Rain Water Harvesting System: Its Advantages

Rain water harvesting system is a technique used in the collection and storage of rain water. Rain water is collected from many surfaces: rooftops, surface of land, and rock catchments. Traditional jars and pots are used in the collection. In recent times, more complex storage systems are used, such as underground check dams.

The techniques used by Asians and Africans have arisen from traditional practices that have been adopted by previous civilizations. Rain water harvesting system till date serves as a dominant drinking water source, especially in rural regions. Most common rain water harvesting systems are comprised of three components: catchment area, collection device, and conveyance system.

Rooftop catchment is the most primitive and basic form of this technique. Simple vessels are used to collect rainwater at the roof’s edge. This basic approach has many variations. Rain water can be collected in gutters that drain to vessel for collection through specially constructed down-pipes. Alternatively, rain water can be diverted from gutters into containers. This can cause particulates to settle down before conveyance to the storage container for domestic utilization.

Because the rooftop serves as the catchment area, the quantity and quality of rain water depends on the quality of the roofing material and its total area. Good-quality rain water can be collected from rooftops made of corrugated iron that is galvanized, asbestos or aluminum sheets of cement, slates and tiles. Thatched roofs tied together with bamboo can produce similar quantities of water in a cheaper way. However, it must be noted that roofs made of bamboo could have health hazards. In a similar way, roofs containing metallic paint or similar coatings are unsuitable since they may pass on color and taste to the water that is collected. The surface of roofs should be regularly cleansed in order to remove leaves, bird droppings, and dust. This should ensure high quality of collected water.

Rain water harvesting system can also feature catchments on land surface. Utilizing ground or land surface to store water is a far simpler method of rain water collection. This would involve enhancing runoff capacity on the surface of the land by various methods. Collection of run-off water with drain pipes and storing collected water are two such methods. In comparison with techniques of rooftop catchment, techniques of ground catchment allows more storage of water from a surface area that is larger.

Benefits of Rain Water Harvesting

1. Save money on water bills by using your own water source
2. Watering Garden
3. No wasting money on water tankers
4. No Water shortage due to water cuts
5. 24 hours water supply no need to depend on water timings
6. Recover installation cost within 2 – 3 Years due to savings in water bills
7. Savings of up to 200 liters of water per family in the society per day