Resilient WASH systems in drought-prone areas

This section is based on a desk study written by Eric Fewster, commissioned by CARE Netherlands and the Netherlands Red Cross

Resilient WASH systems need to be able to cope with changes in the availability of water. This section explores what what techniques can be used to improve water availability over space and time in areas not only prone to drought and changing climate variability, but also those areas with deteriorating water availability due to increasing water demands and human influences. Resilience is a concept used to describe how to make water systems more robust in terms of water availability, thereby reducing the vulnerability of people that rely on them.

This section will focus on water supply and non-motorized irrigation in rural areas for populations of up to 5,000 people. Both technical and non-technical components are important in discussing how to make water systems resilient. On the other hand, it is known that about 80% of projects become unsustainable not because of technical issues but because of non-technical issues such as management, social relationships and community dynamics.