RAIN WATER HARVESTING

Introduction:
Water is essential to all life forms on earth - human, animal and vegetation. It is therefore important that adequate supplies of water be developed to sustain such life. Development of water supplies should, however, be undertaken in such a way as to preserve the hydrological balance and the biological functions of our ecosystems. Consequently, the human endeavour in the development of water sources must be within the capacity of nature to replenish and to sustain. If this is not done, costly mistakes can occur with serious consequences. The application of innovative technologies and the improvement of indigenous ones should therefore include management of the water resources to ensure sustainability and to safeguard the sources against pollution. As land pressure rises, cities are growing vertical and in countryside more forest areas are encroached and being used for agriculture. In India the small farmers depend on Monsoon where rainfall is from June to October and much of the precious water is soon lost as surface runoff. While irrigation may be the most obvious response to drought, it has proved costly and can only benefit a fortunate few. There is now increasing interest in the low cost alternative-generally referred to as 'Rain Water Harvesting' (RWH). Water harvesting is the activity of direct collection of rainwater, which can be stored for direct use or can be recharged into the groundwater. Water harvesting is the collection of runoff for productive purposes. Rain is the first form of water that we know in the hydrological cycle, hence is a primary source of water for us. Rivers, lakes and groundwater are all secondary sources of water. In present times, we depend entirely on such secondary sources of water. In the process, it is forgotten that rain is the ultimate source that feeds all these secondary sources and remain ignorant of its value. Water harvesting is to understand the value of rain, and to make optimum use of rainwater at the place where it falls.

Rainwater harvesting:
Rainwater harvesting is a technology used for collecting and storing rainwater from rooftops, the land surface or rock catchments using simple techniques such as jars and pots as well as more complex techniques such as underground check dams. The techniques usually found in Asia and Africa arise from practices employed by ancient civilizations within these regions and still serve as a major source of drinking water supply in rural areas. Commonly used systems are constructed of three principal components; namely, the catchment area, the collection device, and the conveyance system.

Benefits of Rainwater Harvesting:

Environment friendly and easy approach for water requirements RWH is the ideal solution for all water requirements. Increase in ground water level. Mitigates the effects of drought. Reduces the runoff, which other wise flood storm water drains. Reduces flooding of roads and low-lying areas. Reduced soil erosion. Improves the ground water quality. Low cost and easy to maintain. Reduces water and electricity bills.

Who can harvest rainwater? and where?

People planning construction of House, Modification of house, existing house, etc. from rooftops Govt. Buildings, Institutions, Hospitals, Hotels, Shopping malls etc. from rooftops and open areas Farmlands, Public Parks, Playground, etc. Paved and unpaved areas of a layout / city / town / village

Need for Rainwater Harvesting:

As water is becoming scarce, it is the need of the day to attain self-sufficiency to fulfill the water needs. As urban water supply system is under tremendous pressure for supplying water to ever increasing population. Groundwater is getting depleted and polluted. Soil erosion resulting from the unchecked runoff. Health hazards due to consumption of polluted water.

COMPONENTS OF A RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM:

A rainwater harvesting system comprises components of various stages - transporting rainwater through pipes or drains, filtration, and storage in tanks for reuse or recharge. The common components of a rainwater harvesting system involved in these stages are illustrated here.

1. Catchments: The catchment of a water harvesting system is the surface which directly receives the rainfall and provides water to the system. It can be a paved area like a terrace or courtyard of a building, or an unpaved area like a lawn or open ground. A roof made of reinforced cement concrete (RCC), galvanised iron or corrugated sheets can also be used for water harvesting. 2. Coarse mesh: It is located at the top of the roof to filter out the rain water from debris. 3.Gutters: Channels all around the edge of a sloping roof to collect and transport rainwater to the storage tank. Gutters can be semi-circular or rectangular and could be made using:

Locally available material such as plain galvanised iron sheet (20 to 22 gauge), folded to required shapes. Semi-circular gutters of PVC material can be readily prepared by cutting those pipes into two equal semi-circular channels. Bamboo or betel trunks cut vertically in half.

The size of the gutter should be according to the flow during the highest intensity rain. It is advisable to make them 10 to 15 per cent oversize. Gutters need to be supported so they do not sag or fall off when loaded with water. The way in which gutters are fixed depends on the construction of the house; it is possible to fix iron or timber brackets into the walls, but for houses having wider eaves, some method of attachment to the rafters is necessary.

4. Conduits: Conduits are pipelines or drains that carry rainwater from the catchment or rooftop area to the harvesting system. Conduits can be of any material like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or galvanized iron (GI), materials that are commonly available. The following table gives an idea about the diameter of pipe required for draining out rainwater based on rainfall intensity and roof area:

Sizing of rainwater pipe for roof drainage Diameter Of pipe Average rate of rainfall in mm/h (mm) 50 50 65 75 100 125 150 13.4 24.1 40.8 85.4 75 8.9 16.0 27.0 57.0 100 6.6 12.0 20.4 42.7 80.5 125 5.3 9.6 16.3 34.2 64.3 150 4.4 8.0 13.6 28.5 53.5 83.6 200 3.3 6.0 10.2 21.3 40.0 62.7

5. First-flushing : A first flush device is a valve that ensures that runoff from the first spell of rain is flushed out and does not enter the system. This needs to be done since the first spell of rain carries a relatively larger amount of pollutants from the air and catchment surface.

Source: A water harvesting manual for urban areas 6. Filter : The filter is used to remove suspended pollutants from rainwater collected over roof. A filter unit is a chamber filled with filtering media such as fibre, coarse sand and gravel layers to remove debris and dirt from water before it enters the storage tank or recharge structure. Charcoal can be added for additional filtration.

(i) Charcoal water filter A simple charcoal filter can be made in a drum or an earthen pot. The filter is made of gravel, sand and charcoal, all of which are easily available.

(ii) Sand filters Source: A water harvesting Sand filters have commonly available sand as filter manual media. Sand filters are easy and inexpensive to for urban areas construct. These filters can be employed for treatment of water to effectively remove turbidity (suspended particles like silt and clay), colour and microorganisms. In a simple sand filter that can be constructed domestically, the top layer comprises coarse sand followed by a 5-10 mm layer of gravel followed by another 5-25 cm layer of gravel and boulders. Source: A water harvesting manual for urban areas (ii. a) Dewas filters Most residents in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, have wells in their houses. Formerly, all that those wells would do was extract groundwater. But then, the district administration of Dewas initiated a groundwater recharge scheme. The rooftop water was collected and allowed to pass through a filter system called the Dewas fillter, designed by Mohan Rao , district collecter of Dewas, and engineers of the rural engineering services. The water thus filtered is put into the service tubewell. The filter consists of a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe 140 mm in diameter and 1.2m long. There are three chambers. The first purification chamber has pebbles varying between 2-6 mm, the second chamber has slightly larger pebbles, between 6 and 12 mm and the third chamber has the largest - 12-20 mm pebbles. There is a mesh at the outflow side through which clean water flows out after passing through the three chambers. The cost of this filter unit is Rs 600.

Filter for large rooftops When rainwater is harvested in a large rooftop area, the filtering system should accommodate the excess flow. A system is designed with three concentric circular chambers in which the outer chamber is filled with sand, the middle one with coarse aggregate and the inner-most layer with pebbles. This way the area of filtration is increased for sand, in relation to coarse aggregate and pebbles. Rainwater reaches the centre core and is collected in the sump where it is treated with few tablets of chlorine and is made ready for consumption

ii. b. Horizontal roughing filter and slow sand filter The introducton of horizontal roughing filter and slow sand filter (HRF/SSF) to treat surface water has made safe drinking water available in coastal pockets of Orissa. The major components of this filter are described below. 1) Filter channel : One square metre in cross-section and eight m in length, laid across the tank embankment, the filter channel consists of three uniform compartments, the first packed with broken bricks, the second with coarse sand, followed by fine sand in the third compartment. The HRF usually consists of filter material like gravel and coarse sand that successively decreases in size from 25 mm to 4 mm. The bulk of solids in the incoming water is separated by this coarse filter media or HRF. At every outlet and inlet point of the channel, fine graded mesh is implanted to prevent entry of finer materials into the sump. The length of a channel varies according to the nature of the site selected for the sump. 2) Sump: A storage provision to collect filtered water from the tank through the filter channel for storage and collection. While HRF acts as a physical filter and is applied to retain solid matter, SSF is primarily a biological filter, used to kill microbes in the water. Both filter types are generally stable, making full use of the natural purification process of harvested surface water and do not require any chemicals.

Advantages of rain water harvesting: Rainwater harvesting technologies are simple to install and operate. Local people can be easily trained to implement such technologies, and construction materials are also readily available. Rainwater harvesting is convenient in the sense that it provides water at the point of consumption, and family members have full control of their own systems, which greatly reduces operation and maintenance problems. Running costs, also, are almost negligible. Water collected from roof catchments usually is of acceptable quality for domestic purposes. As it is collected using existing structures not specially constructed for the purpose, rainwater harvesting has few negative environmental impacts compared to other water supply project technologies. Although regional or other local factors can modify the local climatic conditions, rainwater can be a continuous source of water supply for both the rural and poor. Depending upon household capacity and needs, both the water collection and storage capacity may be increased as needed within the available catchment area.

Disadvantages of rain water harvesting: Limited supply and uncertainty of rainfall. Adoption of this technology requires a *bottom up* approach rather than the more usual *top down* approach employed in other water resources development projects. This may make rainwater harvesting less attractive to some governmental agencies tasked with providing water supplies in developing countries, but the mobilization of local government and NGO resources can serve the same basic role in the development of rainwater-based schemes as water resources development agencies in the larger, more traditional public water supply schemes