Success and Success Factors of Domestic Rainwater Harvesting Projects in the Caribbean

In the Caribbean, domestic rainwater harvesting (DRWH) projects are being implemented to augment water supplies in water scarce islands and as a no-regret approach to adaptation to climate change. The evaluation of these projects is usually limited to the implementation process i.e. measuring the ability of the project to meet the set deliverables. Factors that are considered are the cost and time specified for the installation of the DRWH systems and the quality of the harvested water. There is seldom a post-project evaluation to determine whether the beneficiaries are able to properly maintain the system and or to improve on it, or whether the project is leading to increased household collection and use of rainwater in the project location and its environs. This paper is based on a survey of key stakeholders actively involved in the promotion of DRWH over a number of years. Active involvement was the basis of accepting the information on their perception as adequate in providing a reliable measure of the level of success of DRWH projects. The metrics for success were based on stakeholders’ perspective of the success of DRWH projects as determined by community involvement, rate of uptake of DRWH, increased awareness, impact of training on maintenance of systems, appropriate use of the systems, increased use of rainwater, increased capacity of community leaders to train and improved support by local private sector. It was found that there was willingness to invest in DRWH particularly among the stakeholders who have regularly used rainwater. The stakeholders were also asked to corroborate a set of pre-selected factors that were considered important for the successful development of DRWH projects. A ranking of these factors indicated that although the cost of the DRWH systems was the most important factor for success, technical issues were imperceptibly more important than economic and social issues.