Integrated rural development with the rainwater harvesting approach

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Integrated rural development with the rainwater
harvesting approach

• Zhu Qiang Li Yuanhong
• Gansu Research Institute for Water Conservancy
• Email zhuq70_at_163.com

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• Background
• China is ranked sixth largest in the world for
  the total amount of water resources.
• Annual water resources per capita are only about
  1/4 of that in the world. Water scarcity is the
  restrictive factor in social and economy
  development as well as the environment
  conservation.
• Situation is much more adverse in some critical
  areas.

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• Characteristics of these areas
• Both the surface and ground water is lacking of
  on the yearly or seasonal basis or is very
  difficult to use. Serious water shortage causes
  water insecurity 24 million people without
  access to safe water supply.
• Impoverished life of local inhabitants water
  shortage is one of the root causes of poverty. In
  these areas there were 350 key impoverished
  counties at the State level (about half of the
  whole country), 23.5 million of people living
  under poverty line.
• Frequent drought causes low agriculture level
  and food insecurity as well as monotype
  agriculture structure. Daily income per head is
  less than half US dollar in most households.
• Serious soil erosion, degraded lands and
  deteriorated environment
• Vicious circle exists among water scarcity,
  agriculture production and environment
  deterioration and water is the key factor for
  breaking the circle

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Loess plateau in the middle and east part of
Gansu Province ---a representative of these areas

• Area of about 100,000km2 with altitude of
  1500-2400m
• Annual precipitation is 330mm and potential
  evaporation 1500-2000mm
• Soil erosion module 5000 to 10000 t/km2a
• Land is crisscrossed by deep gullies and ravines.

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• Loess plateau of Gansu
• Lacking of surface and ground water source
  and/or in bad quality
• Topographic and economy conditions do not allow
  an inter-basin water diversion project to be
  built
• Agriculture thoroughly relies on the natural
  rain, which however is not reliable at all and
  drought happens frequently.
• This is an area lacking of three essentials
  water, food and fuel.
• All the above cause insecurity in water, food,
  livelihood and environment.

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How to address the problem --- Dry way or
Wet way? Argument lasted for decades. Dry
way to adopt the conventional dry farming
measures that are to retain and store rain in the
soil and to make best use of the soil moisture.
Wet way in addition to the effective measures
of Dry way, to add the artificial water supply
to the crops Most people favour the wet way
after experiences and lessons learned from
successes and failures in the long term practices
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Dry way includes Terracing and contour
planting Cultivation measures Fertilizing (to
increase crop resistance capacity to the water
stress)
Breeding new varieties better adapted to the
natural rain, etc. These measures are effective
but the effects are limited in fighting with
drought in Gansu condition, especially in the
recurrent drought happened in 1990s.
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• How to get water for the Wet way?
• Inter-basin water diversion to divert water from
  neighboring river basin, shortcomings of which
  are
• Unaffordable very high initial and running cost
• Associated environment problems like sliding and
  subsidence and even salinization of the land
• Only can supply water to some points or some
  strips of land but not for the vast area that
  populations live in a scattered way
• Long time to bring about the profit
• Rainwater harvesting
• The easiest way to get water and the most
  potential source is RAIN

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What is RWH?

• RWH is a mini-size water resource project, which
  collects, stores rainwater through structural
  measures and use rainwater in high efficient way.

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• Brief review of the RWH development in Gansu
• Research, demonstration and small scale
  extension (1988-1994)
• 1-2-1 rainwater catchment project (1995-1996)
• RWH irrigation project (1996 - )
• RWH for environment conservation (2000 - )
• Know how dissemination and training activities
  for the Nation and the developing countries (2001
  - )

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Research, Demonstration and Small-scale Extension
Project (1988-1994)

• Objective to study the RCE versus rainfall
  amount and intensity on different catchment areas
  and to find RWH patterns and develop procedure
  for planning and design.
• Numerous pilot projects were set up
• Small scale extension projects were carried out

under the support of the local government. By the
end of 1994, 22,800 updated water cellars with
2.4 M m2 of new catchment area had been built.
28,000 families (141,000 people), got enough
water to meet their basic need.
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The 1-2-1 Rainwater Catchment Project
In 1995, a once-in-60-years drought happened.
Local government made a decision to carry out the
1-2-1 Rainwater Catchment Project aiming at
supplying drinking water to support 250000
families build one rainwater collection field
(about one hundred m2), two underground tanks
(each 1520 m3) and one piece of irrigated land
for courtyard economy.
Typical layout of 1-2-1 project
Got water from tanker
Collect mud water
Water supply for human and animal in same pond
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The 1-2-1 Rainwater Catchment Project
The roof and the courtyard lined with concrete
slabs were used for collecting rainwater and the
water cellar (Shuijiao) with capacity of 15-20 m3
constructed in the courtyard was used for
storage.
Results Beneficiaries1.31 million populations
in 264,000 families of 2018 villages. Area of
artificially treated catchment 37 million
m2 Newly designed Shuijiao 286,000 Supplemental
irrigated land for courtyard economy 1,330 ha
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RWH irrigation Project (Since 1996)
In 1996, the local government initiated the RWH
irrigation project. While 1-2-1 project offered
water for the basic need of the people to ensure
their existence, RWHI project opens up the way
for the farmers to develop the economy and
improve their life.
Drip line with RWH tank
Tanks received water from highway catchment
Good harvest after irrigation
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RWH irrigation Project

• High efficiency of RWH irrigation is realized by
• Applying water at the critical crop growing
  stages with limited amount
• Water is applied at the root zone to avoid
  ineffective evaporation as possible
• Highly efficient irrigation methods are adopted

Apply water into seed holes
Irrigate through holes on plastic film
Drip lines under plastic film
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RWH irrigation Project
Although the water amount used in RWH irrigation
is very small but the result with and without RWH
irrigation is very distinct. According to the
investigation by the authority, yield can be
raised by 20-88, averaged at 40.
Comparison of without (below) and with (above)
irrigation during seeding
RWH irrigation is a low rate irrigation (LORI).
Testing shows WSE of LORI is higher than
conventional irrigation by 30 to more than 10
folds. WUE of rain
is higher than rainfed agriculture by
20-51. LORI helps farmers change their
production structure according to the market need
thus increase their income.
Comparison between only rainfed (right) and
rainfed RWH irrigation
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RWH for environment conservation
In the Land Conversion Program for the
northwest China, farmers are encouraged to shift
their lands from cultivation to planting trees
and grass. Water from the RWH system was the
pre-condition for young tree survival.
Along with the RWH development, the area of
orchards increased rapidly, composing the new
ecological system. In the period of year 1996 to
2000, there were 73,300 ha of land irrigated by
the RWH system for planting trees in Longnan
Prefecture of the province.
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Acceptable and affordable techniques for the
rural development Simplified Greenhouse
With water stored in the tank, farmers started to
build simplified greenhouse for producing fine
vegetables (tomato, cucumber, pepper, eggplant,
etc). Cost of greenhouse can be returned in 1-1.2
years. Value of one m3 of rainwater reaches 6,
while that of grain crop is 0.15-0.25.
Roof of greenhouse is good catchment that can
provide rainwater for one harvest of vegetable.
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Greenhouses in a High Efficient Agriculture
Garden on a former bared hill top in Dingxi
County. It used to be one of the driest and
poorest counties in China but now has made great
changes.
At the 3-km2 Garden all the ground are lined with
concrete slab that formed the catchment with the
greenhouse roof.
Greenhouse for potato de-virus seed breeding.
Potato is one of the supporting industries of the
county.
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Solar heater Number of sunshine hours in the area
amount to 3500 per year. To make full use of the
rich solar energy potential can reduce uproot of
straw and grasses to avoiding damage to the
eco-system. Solar heater is developed in the area
for boiling the water before drink. 5 pound of
water can be boiled within 20-30 minutes. Cost of
a heater is about 120-150RMB (15-2-USD)
There are several workshops in the area for
producing solar heater. Production capacity
reaches 50,000 sets per year.
Visitors from Africa and Asia
Almost all the villagers own a solar heater in
their courtyard.
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Water cellar (Shuijiao) The indigenous and
traditional underground tank was developed since
more than one thousand years ago and is widely
adopted in the current RWH project after
upgrading by GRIWAC. In total, more than 2
millions tanks have been built in the past 15
years, all by the farmers themselves.
Its design makes full use of the self-supporting
capability of loess soil so that construction
materials can be saved. Many construction
methods to save labor and cost has been developed
like the hollow-out, excavation, brick semi-domed
top structure, thin layer wall lining, etc.
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Training and information dissemination
nation-wide and internationally
Since 1996, two national symposium on RWH have
been convened in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu.
Scientist from GRIWAC has lectured for four
national RWH training courses. Three
international courses on RWH have been conducted
for 99 participants from developing countries in
Africa, Asia and South America.
Practical training 2004
Lecturing room
Experts of GRIWAC have been to Saudi Arabia
Kingdom and Nigeria for technical assistance for
RWH development.
Lecture for Saudi Arabia Ministry of Water and
Electricity
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Evaluation of the RWH in rural development Meet
demand of multi-purpose development
RWH not only can provide reliable water supply
for domestic use but also can supply water for
accelerating the social and economy development,
to alleviate poverty and generate income of the
rural farmers by enhancing the crop yield,
modifying the production structure, as well as to
promoting the environment conservation.
Deep pits to receive rain for planting trees in
eco-system reconstruction programme
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Evaluation of the RWH in rural development Breakth
rough of dry farming
Principle of conventional dry farming is to store
rain in the soil and to make best use of the
moisture. However soil void is inadequate to
store enough moisture to meet the gap
between rain feeding and the crop water need
especially on temporary aspect. With LORI water
applied at the critical period of crop growth,
crop can avoid fatal damage due to serious water
stress so that it can absorb the natural rain
efficiently in the coming rainy season. The
overall use efficiency of rain can be
enhanced. Not only in enhancing the yield, LORI
enables farmers change the production structure
according to the market need so that their income
can be raised significantly. Value of one m3 of
rain can be increased by several folds.
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Evaluation of the RWH in rural development Breakth
rough of dry farming After RWH project,
agriculture pattern becomes much more diversified.
Fruit production
Flower in greenhouse
Tobacco
Raise chicken
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Irreplaceable measure for many semi-arid
mountainous areas
In the mountainous areas where the surface and
ground water is not available, RWH is an
irreplaceable measure for rural development
In the loess plateau of Gansu, four ways has been
summed up for the development of dry farming
Terracing Plastic sheeting RWH Structure
modification. Among the four, RWH is the basic
factor.
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We have summed up a new formula for upgrading
rain-fed agriculture Upgrading rainfed
agriculture Measures in conventional rainfed
agriculture Artificial water supply from the
RWH system
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RWH development in the humid and sub-humid
southwest China that suffered from the seasonal
drought
In the mountainous areas of SW China, the coaster
area of Southeast China and in the islands, RWH
has been widely used for domestic water supply
and for drought mitigation in the rain-fed
agriculture areas as well as for paddy
irrigation.
Paddy irrigation with RWH system
In China, there are 15 million of people having
solved their problem in drinking water supply and
2.6 million ha of land being supplied irrigation
water.
Roof water from greenhouse helps development of
green products
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• Challenges that the RWH projects face in China
• Quality issue for domestic water supply is still
  a big challenge to change behaviour of the
  farmers and to improve infrastructure
• Awareness and capacity building is necessary for
  most of the farmers to apply RWH for irrigation
  projects on a wider base
• When China put forward the goal to build overall
  well-off society, can RWH not only meet the human
  basic need but also meet better living standard?
• To use water for domestic purpose in a more
  conservational way
• For the production purpose, water from the RWH
  system should be used to irrigate crop with
  higher value
• To study the water demand of the well-off
  society in such an extremely dry mountainous area
  and the economic and technical feasibility for
  enlarging RWH system to meet the demand

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Thank you!