RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM

The rainwater harvesting system is composed of eight components. These are the

following:

1. Catchments these directly receives the rainwater to be provided for the system.

Catchments can be a paved area, such as a terrace or a courtyard of a building, an

unpaved area like a lawn or an open ground or a roof made of reinforced cement concrete

(RCC), galvanized iron or corrugated sheets.

2. Coarse mesh located at the roof, this functions as a filter of debris.

3. Gutters these semi-circular or rectangular channels around the edge of a sloping

roof collects and transport rainwater to the storage tank. Gutters can be made using plain

galvanized iron sheet gauge 20 to 22, PVC material or bamboo or betel trunks. The size

of the gutter depends on the flow during rain of highest intensity, oversized by 10-15

percent. These should be supported to prevent sagging or falling off during loading with

water.

4. Conduits these are pipelines or drains, made of PVC or galvanized iron, which carry

rainwater from the catchment to the harvesting system. The diameter of the pipe required

for draining out rainwater depends on rainfall intensity and roof area:

Table 5. Sizing of rainwater pipe for roof drainage

("Components of a rainwater harvesting system," 2013)

Diameter Average rate of rainfall in mm/hr.

of Pipe
(mm)
50 75 100 125 150 200
50 13.4 8.9 6.6 5.3 4.4 3.3
 65 24.1 16.0 12.0 9.6 8.0 6.0
75 40.8 27.0 20.4 16.3 13.6 10.2
100 85.4 57.0 42.7 34.2 28.5 21.3
125 80.5 64.3 53.5 40.0
150 83.3 62.7

5. First-flush device this is a valve ensuring that the runoff from the first fall of rain, which

contains a relatively large amount of pollutants from air or from catchments, is flushed out

and prevented from entering the system.

6. Filter unit this is a chamber filled with fiber, coarse sand, gravel layers or charcoal

that screens the rainwater removing suspended pollutants.

a. Charcoal water filter it is made up of gravel, sand and charcoal placed in a

drum or an earthen pot. All materials are readily available.

b. Sand filter it is the most commonly used filter media because it is readily

available and inexpensive. Sand filter effectively removes turbidity, color and

microorganisms from the rainwater. The top layer of the sand filter is composed of coarse

sand and a 5-10 mm layer of gravel underneath. The bottommost is made up of 5-25 cm

layer of gravel and boulders.

b.1 Dewas filter it is comprised of a PVC pipe 140 mm in diameter and 1.2 meter

long, divided into three chambers. The first chamber has pebbles 2-6 mm in

diameter, the second has slightly larger pebbles 6-12 mm in diameter and the last

chamber has the largest pebbles 12-20 mm in diameter. A mesh is placed on the

outflow side through which clean water flows out after passing through the three

chambers. This filter system is used by most residents in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh.
b.2 Filter for large rooftops a filter system with three concentric circular chambers

is designed to accommodate excess flow of rainwater. The outer chamber is filled

with sand such that the area of filtration is increased for sand. The middle chamber

is filled with coarse aggregate and the innermost layer is filled with pebbles.

Rainwater will then be treated with chlorine tablets in the sump located at the

center core of the filter system. b.3Varun - this filter system is made from 90 liter

high density polyethylene (HDPE) drum that can handle a 50mm per hour intensity

rainfall from a 50 square meter roof area. The lid of the drum is turned over and

holes are punched in it. These holes will filter out large leaves, twigs, etc. Filtered

rainwater will then pass through three layers of sponge and 150 mm thick layer of

coarse sand. The sponge facilitates easier cleaning process.

b.4 Horizontal roughing filter and slow sand filter (HRF/SSF) surface water

treated through this filter system has provided safe drinking water for residents in

Orissa. It has two major components:

Filter channel this one square meter in cross section and eight meter

long filter channel consists of three uniform compartments. The first compartment

is packed with broken bricks, the second with coarse sand and the last

compartment with fine sand. It filters the bulk of solids in the incoming water. At

every outlet and inlet point of the channel, fine graded mesh is placed to prevent

entry of finer materials into the sump.

Sump this is where the filtered water from the tank is collected and

stored for use. SSF is primarily a biological filter, aims to kill microbes in the water.
c. Rainwater Purification Center this filter system is developed by combining the

scaled-down multi-staged water treatment method (MST) with existing

technologies like upward flow fine filtration, absorption and ion exchange. MST

involves screening, flocculation sedimentation and filtration. d. Rainwater

Harvester this filter system primarily filters runoff water from roads that generally

contains oil and grease.

7. Storage facility it can be any of the following:

a. Shape: cylindrical, rectangular or square

b. Material of construction RCC, ferrocement, masonry, polyethylene or

galvanized iron sheets

c. Position of tank depending on the space available, it can be constructed above

the ground, partly underground or fully underground

8. Recharge structures through any suitable structures like dug wells, bore wells,

recharge trenches or pits, rainwater may be charged into the groundwater aquifers.

a. Recharging of dug wells and abandoned tube wells dry wells or those whose

water levels declined considerably can be recharged directly with rooftop runoff.

Collected rainwater is diverted by drainpipes to a settlement or filtration tank then

flows into the recharge wells. The outer pipe or casing is preferred to be slotted or

perforated if a tube well is used for recharging. The slots or perforations will

increase the surface area available for water percolation. If a dug well is used, the

well lining should have openings at regular intervals to allow seepage of water

through the sides.

b. Settlement tank this is like an ordinary storage container but with provisions

for inflow, outflow and overflow and are used to remove silt and other floating

impurities from rainwater.

c. Recharging of service tube wells rooftop runoff is not directly led into the

service tube wells, instead rainwater is first collected in a recharge well that serves

as a temporary storage tank. This is done to avoid chances of contamination of

groundwater. The recharge well is provided with a borehole shallower than the

water table and provided with a casing pipe to prevent the caving in of soil. A filter

chamber packed with sand, gravel and boulders is also available to filter the

impurities.

d. Recharge pits this excavated pit 1.5 to 3 meter wide and 2 to 3 meter deep is

lined with a stone wall with opening at regular intervals. The top of the pit can 27

be covered with a perforated cover. The design procedure is similar with that of a

settlement tank.

e. Soak aways or percolation pit this is one of the easiest and most effective way

of rainwater harvesting. The 60 x 60 x 60 cm pit is filled with pebbles or brick jelly

and river sand and covered with percolated concrete slabs if necessary.

f. Recharge trenches this is a 0.5 to 1 meter wide and 1 to 1.5 meter deep

continuous trench excavated in the ground and refilled with pebbles, boulders or

broken bricks. Recharge trenches are relatively less effective.

g. Recharge troughs these troughs are commonly located at the entrance of a

residential or institutional complex and are similar to recharge trenches. However,

the excavated part is unfilled with filter materials. Boreholes are provided at regular

intervals to facilitate fast recharge. Due to the limitation of size, recharge troughs

are only capable of harvesting limited amount of rainwater.

h. Modified injection well instead of water being pumped into the aquifer, the

runoff is allowed to percolate through a sand-and-gravel filter bed. It is generally a

borehole, 500 mm in diameter. Its depth depends on the geological condition in

the area. A slotted casing pipe of 200 mm diameter is inserted into the borehole

and the space between the two is filled with gravel. It is developed with a

compressor until it yields clear water. A filter mechanism is also included to prevent

entrance of suspended solids into the recharge tube well.

("Components of a rainwater harvesting system," 2013)