July 9, 2021

Pangdi Training School

Pangdi is a small village, located in the
buffer zone of the Tadoba Andhari National
Park. The majority of the community here
depends upon the forest. Pangdi training
school is developed by ICICI Foundation,
to provide training for skill development to
the youth in the rural setup. It will help the
youth in the region to get better job
opportunities and income options.

Figure 2Hostels at Training school

Rooftop rainwater harvesting is a system of

catching rainwater where it falls. In rooftop
harvesting, the roof becomes the
catchments, and the rainwater is collected
from the roof of the house/building. As it
can be seen that Pandgi school building has
Figure 1Pandgi Training School a sloping roof so it can serve as good
catchment area.
Watershed Development
demonstration: Components of rooftop rainwater
harvesting:
1. Roof top Rainwater Harvesting

Rain water harvesting is basically the

collection and storage of rainwater rather
than allowing it to flow.The water is stored
on-site can be be used for various purposes
like washing, cleaning, gardening,
irrigation.

Figure 3Rainwater Harvesting System

The system constitutes of following

components-

1
 1. Catchments
2. Transportation
3. First flush
4. Filter
5. Storage
Catchment
The surface that receives rainfall directly is
the catchment of rainwater harvesting system.
Here the sloping roof will be the catchment
area.
Transportation
Water from sloping roofs could be caught
through gutters and down take pipe. Then
rainwater from the rooftop to be carried down
to the storage tanks through water pipes.
Pipes should be UV resistant of required
capacity. Also, the mouth of each drain
should consist a wire mesh to restrict any
floating material.
First Flush
First flush is a device used to flush off the
water received in first shower. The first
shower of rains needs to be flushed-off to
avoid contaminating storable/rechargeable
water by the probable contaminants of the
atmosphere and the catchment roof. It will
also help in cleaning of silt and other material
deposited on roof during dry seasons
Provisions of first rain separator should be
made at outlet of each drainpipe.
Filter
There is always some scepticism regarding
rooftop rainwater harvesting since doubts are
raised that rainwater may contaminate
groundwater. There is remote possibility of
this fear coming true if proper filter
mechanism is not adopted.
2
Also, all care must be taken to see that
underground sewer drains are not punctured
and no leakage is taking place in close vicinity.
Filters are used for treatment of water to
effectively remove turbidity, colour and
microorganisms. After first flushing of
rainfall, water should pass through filters. A
gravel, sand and ‘netlon’ mesh filter is
designed and placed on top of the storage tank.
This filter is very important in keeping the
rainwater in the storage tank clean. It removes
silt, dust, leaves and other organic matter from
entering the storage tank.
The filter media should be cleaned daily after
every rainfall event. Clogged filters prevent
rainwater from easily entering the storage tank
and the filter may overflow. The sand or gravel
media should be taken out and washed before
it is replaced in the filter.
Figure 4Nylon mesh filter
The various types of filter are -
1. Nylon mesh filter
2. Sand gravel filter
3. Charcoal filter
4. PVC pipe filter
5. Sponge filter
Storage of rainwater
1. Storage Tank
Rainwater is harvested from the roof is
collected in storage tank for future use. The
 storage tank is designed according to the
water requirement, rainfall and catchment
area.
Each drainpipe should have mesh filter at
mouth and first flush device followed by
filtration system before connecting to the
storage tank. It is advisable that each tank
should have excess water over flow
system. Excess water can be diverted for
recharge systems.It is a cost effective
method of rain water harvesting .
The main advantage of storing rainwater
in-situ collection is it reduces the cost of
of transportation and distribution.
Figure 5Storage tank
2. Recharging Groundwater
a. Recharging of Bore wells
Rainwater collected from rooftop of the
building is diverted through drainpipes to
settlement or filtration tank. After
settlement filtered water is diverted to bore
wells to recharge deep aquifers.
Abandoned bore wells can also be used for
recharge.
Figure 6Filtration tank recharging the borewell
3
b. Recharge pits
Recharge pits are small pits of any shape
rectangular, square or circular, contracted
with brick or stone masonry wall with weep
hole at regular intervals. Top of pit can be
covered with perforated covers. Bottom of
pit should be filled with filter media.
c. Recharging of dug wells
Dug well can be used as recharge structure.
Rainwater from the rooftop is diverted to
dug wells after passing it through filtration
bed. Cleaning and desalting of dug well
should be done regularly to enhance the
recharge rate. The filtration method
suggested for bore well recharging could be
used.
Figure 7Recharging dugwells
** The above rainwater harvesting system
gives an idea about the system that be used as
an demonstration in the school in the rural
model. It can be changed according to the
requirements, rainfall and catchment and
expert advice.
4