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Rainwater

Harvesting
Presentation by-
1. Swapnil Hire
2. Diyvang ingle
3. Nikhil Jagirdar
4. Devashree Joshi
Class-F.E
Div-G Batch-G1
Roll Nos.-17,18,19,20
Introduction
• 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 is usually of good quality and does not
require treatment before consumption. Household rainfall
catchment systems are appropriate in areas with an average
rainfall greater than 200mm per year, and no other accessible
water sources
Contents
• 1 Ground catchment systems
• 2 Roof catchment systems
• 3 Subsurface dyke
• 4 Groundwater recharge
• 5 Advantages in urban areas
• 6 Quality
• 7 System sizing
• 8 Around the world
• 9 Conclusion
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
catchments 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.
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 Kerela 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 in urban areas can have manifold
reasons. Some of the reasons 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, NOx, SOx). 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 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
Around the world
• 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.[6]
In Brief
Conclusion
• The effectiveness of a rain water
harvesting system lies in its ability to meet
the site specific requirements and end use
preferences. Though simple, these
systems are site specific and need to be
detailed out before implementation.
With the decreasing availability of water,
rain water harvesting presents the best
option for times to come.

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