Environmental Solutions for Rural Communities

NIHERST is embarking on a project to assist in creating self-sustaining rural communities by identifying and introducing sustainable practices to improve livelihoods and daily living. Engagement with the Toco Foundation and its associated groups in Moruga and Barrackpore, led to a focus on Rainwater Harvesting.

Many communities in Trinidad are forced to live without a regular supply of water to satisfy their basic needs as well as to support farming and other activities. The Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) developed, in collaboration with the Caribbean Council for Science and Technology (CCST) and with the support of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), a rainwater harvesting model that can be adopted by any water-scarce community. Rainwater harvesting presents a practical alternative source of water for communities and this particular model has the advantage of being low-cost, easy to assemble from locally available materials, and simple to maintain.

In other Caribbean countries, especially those with dry conditions, rainwater harvesting is an integral part of people’s lives. However in Trinidad and Tobago, it is not well known or widely practised. Consequently there is a great need to raise public awareness of the benefits of rainwater harvesting and to promote safe and hygienic water collection practices. Thus partnering with community groups and supportive technical agencies, NIHERST plans to introduce the concept of rainwater harvesting as a regular and sustainable physical activity in the daily lives of residents in the communities of Toco, Moruga and Barrackpore.

The Barrackpore community would benefit from the additional focus on Renewable Energy and Disaster Preparedness whereby the Rochard Douglas Presbyterian School would be used as a model disaster shelter utilising renewable energy applications.

Partners in this exciting new initiative are the Toco Foundation, the Water Resources Agency (WRA), and the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C). Key activities entail:

• Public Education in Water Conservation in five schools in Toco, five schools in Morgua, and one school in Barrackpore between March and April 2012.

• Training for over 20 trainers from each community to install rainwater harvesters.

• Installation by the trainees of rainwater harvesters in five schools in Toco and Moruga, and one in Barrackpore.

• Installation of a renewable energy system in one school in Barrackpore to assist the community to be disaster prepared.

Written: January 2012