Provide affordable water to villagers in Kerala

Dear donors,

When you last heard from us, our leadership team was wrapping up a 2-month work trip to Kerala and 12 rainwater harvesting systems were planned to be built under a trial program in mid-September (“News from the Field”). Since then, we have encountered several obstacles that have prevented this program from coming to full fruition. For the reasons outlined below, we have decided to pursue a more conventional subsidy model and complete the program for the village of Edayazham. Thereafter, after much consideration, we have decided to finish our operations in India pending a detailed report on all that we have learned.

Our program encountered many delays due to unfortunate timing with the Onam holiday (the end of the Malayalam calendar), which prevented our Program Manager from introducing the trial program to our community partners until October. After the first series of meetings, it was clear that community confidence in our unconventional social enterprise program had been undermined by a recent government focus on providing targeted subsidies of drinking water resources (such as free rainwater tanks) for underserved minority groups.

Our leadership and field team discussed the issues facing the organization and concluded that another 1-2 months was need to effectively introduce the program and coordinate households interested in volunteering as the first cohort. However, this delay has a major implication for our trial study: postponing construction to December will prevent the operation of the new rainwater tanks until after the end of this monsoon. By missing the rainy season, tanks will not be able to stored water and will sit empty for a year. Consequently, the tanks would not begin the program trial or deliver data to inform the plans for full-scale until September 2015. This would be a significant extension of our timeline from the originally planned beginning of operations this December.

Because of this development, we have decided to shift our strategy to maximize the impact of our current resources and conclude the Program in the next 6 months. Details of this new strategy are appended below. We feel this course of action is the fairest option to you, our supporters, and to our community partners and beneficiaries with whom we have worked so closely for so long. We have decided to prioritize taking action and building the tanks we have promised and delayed to an expectant community. Our ultimate goal is to impact the underserved and we feel that extending our timeline will distract from this primary mission. The timeline for the new program is 4 months, including construction and documentation. Our next report here will be our final and will include the results of this effort.

We thank you for all of your incredible support and contributions through this incredible journey. As we strive to make a difference, we hope others after us will find use in all of the information we have learned in our endeavor. Rainwater for Humanity is confident that we have made a significant impact on Kuttanad’s community and in the field of water aid research— all thanks to your help and encouragement.

Warm regards,

Sam Lee

President

Appendix

2014 Final Program Structure:

• Individual rainwater harvesting systems will be built for each family that joining the Program
• The systems with be offered at subsidized rate, with the beneficiary families providing 40% of the construction cost prior to construction and the Program providing the remaining 60%
• All funds in the project account, minus salaries for the Program Manager and field staff, will be used for rainwater tank construction. 30-40 systems serving 120-160 people are expected to be built, depending on current material prices.
• The Program will be offered first to any interested families in the Edayazham community. If there are remaining funds after these tanks have been built, our implementation partner MSSRF will determine the construction sites for the remaining duration of the Program