Role of rainwater harvesting for improving the human well-being and ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are fundamental for human well-being and are the basis of rural livelihoods, particularly for poor people. Rainwater harvesting can serve as an opportunity to enhance ecosystem productivity, thereby improving livelihoods, human well-being, and economies. Rainwater harvesting has been shown to create synergies between landscape management and human well-being. These synergies are particularly obvious when rainwater harvesting improves rainfed agriculture, is applied in watershed management, and when rainwater harvesting interventions address household water supplies in urban and rural areas. Rainwater harvesting has often been a neglected opportunity in water resource management: only water from surface and ground water sources is conventionally considered. Managing rainfall will also present new management opportunities, including rainwater harvesting. Improved water supply, enhanced agricultural production, and sustainable ecosystem services can be attained through adoption of rainwater harvesting with relatively low investments over fairly short time spans (5-10 years). Rainwater harvesting is a coping strategy in variable rainfall areas. In the future climate change will increase rainfall variability and evaporation, and population growth will increase demand on ecosystem services, in particular for water. Rainwater harvesting will become a key intervention in adaptation and reducing vulnerabilities. Moreover, in addition to increasing public knowledge about the ecosystem function of these systems, basic steps should be taken in the audit, evaluation and application of local knowledge of rainwater harvesting in the country.