Sustainable Mountain Development No. 56, ICIMOD, Winter 2009
Rainwater Harvesting and
Groundwater Recharge
for Water Storage in the
Kathmandu Valley
Roshan Raj Shrestha, Water for Asian Cities Programme, UN-HABITAT, Nepal, roshan.shrestha@unhabitat.org.np
L
et not one drop of water that falls on the earth Rainwater is used all over the world for drinking,
in the form of rain be allowed to reach the sea irrigation, aquaculture, groundwater recharge, and
without being fi rst made useful to man. These fi re fi ghting. In South Australia, 42% of the population
were the words of Parakramabahu, a 13th century drinks rainwater. In Bangladesh, rainwater is a major
monarch from Sri Lanka, who constructed a massive alternative source of drinking water in arsenic-affected
rainwater harvesting reservoir which is used to areas. At Singapore’s Changi Airport, 63,500 tonnes
irrigate vast stretches of paddy fi elds in the Gal Oya of rainwater is used for fl ushing toilets and cooling the
district of Sri Lanka to this day. terminal buildings each month, about 33% of the total
Traditional stone spout in Patan Durbar Square
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