Schools in the mountainous districts of southern and western Sikkim State are facing acute shortage of drinking water between post to pre monsoon periods, November to March.

The general problems are:
i.neither water sources on the hilltop created for collection of water nor in schools.
ii.seasonal springs dry up after few months of last rainfall.
iii.most schools are located on the higher side or away from the water source in the area.
iv.only down side located springs are water source after monsoon.
v.fetching drinking water daily from down side located springs.
vi.gravity water supply system functions in monsoon period only.

i. RWH is a low cost traditional technique of collecting rainwater for drinking.
ii. Sufficient Rooftop area in the scools is available for rainwater collection with RWH structures.
iii. There is good average rainfall in Sikkim.
iv. Already 50 RWH structures have been constructed by the village community in South Sikkim. These RWH are the only drinking water source for the school as well as for community centers.
v.Through these RWH 1.5 million litres of rainwater are being collected during monsoon season for 5000 people in 4 villages of South Sikkim.
vi.Sikkim is the first hilly State that includes RWH in state government policy for drinking water.
vii.RWH is a maintenance free system and constructed in local material at village level.

One phase

In the remote inaccessible villages where schools, health and community centres are located especially in hilly,drought prone, tribal, coastal and desert regions where community involvement and contribution would be instantly forthcoming rooftop rainwater harvesting fro drinking and sanitation is the only solution.

Local people are trained to construct RWH strucutres in local material. It is an alternative of local income generation source and provision of sweet drinking water and sanitation.