Advanced Research Financial Issues Urban Drainage Watershed Protection 16 Biochar filtration 18 P3 solutions 21 SuDS progress in UK 25 GI drainage

Volume 3 / Issue 1 February / March 2015 MANAGEMENT

Rainwater harvesting for sustainable water supply Green Infrastructure

Building rainwater harvesting capacity in Current and returned Peace Corps México volunteers Jason Berner, Elena Neibaur, and Gregory Lohrke report on three projects that helped to build local capacity for rainwater harvesting in the Mexican state of . Volunteers successfully improved water supply resiliency and drove local engagement through training and installation in rural, underserved, and university communities.

ince 2009, Peace Corps México has Diego La Mesa Tochimiltzingo in the Mexican from existing sources by increasing rainwater worked with the United States Agency state of Puebla, and El Rosario in the state use for domestic activities. However, although Sfor International Development (USAID) of . These five grants were funded rainfall is abundant in Zacatlan, it is rarely to effectively and strategically use small grants to help these communities adapt to harsher collected by large institutions for non-potable funding to support community development climates and confront local water scarcity by uses. Due to the changing realities of the area’s projects that are consistent with the Peace implementing RWH systems. The following available water resources, some businesses Corps approach. This approach emphasizes RWH projects are examples of collaborations and institutions in Zacatlan are reevaluating building the capacity of community between Peace Corps Volunteers and host- the utility of captured rainwater. In particular, organizations, service providers, and country counterparts that have increased the the Instituto Tecnológico Superior de la Sierra individuals. It also promotes sustainable knowledge and technical capacity of over 330 Norte (ITSSNP), the Zacatlan university where behavior and systems changes in communities individual project participants. Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Jason Berner where Peace Corps works. For instance, served from 2013 to 2014, maintains a great volunteers in Mexico work closely with their RWH education for a university interest in harvesting rainwater for non-potable host-country agencies and community partners community uses because it consumes large volumes of to build local capacity in environmental In the municipality of Zacatlan, Puebla, the municipal water. Due to this prevailing interest, education and to promote green practices and municipal drinking water utility is concerned Berner focused on training ITSSNP students, the implementation of new applied technologies. with the trend of annual decreases in rainfall faculty, maintenance staff, and community In Mexico, this has included building and volumes being captured and treated. This is members in various aspects of integrating facilitating community adoption of rainwater largely attributed to deforestation from timber RWH systems into campus operations. harvesting (RWH) systems in rural and harvesting and mining activities within With Peace Corps leadership and USAID urban areas. the drinking watershed in Zacatlan. Also of SPA grant funding, Berner facilitated the From October 2013 to September 2014, concern is the growing population of Zacatlan, planning and execution of a RWH workshop five of the 25 Small Project Assistance (SPA) which will require new ways of meeting in February 2014. Workshop participation grants funded by USAID have gone to support increasing potable water demands. One way included representatives from the university four communities in central Mexico: Zacatlan to bridge the gap between supply and demand staff, student body, municipal water utility, de las Manzanas, San Jose Xacxamayo, San is to reduce the consumption of potable water local rotary club chapter, local businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and Peace Corps México. During the multi-day workshop, RAINFALL IS participants designed and built the first RWH ABUNDANT cistern constructed for an ITSSNP campus building and learned maintenance procedures IN ZACATLAN, for its future operation. The project is ultimately BUT IT IS designed to help ITSSNP meet international RARELY environmental management standards for reducing potable water consumption. The COLLECTED project will also help reduce costs associated BY LARGE with purchased water through rainwater INSTITUTIONS collection and water-saving technologies. The FOR NON- pilot system is monitored daily and expected to harvest 200,000 liters of rainfall annually. It is POTABLE USES. estimated that annual baseline potable water use for the building will be reduced by 75 percent. With additional USAID funding and Xacxamayo community community resources, Berner also facilitated members as young a RWH and water conservation business and as six years old research seminar – hosted by ITSSNP and are responsible for collecting water from the local rotary club in the spring of 2014. distant wells. Image Expert speakers from non-governmental credit: Diego Rodrigo organizations, including Isla Urbana and Sarar

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RAINWATER HARVESTING PROJECTS HAVE HELPED XACXAMAYO ACHIEVE A MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY, SOCIALLY, AND ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE AND RELIABLE WATER SOURCE – PROVIDING RESILIENCE AGAINST THE RAINFALL FLUCTUATIONS THE COMMUNITY IS EXPECTED TO ENCOUNTER DUE TO REGIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE.

Left: In San Jose Xacxamayo, Mexico, during the second day of constructing the rainwater KDUYHVWLQJWDQNVEHQHƮFLDULHVZRUNDORQJVLGH local skilled workers. Image by Elena Neibaur. Transformación, as well as the Universidad that is available comes from distant wells filter will cost the beneficiary less than $10. Nacional Autónoma de México were invited to or must be purchased from water tankers Neibaur’s projects also focused on capacity speak at the seminar on various RWH topics. arriving from other communities. Residents of building, including workshops covering Speaker panels addressed local opportunities Xacxamayo have used RWH for more than 10 the technical and practical aspects of RWH for RWH businesses, implementing affordable years as a supplemental measure to meet their and filtration. Additional efforts focused decentralized wastewater treatment facilities, daily water needs. However, some households on establishing a water quality monitoring university landscape water conservation do not have the means to construct their own committee, which received additional training practices, and reusing wastewater nutrients rainwater tanks, or tanks are not adequately on how to periodically test post-filtration water for landscaping. A student team from ITSSNP sized to meet a family’s annual water quality to ensure proper user maintenance presented on the previously installed RWH demands. Existing storage systems have and optimal filter condition. system, giving a tour of the pilot system for been adequate for the six-month rainy season These RWH projects have helped community members interested in similar when annual precipitation averages about 700 Xacxamayo achieve a more environmentally, designs. The student team also outlined a millimeters, but during the later stages of the socially, and economically sustainable and proposal for retrofitting two existing cisterns dry season, this capacity often falls short of reliable water source – providing resilience on the university campus for rainwater household water needs. against the rainfall fluctuations the community capture. Rotary club members discussed To address the community’s water needs, is expected to encounter due to regional climate annual potable water savings for a typical Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Elena change. More than 40 percent of community residential RWH system in the community. Neibaur was able to secure a USAID SPA residents benefitted from the combined The seminar also initiated discussion among grant and other local and international funding projects, and the majority of residents now attendees for plans to implement new RWH to initiate several rooftop RWH collection have an adequate water supply for household and water conservation projects throughout projects from November 2012 to October 2014. demands throughout the year. The augmented the municipality by 2015. These projects included the implementation water supply for these community members Post-project monitoring and evaluation of 82 household RWH tanks of 10,000-liter also has eliminated the need to purchase water results from community participants identified capacity and the installation of 70 ceramic from tanker trucks in many cases, saving the availability of financial resources, technical filters for treating captured rainwater to an average of $50 per household annually. knowledge, and skilled workers as the most produce potable water. Using stone masonry, Finally, RWH has reduced the number of time- important requirements for successfully the RWH cisterns were built underground consuming trips taken to retrieve water at local implementing RWH and water conservation to increase structural stability and conserve wells – trips that are primarily taken by the projects in Zacatlan. Encouraging and valuable above-ground space. Each cistern women and children of each household. facilitating community partnerships between was constructed over an average of five days Neibaur’s projects were implemented ITSSNP, community organizations, and by a local skilled worker with labor assistance successfully due to three factors. The first national experts also contributed to the from project beneficiaries. Typically these factor was that the community self-identified success of Berner’s projects. cisterns have an average lifespan of 30 the issue they wanted to address: having more years. However, if a cistern of this design is readily available potable water. Secondly, Household RWH in a small, rural well maintained by the user, it can last even they worked together to develop a solution, community longer. The 70 installed filters – products establishing that RWH tanks would be the San Jose Xacxamayo, a community located of a local capacity-building organization, most beneficial additional potable water source. in the expansive municipality of Puebla, is CATIS-Mexico – are of a low-maintenance, Third, the community was involved in the separated from the bulk of the municipality’s ceramic design with a colloidal silver coating project from start to finish, contributing their population and services by a large reservoir, that removes 99.99 percent of bacteria and time and money to construct cisterns and Lake Valsequillo. This rural town of about 800 pathogens. Each filter costs US$30 and can attend capacity building events. Assigning residents experiences water shortages due to its produce about 24 liters of clean water per day. high importance to community participation semi-arid climate, remote location, and the high The filters have a lifespan of two to three years and buy-in was key to the sustainability of cost of water transportation. The scarce water with regular cleanings, and a replacement the RWH cisterns.

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Sustainable water sources in strengths of the community will yield a more underserved communities sustainable development for the beneficiaries La Soledad Tepehuaxtitla is a small community and town as a whole than one-time gifts within the municipality of San Diego La Mesa ever could. Ideally, project participants will

Tochimiltzingo in the Mexican state of Puebla. continue improving the skills garnered from Recent Secretary of Social Development this program and further advance water data from 2010 show that 68.7 percent of security goals through sustainable, applied households in the municipality are considered technologies. impoverished due to a lack of access to basic Lessons learned from these completed services. A large component of this deficit is the RWH projects will be applied to ongoing

38.9 percent of surveyed households that are activities, as well as in future volunteer not connected to the municipal potable water initiatives, to produce the most effective use network. The uneven social and geographic of USAID grant funding for local capacity distribution of access to a centralized water building projects in Mexico. For example, two 800.662.6465 network has led to an unequal economic ongoing RWH projects in the municipality www.centripipe.com

burden for inhabitants of the municipality’s of San Diego La Mesa Tochimiltzingo in Booth #613 2015 No-Dig, Visit us at NASTT’s smaller communities. Many residents of the state of Puebla and the community of El towns like La Soledad experience shortages Rosario in the state of Tlaxcala are expected in water supply during the drought months of to train an additional 475 people in RWH the region’s dry-wet seasonal cycle. Presently, practices. Additionally, it is expected that long RWH as a solution to these shortages must after volunteers return to the United States, confront two principal barriers: a lack of formal beneficiaries of past projects will maintain training in the installation and maintenance of effective management of natural resources roof-mounted rainwater capture and filtration and continue toward more sustainable systems as well as a long-term storage capacity development under their own initiatives. deficit at the household level due to insufficient As exemplified by the projects in Puebla, capital for infrastructure development. Over- Peace Corps México facilitates these coming these principal barriers to water continued community initiatives by security has directed the focus of Peace Corps emphasizing the recruitment of local Centrifugally Cast Volunteer Gregory Lohrke’s current project. financial and technical assistance and the Centrifugally Cast Working closely with municipal authorities importance of local participation in all stages and local assistance, Lohrke first designed and of volunteer-facilitated projects. For instance, Concrete Pipe Concrete administered a community-wide household after collaborating with Berner, administrators Pipe Concrete survey concerning water sources, storage and students at ITSSNP are actively seeking capacity, and use. He then used survey results finances for integrating RWH into the Original Original to categorize and assess the specific strengths operations of a second campus building. and needs of each of the 40 households in Following the successful improvements La Soledad with regard to water resources. initiated by Neibaur and her counterparts, the The The Following the survey, proper RWH design and town of Xacxamayo also is preparing another Approved - University tested DOT 30 certified regional applicators and growing 25+ miles of pipe lined since 2003 installation was chosen as the principal focus project to increase the number of community experience to work for you! Put our proven • • • of capacity building exercises. Project funds members with improved rainwater capture were used to contract professional plumbers and storage systems. And it is hoped the town to train a group of local day-laborers in RWH of La Soledad will also use its newly trained system installation and basic maintenance installation professionals and the suggestions through a focused, three-day practicum. produced by Lohrke’s community survey to These newly trained local plumbers were continue providing families with sustainable then contracted using USAID grant funds to water supply solutions. install RWH systems. Sites for the systems were selected based on survey results and Authors’ Note input from local collaborators to be most Jason Berner is an environmental protection AFTER beneficial for community members and specialist and landscape architect with the families with particular water needs. In total, US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) grant funding allowed the local plumbers to Office of Water in Washington, DC. For more install 10 professionally designed systems for than seven years, he has focused on urban improved harvesting and primary filtration of stormwater, green infrastructure, and watershed rainwater. A primary school, community clinic, management. and two other public buildings, as well as six Elena Neibaur is a teacher’s assistant and previously underserved households now have graduate student at International increased capacity to confront future domestic University in Miami, Florida, United States. and operational-needs water shortages She is completing her Master of Science in through efficient rainwater capture. The survey Environmental Studies, focusing on rainwater

information also will aid municipal authorities harvesting as a sustainable method for domestic DOT APPROVED in the planning and execution of similar household uses in water-scarce, rural areas. projects in the future. Gregory Lohrke is pursuing his Master of Lohrke emphasized the importance of Science in Environmental Science and Master BEFORE community diagnostics in assessing the of Public Affairs degrees at the School of Public knowledge, skills, and abilities of potential and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University- beneficiaries. He placed as much or Bloomington, in the US state of Indiana, while greater focus on determining appropriate serving in the Peace Corps. His work in Mexico capacity-building areas as on delivering has focused on environmental education the more tangible aspects of the program. and adoption of environmentally sustainable

Understanding and building on the existing practices at the household level. 34 Contact List on page see the further please Advertiser information For

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