Jars and tanks for rainwater storage inrural Thailandby Prakob Wirojanagud and Vason Vanvarothorn

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o To provide one 2,OOO-litrejar toeach of three million householdsstill lacking adequate drinking-water storage by the end of 1987,enough water for two litres per

however, the majority of villagehouseholds did not have sufficientwater storage to last the whole of thedry season. A few governmentagencies had begun programmes on jarand tank construction for ruralhouseholds but there was no clear-cutgovernment policy of how to solve thedrinking-water problem withinreasonable time and budget limits.

Acting on advice from researchersat the Water Resources andEnvironment Institute at Khon KaenUniversity, the Ministry of the Interiorhas promoted the Jar ConstructionProgramme since 1985 with twoobjectives.couId be effectively and economically

implemented.Storing rainwater run-off from

roofs is an easy and economicalmethod for providing clean drinking-water and has already been in use for along time in Thailand. Before 1985,

IN 1985, The Royal Thai governmentinitiated a project to provide villagersin rural areas throughout the countrywith containers for storing rainwater.By the end of 1987, the project goal ofproducing 5.9 million jars of 2,000-litre capacity was achieved. This hasenabled villagers to store enoughrainwater for drinking purposes, to lastthroughout the dry season at anaverage consumption of two litres perperson per day. If required, villagerscan purchase additional jars for theirhouseholds from factories for less thanUS$25 per jar.

Thailand's small jar programme hasbeen a conspicuous success, and onemany other countries would like toemulate. Through its efforts, nearly sixmillion rainwater catchment jars havebeen constructed and the Decade goalof safe water for all in Thailand hasbecome a reality.

Water quality and quantityWater requirements of villagehouseholds for drinking are differentfrom their requirements for domesticuse, both in terms of volume andquality. For drinking, one person needsapproximately five litres of water perday. For domestic use, it is generallyaccepted that, in rural areas, eachperson requires about 50 litres per dayof moderately high-quality water. Theseparation of drinking-water fromdomestic water was an importantstarting point in enabling Thailand toestablish a plan for providing watersupply projects in rural areas thatDr Prakob Wirojanagud is an AssociateProfessor, Water Resources and EnvironmentInstitute, Faculty of Engineering, Khon KaenUniversity, Thailand. He is also ProjectDirector of a number of development projectssuch as People's Volunteer Weir Project, Self-Help Groundwater Development Project, andthe Thai-New Zealand Small WatershedDevelopment Project Vason Vanvarothorn isHead of Rural Development Section,Provincial Administration Division,Department of Local Administration,Ministry of the Interior. For domestic use it is estimated that each villager needs 50 Iitres per day.

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a The project should begin with arevolving fund provided by a groupof people who have money toinvest and are eager to participate.This fund could be quicklyestablished and its investors couldserve as models for others tofollow.

a The government would beresponsible for supplying tools andmaterials for jar construction, andfor supporting the revolving fund.Villagers would provide freelabour and the cost of materialsused in constructing the jars.

a The government would beresponsible for arranging andsupporting the training of villagersin jar construction and forestablishing the revolving fund ineach village.

a Villagers should be involved in theproject from its establishment, bothin the management of finances, andall phases of construction.

Actual implementation of theprogramme did not, however, followexactly the suggested procedures,especially the revolving fund concept.In most places the project was

inception of the programme was asfollows:

person per day.To campaign for each household toacquire two additional jars (or atotal of three jars), enough for fivetitres per person per day, by 1990.

Each villager requires five litres of drinking-water per day.

ProgrammeimplementationThe strategy used in theimplementation of the programme wasconsidered critically important tosuccessfully achie,ving its objectives.The approach determined at the Villagers were deeply involved in the programme from its establishment.

Promoting theprogrammeIn early 1985, the Ministry of Interiorstated clearly its policy of promotingthe Jar Construction Programme innorth-east Thailand, with theobjectives as already mentioned, at ameeting of governors and heads ofprovincial offices of governmentagencies from every north-easternprovince. A National AdministrationCommittee responsible for theadministration of the programmethroughout the country was establishedin November 1985, with thePermanent Secretary of the Interiorserving as its chairman. Three othersub-committees were established tolook after each component of theprogramme; these were: publicrelations, technical matters and follow-up and evaluation.

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Project implementation took place on the basis of individual districts.

accomplished without employingrevolving funds. This by no meansreflected any deficiency or lack ofmanagement skill by the officials. Onthe contrary, it was the flexibility ofthe implementation methods allowingresponsible officials to take intoaccount different local circumstances,which contributed to the success of theprogramme. Reviewing pastprogramme activities shows that theconcept of promoting roof run-offharvesting which is the most cost-effective way to solve the drinking-water problem and the determinationof the Ministry of Interior are two keyfactors; these have made the JarConstruction Programme one of themost successful small-scale waterresource development programmes inThailand.

The districts are the basic units forimplementation, with district officersserving as programme managers. Thegovernors, being the programmedirectors in each province, bear theresponsibility for fulfilling theobjectives. Each district has its ownways to get money, but the major partof budget for the programme so far hascome from the well-established RuralJob Creation Project. Other financialsources include members ofparliament, the ProvincialAdministrative Organization, as wellas private sector and non-profitorganizations.

Finance problemsThe revolving fund concept was

initially planned to be used as a meansfor villagers to participate and bearsome responsibilities both in terms oflabour and construction cost. It wouldhave significantly reduced the projectcost from approximately 3,300 millionbaht for six million jars, as estimatedby Khon Kaen University, to about500 million baht. However, because ofthe programme's ambitious goal ofconstructing six million jars before theend of 1987, the districts did not havethe time and energy required to set upa fund in each village. A well set-upfund would still take a long time tocreate because of the reluctance of thevillagers to join the programme andthe inability of some villagers to payinto the fund according to schedule.Besides, it is the objective of the RuralJob Creation Project to provide jobsfor rural people. Because of thesefactors, the implementation of the jarprogramme happened in differentways.

In most cases, the district providedconstruction materials, tools andtraining, while the people contributedthe labour to construct their own jarsunder the careful supervision ofexperienced technicians. A jarconstruction centre was establishedand located either in the village or in avillage that served the whole sub-

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Table 1 .Jar distribution by region, 1987

Region Number of provinces Number of jars

North 17 provinces 1,265,000

North-east 17 provinces 2,708,000

Central 24 provinces 1,518,000

South 14 provinces 442,000

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Tanks for schoolsAnother important achievement wasthat villagers were encouraged tobecome more self-reliant in resolvingthe problem of the shortage ofdrinking-water. In the future, they canbuild or buy additional jars or tankswhen needed. In addition, many newjar-making enterprises were created.Jar-making factories are now up andrunning in many different places.

Now that each village householdhas at least one jar for storing itsdrinking-water, it can simply build orpurchase more jars should the demandincrease. The government should nowfocus on drinking-water for publicplaces such as schools. The six to 12-cubic-metre rainwater tank is suitablefor schools in rural areas. If a projectto provide rainwater tanks at ruralschools is initiated, it would greatlycomplement the efforts of providingclean drinking-water at home usingjars; young people in rural areas willhave access to clean drinking-waterboth at home and at school. There onlyremains a little more work to makeschool administrators more aware ofthe importance of providing cleandrinking-water at school. •

CONSALLENU®rr

STRENGTH (ffJ[JjJcil DURABILITY

shows their distribution by region.By calculating the cost at 5.9

million jars using a selling price at 550baht per jar, it can be seen that theprogramme mobilized resources, froma variety of sources, amounting to atotal value of 3,250 million baht. Theactual cost involved for the jarconstruction was about 1,600 millionbaht with the majority of those fundsprovided by the Rural Job CreationProgramme.

AchievementsThe Ministry of Interior estimates that,under the Jar ConstructionProgramme, about 5.9 million jars of2,OOO-litre capacity have beenprovided by the provinces. Table 1

district. The jars were then taken fromthe construction centre to theindividual household by trucks afterabout seven days of curing.

In some districts, groups ofvillagers were paid to construct thejars and distribute them to villagehouseholds. Some other districtssubcontracted jars from jar-makingfactories which had become a smallbusiness enterprise in many provinces.

Technical assistance was providedby Khon Kaen University and othergovernment agencies in the form ofstandard designs for low-cost jars andtanks, the dissemination ofconstruction manuals, and the trainingof technicians.

The objectives of the project wereachieved in a short time as a result ofthe efforts of the NationalAdministration Committee andespecially the chairman, thePermanent Secretary of the Interior.Also, the provinces worked closelytogether by organizing meetings of thegovernors, who were kept informed ofprogress. These proved successful andstressed the firm support of thegovernment. Campaigns were held toadvise villagers about rainwaterstorage and water quality, usingposters. Additional funds were soughtfrom the private sector to supplementthe government contribution, andabout 2,500 tonnes of cement wasdonated. Incentives were given toprovinces and districts whichsucceeded in providing each and everyhousehold with a jar of 2,000-litrecapacity by presenting them with the'Golden Jar' award.

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