Household- and Institution-Based Rainwater Harvesting as a Socio-Technical Strategy for Water Security in East Nusa Tenggara

Abstract

East Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Timur, NTT) experiences recurrent seasonal water scarcity driven by a short and spatially variable wet season, prolonged dry periods, limited distributed storage, and uneven access to reliable water services. This study formulates a household- and institution-based rainwater harvesting (RWH) movement as a socio-technical strategy for strengthening local water security. A qualitative applied-conceptual review was conducted using thematic synthesis of peer-reviewed literature, technical guidance, and evidence concerning drought, RWH, water security, community participation, institutional roles, operation and maintenance, and water-quality safeguards. The synthesis identifies households as the distributed foundation of the movement because roof catchments are widely available and water needs are directly experienced, while schools, campuses, government offices, health facilities, and places of worship provide larger catchments and strong demonstration and educational functions. The proposed model integrates five mutually dependent components: education, technical implementation, mentoring, maintenance, and replication. To improve engineering applicability, the model is complemented by screening equations for harvestable volume and storage demand, a risk-based water-quality pathway, stakeholder responsibilities, and measurable implementation indicators. The study concludes that RWH should be promoted not merely as tank installation but as a sustained socio-technical practice linking infrastructure, behavior, institutional ownership, and iterative scaling. Field validation is required to quantify rainfall yield, demand coverage, lifecycle cost, water quality, and performance under local NTT conditions.