THAILAND
Thailand is one of the world's leading rainwater harvesting nations. The National Jar Programme was launched to supply clean drinking water to rural areas under the United Nations Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990). It was aimed at catching rainwater in jars. Since the programme was started, there has been no looking back. Rainwater harvesting now plays a crucial role in the country, especially in the north-east, where it is the only source of drinking water, groundwater being saline.
Earlier, the people were using shallow tube-wells and rainwater captured from thatched roofs. The jar programme replaced thatched roofs with zinc sheets, increasing the volume of water captured. Every house in northeastern Thailand now has 6,000-litre jars. The spherical jars make optimum use of materials in terms of strength per unit of mass. The technique is simple, and the materials easily available in the local market.
Rainwater, though susceptible to bacterial contamination, is still better than most traditional and improved water sources. And water quality, far from deteriorating, actually improves with storage as the pathogens die away. A 1989 study on 189 tanks and jars showed that only two out of 87 tanks and zero out of 97 jars had pathogens.
About 40 per cent met the drinking water standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Further, all met the WHO standards for heavy metals, including cadmium, chromium, lead, copper and iron.
Despite some initial problems, the jar became a ubiquitous feature of Thai life. By 1992, some 8,000,000 jars were being used in Thailand's rural north-east. The wide-spread acceptance of the jars stems from their cost-effectiveness. The yearly expenditure, including the capital and operational costs, is US $8.50 per cubic metre per year. This is only a small fraction of the cost of bottled water (US $645.00 at the rate of US $0.65/litre).
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