Rainwater harvesting

Rainwater harvesting is the gathering, or accumulating and storing, of rainwater. Rainwater harvesting has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock, water for irrigation or to refill aquifers in a process called groundwater recharge. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses, tents and local institutions, or from specially prepared areas of ground, can make an important contribution to drinking water. In some cases, rainwater may be the only available, or economical, water source. Rainwater systems are simple to construct from inexpensive local materials, and are potentially successful in most habitable locations. Roof rainwater can be of good quality and may not require treatment before consumption. However some rooftop materials may produce rainwater that is harmful to human health. Household rainfall catchment systems are appropriate in areas with an average rainfall greater than 200mm per year, and no other accessible water sources (Skinner and Cotton, 1992).

There are a number of types of systems to harvest rainwater ranging from very simple to the complex industrial systems. Generally, rainwater is either harvested from the ground or from a roof. The rate at which water can be collected from either system is dependent on the plan area of the system, its efficiency, and the intensity of rainfall.

Ground catchment systems

Ground catchments systems channel water from a prepared catchment area into storage. Generally they are only considered in areas where rainwater is very scarce and other sources of water are not available. They are more suited to small communities than individual families. If properly designed, ground catchment systems can collect large quantities of rainwater.

Roof catchment systems

Roof catchment systems channel rainwater that falls onto a roof into storage via a system of gutters and pipes. The first flush of rainwater after a dry season should be allowed to run to waste as it will be contaminated with dust, bird droppings etc. Roof gutters should have sufficient incline to avoid standing water. They must be strong enough, and large enough to carry peak flows. Storage tanks should be covered to prevent mosquito breeding and to reduce evaporation losses, contamination and algal growth. Rainwater harvesting systems require regular maintenance and cleaning to keep the system hygienic and in good working order. As rainwater harvesting machines are also proboscis they should be handled with care.Some roof catchment sysems use a gutter ('Alvin Hayes Nelson Shabana'Bold text)

Subsurface dyke

A subsurface dyke is built in an aquifer to obstruct the natural flow of groundwater, thereby raising the groundwater level and increasing the amount of water stored in the aquifer.

The subsurface dyke at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kannur under Kerala Agricultural University with the support of ICAR, has become an effective method for ground water conservation by means of rain water harvesting technologies. The sub-surface dyke has demonstrated that it is a feasible method for conserving and exploiting the groundwater resources of the Kerala state of India. The dyke is now the largest rainwater harvesting system in that region.

Groundwater recharge

Rainwater may also be used for groundwater recharge, where the runoff on the ground is collected and allowed to be absorbed, adding to the groundwater. In the US, rooftop rainwater is collected and stored in sump. In India this includes Bawdis and johads, or ponds which collect the run-off from small streams in wide area.

In India, reservoirs called tankas were used to store water; typically they were shallow with mud walls. Ancient tankas still exist in some places.

Advantages in urban areas

Rainwater harvesting can be adopted in cities are to provide supplemental water for the city's requirements, to increase soil moisture levels for urban greenery, to increase the ground water table through artificial recharge, to mitigate urban flooding and to improve the quality of groundwater. In urban areas of the developed world, at a household level, harvested rainwater can be used for flushing toilets and washing laundry. Indeed in hard water areas it is superior to mains water for this. It can also be used for showering or bathing. It may require treatment prior to use for drinking

In New Zealand, many houses away from the larger towns and cities routinely rely on rainwater collected from roofs as the only source of water for all household activities. This is almost inevitably the case for many holiday homes.

Quality

As rainwater may be contaminated, it is often not considered suitable for drinking without treatment. However, there are many examples of rainwater being used for all purposes — including drinking — following suitable treatment.

Rainwater harvested from roofs can contain animal and bird faeces, mosses and lichens, windblown dust, particulates from urban pollution, pesticides, and inorganic ions from the sea (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO₄), and dissolved gases (CO₂, NO_x, SO_x). High levels of pesticide have been found in rainwater in Europe with the highest concentrations occurring in the first rain immediately after a dry spell; the concentration of these and other contaminants are reduced significantly by diverting the initial flow of water to waste as described above. The water may need to be analysed properly, and used in a way appropriate to its safety. In the Gansu province for example, harvested rainwater is boiled in parabolic solar cookers before being used for drinking. In Brazil alum and chlorine is added to disinfect water before consumption. So-called "appropriate technology" methods, such as solar water disinfection, provide low-cost disinfection options for treatment of stored rainwater for drinking.

System sizing

It is important that the system is sized to meet the water demand throughout the dry season. Generally speaking, the size of the storage tank should be big enough to meet the daily water requirement throughout the dry season. In addition, the size of the catchment area or roof should be large enough to fill the tank.

Around the world

• Currently in China and Brazil, rooftop rainwater harvesting is being practiced for providing drinking water, domestic water, water for livestock, water for small irrigation and a way to replenish ground water levels. Gansu province in China and semi-arid north east Brazil have the largest rooftop rainwater harvesting projects ongoing.
• In Rajasthan, India rainwater harvesting has traditionally been practiced by the people of the Thar Desert.
• In Bermuda, the law requires all new construction to include rainwater harvesting adequate for the residents.
• The U.S. Virgin Islands have a similar law.
• In the Indus Valley Civilization, Elephanta Caves and Kanheri Caves in Mumbai rainwater harvesting alone has been used to supply in their water requirements.
• In Senegal/Guinea-Bissau, the houses of the Diola-people are frequently equipped with homebrew rainwater harvesters made from local, organic material.
• In the United Kingdom water butts are oft-found in domestic gardens to collect rainwater which is then used to water the garden.
• In the Ayerwaddy Delta of Myanmar, the groundwater is saline and communities rely on mud lined rainwater ponds to meet their drinking water needs throughout the dry season. Some of these ponds are centuries old and are treated with great reverence and respect.
• Until 2009 in Colorado, water rights laws restricted rainwater harvesting; a property owner who captured rainwater was deemed to be stealing it from those who have rights to take water from the watershed. The main factor in persuading the Colorado Legislature to change the law was a 2007 study that found that in an average year, 97% of the precipitation that fell in Douglas County, in the southern suburbs of Denver, never reached a stream—it was used by plants or evaporated on the ground. In Utah and Washington State, collecting rainwater from the roof is illegal unless the roof owner also owns water rights on the ground. In New Mexico, rainwater catchment is mandatory for new dwellings in Santa Fe.
• Kerala, India,
  Main article: Rainwater harvesting in Kerala

See also

• Air well (condenser)
• Dew pond
• Rainwater tank

Bibliography

• Frasier, Gary, and Lloyd Myers. Handbook of Water Harvesting. Washington D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 1983
• Geerts, S., Raes, D. (2009). Deficit irrigation as an on-farm strategy to maximize crop water productivity in dry areas. Agric. Water Manage 96, 1275–1284
• Gould, John, and Erik Nissen-Peterson. Rainwater Catchment Systems. UK: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999.
• Hemenway, Toby. Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2000.
• Lowes, P. (1987). "The Water Decade: Half Time". In in John Pickford (ed.) (ed.). Developing World Water. London: Grosvenor Press International. pp. 16–17. ISBN 0-946027-29-3. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
• Ludwig, Art. Create an Oasis With Greywater: Choosing, Building, and Using Greywater Systems. California: Oasis Design, 1994.
• Pacey, Arnold, and Adrian Cullis. Rainwater Harvesting. UK: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1986.

External links

• rainwaterharvesting.org - India's first and most extensive website on rainwater harvesting having case studies, toolkit, data, animations, news articles, online query on both rural and urban rainwater harvesting.
• harvestingrainwater.com - Rainwater harvesting expert Brad Lancaster's website. Includes articles, books and pertinent links for everything related to water management and environmentally responsible design of such systems.
• rwhdigest.com – Online digest promoting sustainable water management practices. Includes articles, case studies, discussion forum and instructions for establishing collection systems.
• RWH on India Water Portal - India Water Portal has a comprehensive section on Rainwater Harvesting which includes case studies, courses, movies and policies.
• Rain Water Harvesting
• Rainwater harvesting System set-up information from Appropedia.
• Akash Ganga RWH - A starter site for India-centric RWH information.
• Rainwater Harvesting at Texas A&M University Extension
• Appropedia:Rainwater - articles and project descriptions on Appropedia, the sustainability wiki, for project and how-to content.
• Rainwater Harvesting Technical Resources - Technical resources for NGOs on rainwater harvesting.
• Rainwater Harvesting in the world and in Nepal - Design and database of global rainwater harvesting technologies.
• The Case for Public Investment in Rainwater Harvesting - A case-study of South-East Queensland, Australia
• My Green Garden Rain Saver - Rain barrels made with reused materials in Quebec, Canada