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Where there is water on earth, virtually no matter what the physical conditions, there is
life. This colorless, odorless and tasteless liquid is essential for all forms of growth and
development-human, animal and plant. Also, water is a fundamental basic need for sustaining
human economic activities. While water is a renewable resource, its availability in space (at a
specific location) and time (at different periods of the year) is limited, by climate, geographical
and physical conditions, by affordable technological solutions which permit its exploitation,
and by the efficiency with which water is conserved and used. (E. Krygiel & B. Nies, 2003)
Current centralized urban water supply systems depend largely on energy consumption
in all processing phases, including purification, distribution, and sewage treatment. However,
only recently has attention been focused on exploring the connection between urban water
supply and the associated energy consumption, known as the water-energy nexus. In this
context, the water-energy challenge is increasingly critical because of rapid urbanization
[Certain studies have also suggested that the synergistic impact of energy and water
consumption portends more serious consequences if not addressed appropriately. (Chiu, 2015)
In addition, future research should address challenges such as the environmental impact
of urban water supply and energy production and should develop models that jointly address
energy and water conservation for the development of water and energy resilient cities.
Because rainwater is the most fundamental renewable resource, it can be harvested on-site and
used for non-potable purposes (e.g., flushing toilets and gardening), without requiring
complicated treatment and long-distance transportation. Therefore, the innovative conservation
ability of rainwater harvesting systems (RWHSs) has the potential to ease the water-energy
dilemma caused by rapid urbanization.
The Philippines is blessed with its natural resources especially water resources since it
is surrounded by bodies of water. However, as time goes by, the quality and quantity of water
available for each person decreases due to increase of population, lack of education,
irresponsibility, and other factors. Which is why we try as much as possible how to conserve
water by knowing when and where to use a type of water, in terms of quality.
A common problem in Davao City is flood in congested areas. If we can conserve
rainwater rather than let go to ground and cause flood, we could have a lot more use to it than
having a hard time crossing floods.
When in times of water interruptions, during these times it usually go for 2 days. It
would be a lot of trouble in our hygiene not being able to use water for washing, flushing,
watering of plants, etc. We can use rainwater for these kinds of activities rather than waste
clean water for drinking and bathing.
The rate of these rainwater harvesting design existing in the Philippines is quite low
according to F. Memon (2016). He explained why the Philippines should get these designs. In
other countries, water is very expensive, and we can use water to boost our economy by foreign
trades if time comes by that not only this country needs potable water. Since a lot of place uses
potable water not only for drinking but for dishwashing, laundry, bathing, cleaning vehicles,
he determined it as a waste for our clean water to use it this way.
With these as examples for the importance of rainwater harvesting, the group will
provide design that could store and use rainwater.
Review of Related Literature
This section composes of related literatures, studies, laws and related readings. The
researchers cited books, articles and laws which are relevant to the investigation. Both local
and foreign literatures and studies are present which contains facts and information on the
research problem.
This section will be discussing the relevant literature from books, scholarly journals,
academes and websites in line with rainwater harvesting. This part of the study accounts the
works that has been published on a topic by accredited researchers. All this would allow the
readers to map the field and position your research within the context. Moreover, this part of
the study justifies the reason for research. This is closely connected with demonstrating that is
known in the field. Concurrently, it allows the researchers to establish the conceptual
framework and methodological focus.
Related Literature
The lives of women and children as well as the environment have been seriously threatened
• As a result of excessive extraction of ground water, drinking water is not available during
• About 5 percent of the rural population does not have access to regular safe drinking
water and many more are threatened by less and less access to safe drinking water in the not so
distant future. Water shortages in cities and villages have led to large volumes of water being
• High levels of fluoride, arsenic and iron, lead to major environmental health problems
and in the case of iron, people simply do not like to drink the water because of its smell/taste.
• Ingress of sea water into coastal aquifers as a result of over extraction of ground water
has made water supplies more saline, unsuitable for drinking and irrigation.
• Pollution of ground and surface waters from agro-chemicals and from industry poses a
major environmental health hazard, with potentially significant costs to the country.
Foreign
Rainwater harvesting is a technique used for collecting, storing rainwater and using it for
landscape irrigation, domestic and other uses. As civilization became more urbanized and the
demand for quantities of purified water increased, according to the section one of Rainwater
Harvesting Guide of the city of San Diego water supplies became centralized and were
distributed through modern network of pipes. Rainwater harvesting systems, as a means for
supplementing piped water, were not commonly used in United States until the last decade
because of the perception that fresh and clean supplies of water would always be in abundance.
With the increase of pressure on the water sources of San Diego to support a growing
population, escalating agricultural demands, and increase energy production, stated in the
Rainwater Harvesting Guide that there is renewed interest throughout the United States,
especially in the south western part of the country where there is insufficient supply of water,
in supplementing the water supplies of the city through the capture and reuse of rainwater. To
simply define it, rainwater harvesting is the capture, diversion, and storage of non-potable
water for later reuse. According to United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
rainwater harvesting has been viewed primarily as a fresh water supply or water conservation
practice throughout the history. Conservation continues to serve in the western United States
as a primary driver for rainwater harvesting as the region struggles to meet the water demands
of it burgeoning population (US EPA, 2013).
Two main types of rainwater harvesting system, passive and active harvesting system, and
its technical descriptions were provide in the document of United States Environmental
Protection Agency (US EPA) entitled ‘Rainwater Harvesting’. Passive harvesting systems are
typically small volume ranges from 50 to 100 gallons of system designed to capture rooftop
runoff. Rain barrels, a type of rainwater harvesting system, are commonly used in residential
application where flow from the rain gutter downspouts is easily captured for outdoor uses such
as garden and landscape irrigation or even car washing. US EPA (2013) added that due to small
volumes of water collected and lack of additional treatment, the water supplied in the rain
barrels is not used indoors even for non-potable uses. Most state and local regulations require
clear markings indicating that the water is non-potable. Rain barrels are generally required to
be screened to prevent vectors from breeding and secured to avoid creating a drowning hazards.
US EPA define active harvesting systems as larger volume systems, range from 1,000 -
1000,000 gallons, which capture runoff from the roofs or other suitable surfaces, provide water
quality treatment, and use pumps or sufficient head to supply water to a distribution system.
Rainwater collected in active systems is typically used for irrigation or for indoor non-potable
water replacement. For example, water supply of toilet for flushing, washing, evaporative
cooling and other uses. According to them, the type and complexity of treatment systems
depend on the intended use of the harvested water as well as the water quality and permitting
requirements in a particular location. Several states - including Georgia, North Carolina, Texas
and Virginia - have produced manuals which provide information about the types of treatment
systems and components available for meeting specific water quality objectives.
Treatment devices can range from simple to complex; some examples include first flush
diverters, screen filters, ultraviolet light disinfection, ozone treatment, chlorination, and reverse
osmosis (TWDB, 2005). According to US EPA (2013) that active rainwater harvesting systems
are typically fitted with one or more pumps, electronic water level sensors, system controllers,
and water treatment systems and are often supported by municipal or private well water
supplies as a back-up water source.
Collecting, capture of diverting rainwater for various productive usages is wide spread
especially for agricultural purposes and soil or water conservation. The use of micro and
external catchment structures has been adopted in numerous projects and is considered as “state
of the art” approaches. In addition, several international organizations and institutions conduct
substantial research on methods to augment water availability for food production (e.g. FAO,
IFAD and RELMA). Stated on the “Rainwater Harvesting Handbook” written by the African
Development Bank, water shortage or inferior water quality is still a sever problem for millions
of people in Africa, as well as also some part of the world, and a hindrance for economical
development. It is estimated that 200-500 million cubic meter of rainfall is lost in the form of
runoff in Sub-Saharan Africa each year, which could potentially irrigate substantial areas.
AFDB (2008) also added that even in places with less serious water shortages, demand for
additional water is dominant since the use of rainwater harvesting in general is widely under-
utilized and there is even more reason to focus and expand the use in a more structured manner.
AFDB (2008) For domestic use, rainwater harvesting can be applied advantageously under
the following scenarios or areas : Conventional water supply based on boreholes or perennial
surface water sources are not technically feasible, groundwater based water supply systems
could be vulnerable to seasonal fluctuations of the groundwater level and rainwater harvesting
structures could be a complementary or security water supply, groundwater might be quality-
wise problematic and no easy accessible surface water is available and lastly regular water
supplies are under pressure and thereby unreliable and insufficient. Rainwater harvesting is of
crucial importance in most areas in Africa with water stress or scarcity, be it in domestic water
use, water for livestock and for crop production.
The research of Vishwanath entitled “Rainwater Harvesting in Urban Areas” mainly focus
on the traditional water supply and use of RWH in urban areas. According to Vishwanath one
of the many issues pertaining the water is urban flooding therefore rainwater harvesting serves
as a flood mitigation measure. He also added that in understanding the urban rainfall, getting
the right data is crucial to understanding the potential of rainwater harvesting and its sensitivity
across the years. The mean is usually used for design purpose. However for flooding the
maximum is a good unit and for sensitivity to a reliability the minimum is a good design. The
process of rainwater harvesting would encompass catching rainwater, directing it to an
appropriate location, filtering it if required and storing it for use. Storage could be in tanks,
sumps, ponds or lakes. Whoever appropriate and conditions permitting recharge of
groundwater would also qualify as storage (Vishwanath, 2013). In designing a rooftop
rainwater harvesting system following step are being followed according to Vishwanath : First,
sloping the roof appropriately preferably towards the direction for storage and recharge, next
is designing gutters and down-pipes depending on site rainfall characteristics and roof
characteristics then putting in place a first rain separator to divert and manage the first 2.5 mm
of rain and lastly, filtering the water to remove solids and organic material and storing the
filtered water in appropriate devices and recharging the groundwater through open wells, bore
wells or percolation pits.
Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater harvesting primarily consists of the collection, storage and subsequent use
of captured rainwater as either the principal or as a supplementary source of water. Both potable
and industrial purposes as well as agriculture, livestock, groundwater recharge, flood control,
process water and as an emergency supply for firefighting (Gound & Nissen-Peterson, 1999;
The concept of RWH is both simple and ancient and systems can vary from small and
basic, such as the attachment of water but to a rainwater downspout, to large and complex, such
as those that collect water from many hectares and serve large numbers of people (Legett et
al.,200 I).
Rainwater harvesting matters more today than any other time. There are several
reasons, as Jackson et al. note over half of the accessible fresh water runoff globally is already
appropriated for human use, more than Ix109 people currently lack access to clean drinking
water and almost 3xl09 people lack basic sanitation services, because the human population
will grow faster than increases in the amount of accessible fresh water, per capita availability
of fresh water will decrease in the coming century, (4) climate change will cause a general
intensification of the earth's hydrological cycle in the next 100 years, with generally increased
geochemical processes influencing water quality. Humanity now uses 26% of the total
terrestrial evapotranspiration and 54% of the runoff that is geographically and temporally
accessible. New dam construction could increase accessible runoff by about 10% over the next
30 years, whereas the population is projected to increase by more than 45% during that period.
Local
Castro, Lumbera, and Macuha (n.d.) give different significant use of RWH which are the
following: Rainwater harvesting poses significant solution to water shortages, RWH can
provide water at or near the point where water is needed as opposed to the current “life-line”
situation, harvested rainwater can be used for non-potable purposes such as garden use, toilet
flushing, and washing clothes, also it can support the users need on potable water such as
drinking source, which requires water of better quality.
The Western Cape region is still battling the effects of drought and water shortages.
Households in the region consume most of the water, followed by retail, offices and flats. As
the largest users, reducing their consumption will have the biggest impact on water levels. The
city is adopting rain water harvesting methods to decrease the number of liters that each
household consumes and also educate residents on ways to become water conscience.
Rainwater harvesting is the accumulation and deposition of rainwater for reuse on-site, rather
than allowing it to run off. The city of Cape Town says that this method will be used to target
single residential homes and will yield the biggest results. Rain water is easily processed to
provide water for domestic purposes. Many households already have water tanks or swimming
pools to store rain water. Domestic installation of storage units is not excessive and would cost
R6 330 per household (Agrobit,2016).
The study found that, in recent years, the issue of water scarcity had escalated in
KuaZulu Natal(KZN). The province was in the grip of a drought, which was taking its toll on
water supply in various municipalities around the province. The sparse rainfall in most parts of
the province had caused the levels of rivers and dams to decrease to a point of crisis.
Consequently, the KZN Provincial Government declared the province a disaster area in 2015.
During the study, there was very little improvement as the City of uMhlathuze was still
subjected to level 4 water restrictions. Evidently, the drought was intensifying the water
problem in a municipality already grappling with poor and inadequate water infrastructure. A
review of international and local literature was undertaken to theoretically position the
objective of the research. An evaluation of the City of uMhlathuze water conservation and
water demand management strategy and interventions was conducted using a questionnaire
completed by city officials and part of the study included documentation review. This study
investigated key elements of water conservation and demand management as well as
interventions that were pertinent to achieving the desired outcome of efficient use of water.
(Bay,2017)
Rainwater harvesting is a simple and primary technique of collecting water from natural
rainfall. At the time of a water crisis, it would be the most easily adaptable method of mitigating
water scarcity. The system is applicable for both critical and normal situations. It is an
environmentally friendly technique that includes efficient collection and storage that greatly
helps local people. The associated advantages of rainwater harvesting are that:
1. It can curtail the burden on the public water supply, which is the main source of city
water;
3. It is solely cost effective as installation cost is low, and it can reduce expense that one
has to pay for water bills;
The quality of harvested rainwater is an important issue, as it could be utilized for drinking
purposes. Quality of captured water from roof top depends on both roof top quality and
surrounding environmental conditions, that is, local climate, atmospheric pollution, and so
forth. (Rahman et al ,2014)
Rainwater harvesting system plays an important role in developing sustainable urban
future. Availability of water of serviceable quality from conservative sources is becoming
limited day by day due to huge demand. Rainwater provides sufficient quantity of water with
small cost. Hence, the system can promote significant water saving in residential buildings in
many countries. The potential saving of roof captures water was about 30–60% of potable water
demand in a house depending on the demand and catchment area. In Australia it is analyzed
that 27 houses with rainwater harvesting system and found that about 60% of potable water
could be saved (Hermann and Schimida,2000). (Ghisi et al. ,2007) performed investigation on
collected rainwater in Brazil and found that about 12–79% of potable water could be saved
depending on the size of roof tank. Most of the researches on rainwater harvesting systems
(RWHS) revealed that water conservation achieved through RWHS is quite significant
especially in places where water is not easily available to consumers.
Methodology
In this proposal, we will include the hydrologic data of the location, water demand of
dwellers, amount of rainfall that could be harvested, and the design of tank for the overall
rainwater harvesting system.
Location of the Building
The group decided to use the boarding house that Joseph Flores lives in. It is located at
Phase II, Sandawa, Davao City.
Roof Specifications and Calculation of Catchment Area
The properties of the roofing material are as shown in the table below.
The roofing materials used are as follows: (Roof Deck)
Catchment Area
= 89.8m2
Hydrologic Data in Phase 2, Sandawa, Davao City
Month Year
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
January 130.7 430.5 285.3 205.7 14.2 242.2
February 204.4 212.0 23.8 36.4 63.8 231.6
March 154.4 60.0 235.5 19.0 39.8 170.2
April 125.0 124.1 150.8 125.4 41.8 192.2
May 155.7 128.9 94.9 164.7 101.3 356.2
June 172.4 186.4 134.3 224.2 188.7 222.0
July 223.7 129.1 50.1 149.9 68.6 110.3
August 211.4 185.6 163.7 45.9 34.6 224.9
September 92.0 112.3 175.2 91.5 227.2 280.2
October 154.1 357.4 338.9 275.2 397.0 175.3
November 126.5 192.6 180.0 93.3 204.4 138.5
December 247.6 67.3 122.6 63.3 137.0 327.6
Average 166.49 182.18 162.93 124.54 126.53 222.6
The table shows the hydrologic data of rainfall that occurred in Phase 2, Sandawa for
the last five years from the data gathered by the PAG-ASA. We can use this as reference to get
the average rainfall and use it for the design of rain water harvesting system.
According to Inocencio, A. et.al (1999), water requirement for drinking and sustaining
human life is only a very small fraction of total water usage. This fact, however, was obscured
by the knowledge that water is necessity for life. Actually, a large proportion of water usage is
for convenience, comfort and aesthetics. For example, it was found that for residential water
use exceeding 400 liters per day, nearly half is used for watering lawns and gardens and most
of the remainder for flushing toilets, bathing, and washing cars. While the usage may seem
normal, it certainly goes beyond the basic human requirement for water.
Inocencio, A. et.al (1999) added that each household has different lifestyle, this
includes how much water they use daily. His studies shown in Metro Manila and Pangasinan
that the maximum and average total water consumption is 246.78 liters per day and 42.86 liters
per day, respectively. However, we cannot use rain water to all activities needed in daily life.
Therefore, instead of using the total water consumption, we only use the water consumption in
Sanitation services and Dish washing activities.
=12.65 liters/day
We use this as reference for the average water demand calculation for each dweller in
the building and total water consumption for Sanitation and Dish washing activities in the
building.
Water Filter Details
References
AFDB (2008). Rainwater harvesting handbook. Assessment of best practices and experience
Castro, Lumbera, and Macuha (n.d.). Integrating storage sizing and water treatment for
Rainwater harvesting: conservation, credit, codes, and cost literature review and case studies
S.Ward, et. al. (2010). Rainwater harvesting: model based design evaluation. Water Science
https://www.rainwaterclub.org/docs/RWHindustries.urban.pdf.2013
industrialised city.
Retrieved at:https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/27976
Ghisi E. et al (2007). "Rainwater tank capacity and potential for potable water savings by using
rainwater in the residential sector of southeastern Brazil,” Building and Environment, vol. 42,
no. 4, pp. 1654–1666, 2007.
Herrmann T. and Schmida U. (2000). “Rainwater utilisation in Germany: efficiency,
dimensioning, hydraulic and environmental aspects,” Urban Water, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 307–316,
2000.