that will be added at a later stage.

Step I: Assess

WASH projects require a thorough assessment of the catchment and the people living in it. Map the catchment and all issues related to water resources, waste flows, ecosystem services, diseases and the upstream-downstream connection between communities. Gather data on ecosystem services, climate change effects, water recharge and retention potential, community-ecosystem relationship, and biodiversity. Ask yourself questions such as: Where does the water in my well flow from and where does the waste from my latrine go? What are the characteristics of the local ecosystem? Which water resources and waste flows are present in the area? And, is there a prevalence of water-borne diseases in the area?

Step II: Analyse

Once you have mapped your area, its resources and people’s needs, map the location and functioning of current WASH services. Think about toilets, waste collection systems or water supply systems. What types of WASH services are currently used? How do people make use of these services? Once you have analysed the current WASH services, ask yourself how, where and why the ecosystem is currently affected by these WASH services. Is the environment over-exploited and are water sources depleting? Could you make more effective use of resources? Analysing this helps you to improve the environmental sustainability of the WASH services.

Step III: Understand and Optimise

Assessing the area and analysing the functioning of current WASH services not only provides you with information on how to optimise these WASH services, it also shows you how to create synergy between people and the ecosystem. This supports you in making the most effective use of the resources available in the area, whilst at the same time ensuring more sustainable access to these resources. Interesting activities include integrating rainwater harvesting technologies, wetland restoration and reforestation. Of course, different solutions can complement one another to achieve a more environmentally sustainable WASH project.

Read some valuable, practical recommendations on catchment-based approaches to Water Resource Management: Recommendations for Practitioners by Practitioners on Catchment-Based Approaches to Water Resources Management (CB WRM)

TIPS & TRICKS FOR INCORPORATING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN YOUR WASH PROJECT:


 * 1) Right from the start, take into account the potential environmental implications for WASH services and livelihoods in your project design.
 * 2) Always incorporate all relevant actors and their needs in the decision-making, planning and implementation process. And of course, environmental actors should always be part of this process.
 * 3) Consider the natural environment as an interlinked system. This includes the WASH project location and its surrounding villages, both up and downstream.
 * 4) Incorporate ecosystem services and their value (monetized and non-monetized). To do so, you need to know all about the availability of natural land and water resources and current waste flows in the area.
 * 5) Remain flexible to change directions within your WASH project planning. This way, you can make sure your solutions will still work if the world around you changes.

Acknowledgements

 * RAIN. WASH and the Environment. October 2014.
 * Original Akvopedia article: akvopedia.org/wiki/WASH_Environmental_Sustainability_Assessment