A call for better rainwater management

At the beginning of September, leaders and experts from scientific, business, government and civil society gathered in Stockholm for the 2014 World Water Week. The annual conference is organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) to bring organisations and individuals from around the world together to address the planet’s water issues.

No poverty reduction without better rainwater management

At this year's event, a group of concerned environmental scientists took the opportunity to call on the United Nations (UN) to include sustainable rainwater management in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), due to take over from the Millenium Development Goals in 2015. They said that rain, and the way it is managed, will determine whether hunger and poverty can be eradicated in the world.

More than two billion people live in some of the driest and poorest areas of the world, and dryland populations are growing fast. These regions depend on highly variable and unpredictable rainfall, making agriculture extremely challenging.

Excellent Development has been working with dryland communities for more than 10 years, and we have seen climate change making the situation worse over the last few years. We therefore wholeheartedly agree with the urgent call for an increased focus on rainwater management.

When it rains, it pours

Dryland areas, which cover around 40% of the world's surface, do receive a reasonable amount of rainfall, but it usually comes in short heavy bursts, so much of the water is lost to evaporation and run-off. Simple and cost-effect rainwater harvesting solutions, like sand dams, make a big difference by capturing water during these downpours and storing it for later use.

This is hugely transformative at local level, raising the groundwater table and allowing people to produce food year-round. But to help the millions of poor people who currently live in the world's drylands, solutions like this need to be scaled up.

Scientists say that unless the management of rainwater improves, by 2050 there will be two billion smallholder farmers living at the mercy of rainfall that is less and less reliable due to climate change.

At the end of World Water Week, a declaration was signed calling on the UN to add a target on rainwater management to any Hunger Goal in the Sustainable Development Goals. We hope the UN will take note of this urgent problem that will eventually affect us all.