Rainwater harvesting: a lifeline to human well-being

This policy brief from the Stockholm Environment Institute argues that rainwater harvesting (RWH) is a critical, low-cost tool for enhancing ecosystem productivity and human well-being. It highlights RWH as a decentralized alternative to large-scale water infrastructure that supports rainfed agriculture, urban water security, and climate change adaptation.

• Rainwater harvesting (RWH) provides a low-cost method to improve water supply, agricultural production, and ecosystem services, with results achievable within a relatively short timeframe of 5 to 10 years.
• In rainfed agricultural systems, particularly in tropical and sub-tropical areas, rainfall variability often limits cereal yields to less than 1 tonne per hectare in sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia, representing only 25-50% of their potential.
• RWH interventions in India's semi-arid and sub-humid zones have improved household incomes and food supply through national watershed programs, while also recharging shallow groundwater and reducing soil erosion.
• A large-scale RWH program in China's Ganzu province provided 15 million people with improved water supply, which facilitated increased livestock keeping and small-scale horticulture, thereby increasing income and reducing the amount of land required for crop production.
• In urban environments, RWH reduces demand on surface and groundwater resources and mitigates flooding by reducing storm flow and short peak flows. In Japan and South Korea, it is specifically used to reduce vulnerability during emergencies like earthquakes.
• RWH serves as a vital adaptation strategy for climate change, which is expected to increase evaporation and rainfall variability, while population growth simultaneously increases the demand for water.
• Beyond environmental and economic gains, RWH promotes social equity by reducing the labor burden on women and children for fetching water and providing women with resources for kitchen gardens to improve diets.
• RWH is frequently overlooked in integrated water resource management (IWRM) because such frameworks typically focus on groundwater or streamflow rather than rainfall.

APA

Barron, J. (2009). Rainwater harvesting: a lifeline to human well-being. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/rainwaterharvestingpb-090330.pdf

Chicago

Barron, Jennie. Rainwater harvesting: a lifeline to human well-being. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2009. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/rainwaterharvestingpb-090330.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Barron |first1=Jennie |title=Rainwater harvesting: a lifeline to human well-being |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2009 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/rainwaterharvestingpb-090330.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{barron2009rainwater, author = {Barron, Jennie}, title = {{Rainwater harvesting: a lifeline to human well-being}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2009}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/rainwaterharvestingpb-090330.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }