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Rainwater security behaviour change intervention: operations and maintenance of Rainwater systems in rural Vanuatu

Rainwater provides one of the main drinking water supplies for households in rural Pacific communities. Recent research showed that over 80% of surveyed villages reported their water tanks becoming empty or very low in the dry season, and over 70% of tanks tested on some islands had presence of bacterial indicators (poor water quality).

This project, funded by World Vision Vanuatu established a behaviour change intervention for rural community households in Vanuatu.  The behaviour change campaign is designed to encourage and foster improved maintenance, operation, and management behaviours that ensure the safe and secure capture, handling, storage, and use of rainwater (RW) for drinking purposes across the entire service chain – “From roof to mouth”.  

 

Status

Commenced: July 2023

Completion: October 2024

Funding Agency

World Vision Vanuatu

World Vision Australia

Water for Women Fund (Australian Government)

Project Objective:

Create a behaviour change communication campaign designed to encourage and foster improved maintenance, operation, and management behaviours that ensure the safe capture, handling, storage, and use of rainwater for drinking purposes.

Project Components:

  • A desktop review was completed to inform the development of a formative research and a behaviour change communication campaign (BCC) focusing on rainwater harvesting and encompassing the whole service delivery chain – from catchment to use.
  • In October 2023, rapid formative research was conducted in three communities in Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, focusing on Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) systems. The research included a Service Delivery Chain (SDC) assessment and an analysis using the Opportunity, Ability, and Motivation (OAM) behaviour change framework. The primary objective was to evaluate current operation, maintenance, and management behaviours associated with RWH systems. 
  • The findings of the desktop review and formative research informed the development of a behvaiour change concept note focusing on the ‘safe management of rainwater for drinking’.  The concept note proposes actionable behaviour change (BC) activities to improve and promote practices that safeguard the quality, quantity, and safety of harvested rainwater for household use 
  • An implementation guide to promote behaviour change for safe and secure rainwater for drinking in Rural Vanuatu was created for facilitators to implement a behaviour change intervention (BCI) to support the safe and secure management of rainwater systems (RWS) for drinking purposes in rural communities in Vanuatu, from “roof to mouth”.  
  • The campaign was piloted in Santo communities, with monitoring further socialisation of materials completed throughout 2023 and 2024.

Background

Decentralised water supply and management regimes are predominant in regions where access to centralised water infrastructure is limited or non-existent. Approximately 2 million people in the Pacific Islands region rely on rainwater harvesting as their primary source of drinking water (Foster et al., 2021).

Pacific Island countries (PICS) are prone to water scarcity and natural disasters. Assessing exposure to hazards and societal vulnerability, PICs are regularly ranked the highest risk region of the world, with Vanuatu ranked 1st, Solomon Islands 2nd and Fiji 14th, of 181 countries (e.g., World Risk Report, Hilft, 2021). This vulnerability poses a significant challenge for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure and service delivery and underscores the need for more resilient and sustainable water service delivery options across the region.

Many rural communities in PICs rely on multiple water sources, from wells, springs, surface water, rainwater and other collection, storage, and distribution methods (Foster & Willetts, 2018; Love et al., 2022a; Love, Kotra, et al., 2021). Rainwater collection is a growing self-supply strategy used by households across the region.

Rainwater harvesting, (RWH), refers to the collection, storage and use of rainwater runoff (Lebek & Krueger, 2023). RWH is one of the most common water source options found in island contexts (Han & Ki, 2010), especially when other sources such as groundwater and surface water are non-existent (Kirs et al., 2017) or contaminated (Igbinosa & Aighewi, 2017).

RWH stretches back at least 4000 years, serving as both a traditional water conservation method and an evolving, dynamic water supply system (Foster et al., 2021; Neibaur & Anderson, 2016). RWH is highly dependent on climatic conditions, particularly rainfall patterns (Elliott et al., 2017; Kelly et al., 2018). As such, its operation and maintenance depend on several factors, including the catchment area and type (roof and surface materials), the collection and distribution system (gutters and filters), storage type and capacity (tanks or containers) (Han & Ki, 2010), and water treatment options before drinking (Rand et al., 2021).

References

Elliott, M., MacDonald, M. C., Chan, T., Kearton, A., Shields, K. F., Bartram, J. K., & Hadwen, W. L. (2017). Multiple Household Water Sources and Their Use in Remote Communities With Evidence From Pacific Island Countries. Water Resources Research, 53(11), 9106-9117. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017wr021047

Foster, T., Rand, E. C., Kotra, K. K., Sami, E., & Willetts, J. (2021). Contending with water shortages in the Pacific: Performance of private rainwater tanks versus communal rainwater tanks in rural Vanuatu. Water Resources Research, 57(11), e2021WR030350.

Foster, T., & Willetts, J. (2018). Multiple water source use in rural Vanuatu: are households choosing the safest option for drinking? International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 28(6), 579-589.

Han, M., & Ki, J. (2010). Establishment of sustainable water supply system in small islands through rainwater harvesting (RWH): case study of Guja-do. Water Science and Technology, 62(1), 148-153.

Hilft, B. E. (2021). World Risk Report 2021. https://weltrisikobericht.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/WorldRiskReport_2021_Online.pdf

Igbinosa, I. H., & Aighewi, I. T. (2017). Assessment of the Physicochemical and Heavy Metal Qualities of Rooftop Harvested Rainwater in a Rural Community. Global Challenges, 1(6), Article 1700011. https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201700011

Kelly, E., Shields, K. F., Cronk, R., Lee, K., Behnke, N., Klug, T., & Bartram, J. (2018). Seasonality, water use and community management of water systems in rural settings: Qualitative evidence from Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. Science of the Total Environment, 628-629, 715-721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.045

Kirs, M., Moravcik, P., Gyawali, P., Hamilton, K., Kisand, V., Gurr, I., Shuler, C., & Ahmed, W. (2017). Rainwater harvesting in American Samoa: current practices and indicative health risks. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 24(13), 12384-12392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8858-z

Lebek, K., & Krueger, T. (2023). Conventional and makeshift rainwater harvesting in rural South Africa: exploring determinants for rainwater harvesting mode. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 39(1), 113-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2021.1983778

Love, M., Beal, C., Gonzalez, D., Hagabore, J., Benjamin, C., Bugoro, H., Panda, N., O’oi, J., Offer, C., & Souter, R. (2022a). Challenges and opportunities with social inclusion and community‐based water management in Solomon Islands. Development Policy Review, 40(4), e12597.

Love, M., Kotra, K. K., & Souter, R. (2021). WASH in the market house-a situation analysis of water, sanitation and hygiene services in market places in Vanuatu.

Neibaur, E. E., & Anderson, E. P. (2016). An examination of factors affecting sustainability of domestic rainwater harvesting systems in a rural, semi-arid region of Mexico. Water Science and Technology-Water Supply, 16(5), 1388-1397. https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2016.066

Rand, E. C., Cumbo, H., Marcelin, R., Sami, E., & Sammy, E. (2021). Options for addressing poor quality drinking water in rural Vanuatu. Waterlines, 40(4), 229-247.