Examining the local financing of rainwater harvesting (RWH) in low-income settlements of Enugu, Nigeria

In this paper, we have tried to examine the contributions of RWH to household water supply in five low-income settlements with severe household water supply. Data were obtained from focal discussions and questionnaire that was served on key stakeholders. Result shows that the sensitization campaign embarked in the area by two NGOs (EDIA, and Rainwater Partnership Nigeria) did awake the interest of the inhabitants on RWH. This interest was sustained by a loan scheme to consumers known as Rainwater Improvement Loan from Micro Finance Bank to buy tank and other RWH infrastructure. All these increased the household percentage of rainwater supply from 20.2% in 2015 to 70.7% in 2017. Some challenges being experienced include the problem of low quality of initial rainwater of the year, while lessons learnt include the fact that local financing provides simple saving arrangement that enable them acquire tank and rainwater infrastructure.