Rainwater Harvesting

RAINWATER HARVESTING Cities and towns face the twin problems of floods during monsoon and shortage of water during non-monsoon time. Usually, rainwater just runs off the surface or is fed into the drains -- rainwater gone waste. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) can solve the problem. RWH can be done in two ways: STORAGE FOR DIRECT USE Rain water collected from the This is the most cost effective roof (catchment) of the building is diverted to a storage tank. way of rainwater harvesting. Water is collectod from roof and The storage tank has to be designed according to the water requirements, rainfall and catchment availability. stored. Since there is no energy expenditure on transportation and distribution of water, energy is also conserved. Storing rainwater helps to conserve groundwater. RECHARGING GROUND WATER Rainwater collected from roof is diverted to a recharge pit. Ground water aquifers can be recharged by many kinds of structures to help in percolation of rainwater in the ground. The collected rainwater is then filtered using layers of gravel, brick pieces etc in the recharge pit. Commonly used recharging methods are: The water then enters into Recharging of bore wells Recharge pits (pictured) Recharging of dug wells Recharge Trenches the ground and then reaches the groundwater. The water can also be released via used borewells, wells and so on. im THE INFOMISSION PROJECT