Building Capacities from University to Society

The purpose of this paper is to share experience in teaching rainwater harvesting systems as a mean of building capacities at two universities of Guadalajara, Mexico. Rainwater Harvesting is taking on a higher relevance at Mexico. Last semester we implemented some strategies in two universities: University of Guadalajara (public university) and ITESO (private university). At University of Guadalajara started an academic reform in hydraulic and sanitary programs of architecture carrier. This reform consists in teaching new approaches in the design of hydraulic and sanitary systems, transforming the traditional approaches that included the mixed drainages to sustainable approaches. Now the proposal consists in teaching the idea to separate the wastewater and rainwater because in Mexico it is very common mixing the both waters. At ITESO was implemented a new Rainwater Harvesting Course to Engineering and Architecture carriers. Finally, there was organized a Rainwater Harvesting Conference at University of Guadalajara last march, which they were, gathered several universities, governments, high schools, enterprises, and media. These experiences were very useful and let us know the best ways to teach rainwater harvesting systems and spread the knowledge initialing at universities and then to the rest of society