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This article page will consist of RAIN’s [http://www.rainfoundation.org/ RAIN’s] experiences in the sustainable financing of rainwater harvesting projects from examples in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Nepal. It will reflect upon these experiences and compare them to other research and practices on rainwater harvesting, micro-finance and business development. NGOs and other users will learn about the opportunities and challenges in changing the financial set-up of rainwater programmes.

RAIN has implemented 3 pilots on microcredit and rainwater harvesting since 2010 in Nepal and has carried out feasibility studies on the potential of micro-finance in Burkina Faso and Senegal. In Nepal, RAINs partner BSP-Nepal [http://www.bspnepal.org.np/ BSP-Nepal] has succeeded to reduce the subsidy amount by 25%, which is now a small loan. Loans are being repaid and first outcomes are promising. An evaluation was carried out by WASTE [http://www.waste.nl/ WASTE] in 2012, which showed that micro-finance is indeed a feasible option for financing rainwater harvesting systems. In addition, a Masters student from VU University Amsterdam carried out a more qualitative research on microcredit and rainwater harvesting in Nepal.