While annual rainfall can average between 2000 to 2500mm, water availability is a major problem. Pine needles cover the forest floor during dry summer months and cause rainwater to run down the slopes before it percolates into the soil. Summer forest fires spread by fallen pine needles in the Himalayan pine forests causes deforestation. The perennial water springs fall victim to this deforestation, and attempts to harvest water from these springs fail during spring and summer months. Harvesting rainwater responsibly stores runoff from rooftops and can provide much-needed fresh water to families throughout the year.

We have endeavored to introduce these types of water management techniques. All the buildings at Avani campus have tanks in the basement where harvested rainwater is stored. A storage of almost 550,000 liters of rainwater at the campus alone meets our water needs for more than half the year. The same method of harvesting rainwater is employed at the field centres in Sukna, Dharamgarh, Digholi and Chanakana, where together another 127,000 litres of water is harvested. Avani has also helped set up a similar water harvesting system in nine schools in the Bageshwar and Pittorgarh districts, harvesting another 270,000 litres of water.

In addition to rainwater harvesting, Avani has built a wastewater treatment system, where all water consumed on the campus is recycled through a series of anaerobic and aerobic treatment to obtain good quality water for irrigating the community kitchen garden.