Chapter 13

Rainwater Harvesting

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 Intoduction to RWH
 Definition of Rain water Harvesting

 Building code requirement – NBC 2016 Part-9 section -1

 Basic Hydrological Cycle

 Requirement of RWH

 Method of Rain water Harvesting

 Rain water harvesting illustration for a Residential project.

 Advantages & disadvantages of RWH

 Overview of RWH

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In principle, rainwater harvesting consists of intercepting rainfall
where it occurs, saving the water in various storage structures,
which can be natural or manmade, percolating it in ground to
raise water table level, prevention of losses through evaporation
& and beneficially using stored water locally.
In the universe, life is known to exist nowhere except the Earth.
Modern science unequivocally believes that life cannot exist
without water.
Life has sustained on our Earth for 3.5 billion years because of
some extraordinary attributes of the Earth.
One such attribute is the hydrological cycle, by which a small
fraction of one per cent of all freshwater in the Earth is
circulated over and over again

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One part of rain falling on land flows in rivers and streams
towards the ocean, and one part of it goes back to
atmosphere as evaporation, and as transpiration by plants.
The remaining part circulates underground as subsoil water
and groundwater.
It is within this simple, and yet profound framework that rain
harvest needs to be understood.

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RWH is the need of time today for following reasons :

 Growing population

 Modernization / Industrialization & ill effect associated with it.

 Global warming, abnormal changes in hydrological cycle.

 Growing difference between availability & requirement of

water globally

Acute shortage of fresh potable water.

To recharge the underground aquifer for sustainability of the

water table at lower depths for its reuse to human needs

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You will be surprised to know that the Cherapunji in Assam
which receives highest rain fall in India to the tune of 11000
mm per year also suffer from acute shortage of drinking
water not because rain water is not consumed but allowed
to be drained away.
This has also resulted into over exploitation of surface
sources like wells for drinking and industrial use, resulting
to dropping of water levels and drying up of bore wells.

How can we harvest rain water broadly these are two ways
harvesting
(1) Surface run-off harvesting.
(2) Root top rain water harvesting.

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Any rainwater harvesting system will typically have following
four elements

1) Catchments area

2) Conduits

3) First flush

4) Settlement Tank

5) Recharge facility or storage facility.

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1) Catchment area :-

The catchment is the area or surface, which receives rainfall

directly. It can be any surface such as paved area like a terrace
or courtyard of building or an unpaved area, like Lawn or open
ground.
Temporary structures like sloping sheds can also act as
catchments.
Run-off factor determines the quantity of water which will be
available from the catchment.
Run-off factors for wooded or grassy land is very less say 10%
rest is absorbed by percolation, whereas run-off factor for
paved or terraced area is 70 to 90% as most of the rainwater is
available for recharge or storage except for water lost due to
evaporation.

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2) Conduits : -

Conduits or the pipes carry rainwater from the catchments

or roof tops to harvesting/storage system. The conduits may
be of any materials like PVC, HDPE , galvanized or locally
available metal like earthen pipes, RCC pipes .

3) First flush :-

First flush is advice used to flush the water received in first

shower. The first shower needs to be flushed off to avoid
contamination at atmospheric and catchment roof. It will also
help cleaning the silt and other materials deposited on the
roof (like bird drops) during dry season.

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4) Settlement Tank :-

For rural areas , rain water carries lot of dust, mud, dirt along with
it, all this matter is removed by introducing a settling tank with
gravity filter to arrest the mud, silt .
Water settles there & overflow is connected to recharge facility.
These settling tanks are required to be cleaned from time to
time.

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Whenever we try to store the rain water from terrace directly, we
provide grating at the inlet of down take pipes. Also we flush out
the first rain to storm water drain & then clean water from further
rains are collected in storage tanks.
As volume of water generated by RWH is very large it becomes
uneconomical to store all the water in tanks, then we try to
percolate this water in the nearby aquifer by connecting
harvested water to dry bore, existing well, hand pump etc. A
typical arrangement of recharge is shown in the sketch below.

There is major difference between methods adopted for RWH in

Urban area & rural area. In urban areas you have lot of hard
terraced area, paved pathways & roads, so you get a good
quantity & reasonably pure water from collection. But problem is
limited & costly space for storage.

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So we store bare minimum & try to percolate maximum water to
underground aquifer.
In case of rural area we do not have much of water from paved or
terrace area, but we have major quantity from surface runoff.
So we do contour terracing of land & rain water is held at
intermediate intervals for percolation.
Finally it is diverted to deep wells / ponds.

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Rain water recharge-percolation in ground

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Rain water storage for direct use (non-potable)

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Advantages & Disadvantages of RWH :-
We have seen above the different methods of RWH, now let
us see Pro & Cons of Rain Water Harvesting.

Advantages are as below :-

1)Water which will runoff & join ocean is not useful directly
for human consumption; with the help of RWH we can use
this water for mankind.

2) We can not generate water artificially on such large scale,

RWH is the best way one can capture large volume of water.

3) Hot & arid places like Rajasthan in India where there is

huge scarcity of water. Whatever rain falls in desert is
absorbed in soil or evaporates, in such circumstances RWH
is a boon.
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4) RWH provided of self sufficiency of water supply.

Disadvantages are as below :-

1)RWH on a very large scale will reduce the flow of streams

to river, which plays important role in transporting
sediments & nutrients as well as sustaining the habitats of
many plants and animals, collectively referred to as
ecosystems. This also has an ill-effect on hydrological cycle.

2) If the catchments area is polluted with any biological /

chemical material then it will have major impact on quality
of underground water storage. Also it takes many years to
purify these underground resources by natural means.

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 Some time overflow of septic tank is not properly
connected to nalla or sullage line. In such cases, during
rains sullage water gets mixed with storm water & pollute
under ground water.

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Typical details of RWH Percolation Pit

150MMØ OVERFLOW
PIPE TO S.W.D

150MM PIPE CONNECTING

SECOND GREASE CUM OIL
CHAMBER TO RECHARGE PIT
230 2500 230

230
PIPE CARRYING RAIN
WATER TO 0.9M .DIA.1.0M 230MM THK.BRICK WALL
DEEP DE-SILTATION PIT FOR SOIL LAYER ONLY

A A

2500
7 INCH 4/2.5 Kg.
PVC FLITTER SCREEN

12 INCH 4/2.5 Kg.0.9M. PVC

FLITTER SCREEN

230
RUBBLE FILLING

6"Dia 50 TO 60m Deep INTERNAL PLASTER

New Bore Well 20MM

2.50M .X 2.50M X 2.00M RECHARGE PIT 16 NO

FLOATING GREASE
AND OIL
GREASE CUM OIL
150MM PVC PIPE WITH CAP TRAP 150MM OVERFLOW
FOR FIRST DRAIN OFF PIPE BELOW INLET
LEVEL TO S.W.D.
PIPE CARRYING RAIN
WATER PLOT LEVEL WITH
900 900 900MM
WIDE MANHOLE
PCC
900MM RCC RING
WELL

2000mm
DE-SILTATION
GREASE &
OIL TRAP PIT
230MM BRICK WORK FOR
PIT
SOIL LAYER ONLY

230MM RUBBLE
SOLING
PERFORATION
0.6M. RWH FILTER
230MM RUBBLE
SCRENE
SOLING
NATURAL STRATA
150MM PIPES WITH CAP
CONNECTING FIRST FLUSH 6'DIA.50 TO 60M .DEEP
CHAMBER TO OIL & GREASE TRAP NEW BORE WELL

VERTICAL SECTION A-A OF PIT

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New Construction technique for RWH Pits in readymade boxes.

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 Surface Runoff Evaporation

Overflow Runoff Open Catchment

Sub-
terrain
Catchment

RETENTION PERCOLATION

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 rain water for reuse
Finished surface level
Air vent
Filtered rain water

Air vent Overflow to percolation

Rain
water
entry
Submersible
pump

Readymade Box Geomembrane with

Smooth pipe connection 2 geotextiles Pump shaft

The rain water may be collected and storaged in a readymade basin/ storm
cell storage completely sealed using a geomembrane such as HDPE. The
extraction of water is done in pump shaft outside the basin. A filter is use
before introduction of the rain water in the basin.

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Case study storage of rain water for secondary use

Installation of the geomembrane on top of the protection geotextile

Photos during the construction and installation

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Case study storage of rain water for secondary use

Detail of the connection, covering with the geomembrane

Photos during the construction and installation

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Case study storage of rain water for secondary use

End of the box installation and covering of the basin with the geosynthetics

Photos during the construction and installation

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Storage of rain water for secondary use

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The SHAFT is for Control, Cleaning and Connection. It may be
integrated within the basin structure. It allows a connection of pipe
inside the structure till DN 500.

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Typical details of online Rain water filters

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 Rain Water Calculation for project at Pune

Total rainfall per year 800 mm

Total rainy days in a year 50
Avg rainfall per day 16 mm/day

Runoff after development

Sr.No. Type of area Area in m2 'C' value Avg Rain fall Discharge

mm/day m3/day

1 Building roof 5000 0.95 16 76.00

2 Paved area 2500 0.80 16 32.00

3 Concrete Road Area 3000 0.95 16 45.60

4 Open space Area 3500 0.50 16 28.00

5 Ground Landscape area 1500 0.3 16 6.00

Total of area 15500

Total rain water discharge in m3/day 188

Runoff before development

Sr.No. Type of area Area in m2 'C' value Avg Rain fall Discharge

mm/day m3/day

1 total plot area with heavy countour 15500 0.550 16 136.40

impact caused due to development 51.2000 m3/day

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 Thank you

Any Questions?
Compiled by Technical Committee - IPA

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the same is to impart code based technical knowledge to the participants of IPPL. These are set of recommendations to those who are involved in the design,
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