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 at the roof to prevent the

passage of 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:

ãc £ocally available material such as plain

galvanised iron sheet (20 to 22 gauge), ?

 
 
 
folded to required shapes.
  
ãc Semi-circular gutters of PVC material can be readily prepared by cutting those
pipes into two equal semi-circular channels.
ãc èamboo 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 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 - - - - 83.6 62.7
mm/ h - millimeters per hour; m - meters

?

  
 

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.

?

 
 
 
  

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.
 Ä
 
 
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.


Ä
 
?

 

Sand filters have commonly available sand as filter
 

media. Sand filters are easy and inexpensive to
 
  
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.

Ä 

 ?

 

  
 
  
Most residents
in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, have wells in their
houses. Formerly, all that those wells would do
was extract groundwater. èut 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.
V    
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. This system was designed
by
R Jeyakumar
(?
 
  
 

 
 !"#)

a
S Vishwanath, a èangalore water harvesting expert, has developed a rainwater filter
"VARUN". According to him, from a decently clean roof 'VARUN' can handle a 50 mm
per hour intensity rainfall from a 50 square metre roof area. This means the product is
relatively standardised. For new house builders we therefore can recommend the number
of downpipes they have to optimise on and the number of filters they will need.
'VARUN' is made from a 90 litre High Density Poly Ethylene
(HDPE) drum. The lid is turned over and holes are puched in it.
This is the first sieve which keeps out large leaves, twigs etc.
Rainwater coming out of the lid sieve then passes through three
layers of sponge and a 150 mm thick layer of coarse sand.
Presence of sponge makes the cleaning process very easy.
Remove the first layer of sponge and soak /clean it in a bucket
of water (which you then don't waste but use it for plants). The sand needs no cleaning at
all. The basic cost of the filter is about Rs 2250/-
      

 
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.


V   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.


 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. èoth filter types are generally
stable, making full use of the natural purification process of harvested surface water and
do not require any chemicals.

V 
 $
% & 


 
AcquaSure, a consortium of three specialist Netherlands-
based companies, has developed a system for the
conversion of rainwater to drinking water in the form of
a Rainwater Purification Centre (RainPC).

RainPC is developed by scaling down the multi-staged

water treatment method (MST), which involves
screening, flocculation sedimentation and filtration and
incorporating existing technologies like upward flow
fine filtration, absorption and ion exchange. Coming in a
small compact 26 kg unit, the RainPC offers an
affordable solution by converting rainwater into drinking
water.

RainPC is made of ultra violet resistant poly-ethylene housing and cover, stainless steel
rods and bolts, a nickel-brass valve and an adapter for maintaining constant volume.
Xenotex-A and activated carbon catridges along with ultra membrane filtration or micro-
membrane filtration modules incorporated in the RainPC has the capacity to deal with E-
coli and the potential of meeting the Dutch as well as World Health Organisations
(WHO) water regulation standards. The components can also be transported individually
to be assembled at the site. Three product types are available based on their microbial
contaminant removal capacity. This technology is ideally suited for virtually any
situation and is a blessing particularly for those who have little or no access to regular
safe drinking water.

p    

!c Simple straight-forward installation

!c Easy to operate and maintain
!c Needs no power and operates at low gravity
pressure (0.1 bar upward).
!c The system is capable of providing a constant flow
of about 40 liters of rainwater per hour, enough for
a family of five for drinking, cooking and bathing
purposes.
!c Maintains nearly constant volume irrespective of
water pressure.
!c The Xenotex-A and activated carbon cartridge
processes up to 20,000 liters and can be
regenerated up to 10 times.
!c Cost per 1000 litres is as low as US$ 2 to 3.

Ä    
   '
 
 

 &   
   


?%()

For further information Email: cleanwater@aquasure.nl

 

EA Water Pvt £td has launched a unique Rainwater Harvester, which filters runoff water
from roads, which generally contains oil and grease. This system has been installed in
the Gymkhana club, Sector-15, Faridabad, Haryana. Rajit Malohtra, project in charge, of
this company explained that the water harvesting system installed at the club has a sand
filter, which filters silt from runoff harvested from roof, lawns and parking area. The cost
of the filter is around Rs 60,000.
‰
 

 
 


 
 




 




 


  


 





 



 







 





 





 


 




  






 
 



 










 




 

 




 
 
 



 




 

 


  










  















 




 



 
 




 



Design of storage tanks

The volume of the storage tank can be determined by the following factors:

!c Number of persons in the household: The greater the number of persons, the greater the
storage capacity required to achieve the same efficiency of fewer people under the same
roof area.
!c Per capita water requirement: This varies from household to household based on habits
and also from season to season. Consumption rate has an impact on the storage systems
design as well as the duration to which stored rainwater can last.
!c Average annual rainfall
!c Period of water scarcity: Apart from the total rainfall, the pattern of rainfall -whether
evenly distributed through the year or concentrated in certain periods will determine the
storage requirement. The more distributed the pattern, the lesser the size.
!c Type and size of the catchment:Type of roofing material determines the selection of the
runoff coefficient for designs. Size could be assessed by measuring the area covered by
the catchment i.e., the length and horizontal width. £arger the catchment, larger the size
of the required cistern (tank).

Dry season demand versus supply approach

In this approach there are three options for determining the volume of storage:

1.c Matching the capacity of the tank to the area of the roof
2.c Matching the capacity of the tank to the quantity of water required by its users
3.c Choosing a tank size that is appropriate in terms of costs, resources and construction
methods.

In practice the costs, resources and the construction methods tend to limit the tanks to smaller
capacities than would otherwise be justified by roof areas or likely needs of consumers. For this
reason elaborate calculations aimed at matching tank capacity to roof area is usually
unnecessary. However a simplified calculation based on the following factors can give a rough
idea of the potential for rainwater colection.

›  
Suppose the system has to be designed for meeting drinking water requirement of a five-member
family living in a building with a rooftop area of 100 sq. m. The average annual rainfall in the
region is 600 mm (average annual rainfall in Delhi is 611 mm). Daily drinking water requirement
per person (drinking and cooking) is 10 litres.

Design procedure:

Following details are available:

Area of the catchment (A) = 100 sq. m.
Average annual rainfall (R) = 611 mm (0.61 m)
Runoff coefficient (C) = 0.85 1. Calculate the maximum
amount of rainfall that can be harvested from the rooftop:
Annual water harvesting potential = 100 x 0.6 x 0.85
= 51 cu. m. (51,000 litres)
2. Determine the tank capacity: This is based on the dry
period, i.e., the period between the two consecutive rainy
seasons. For example, with a monsoon extending over four
months, the dry season is of 245 days.
3. Calculate drinking water requirement for the family for the
dry season
= 245 x 5 x 10
= 12,250 litres

As a safety factor, the tank should be built 20 per cent larger

than required, i.e., 14,700 litres. This tank can meet the basic
drinking water requirement of a 5-member family for the dry
period. A typical size of a rectangular tank constructed in the
basement will be about 4.0 m x 4.0 m x 1.0 m

    

1.c Simplest approach to system design but is relevant only in areas where distinct dry
seasons exist
2.c Provides a rough estimate of storage volume requirements
3.c This method does not take into account variations between different years, such as the
occurrence of drought years. It also entirely ignores rainfall input and the capacity of the
catchment to deliver the runoff necessary to fill the storage tank.
4.c This technique can be used in the absence of any rainfall data and is easily
understandable to the layperson.These points are especially relevant when designing
systems in the remote areas of developing countries where obtaining reliable rainfall data
can be difficult.