National Service Scheme (NSS) Program

on
Rainwater Harvesting
“ Innovative Ideas on rain water conservation”

Er. Brijendra Singh

Department of Bioinformatics
UIET,CSJMU, Kanpur
 Water- A Natural Resource
• Water is our most vital natural resource, supporting life and life
support processes. The amount of water available for each person will
continue to decrease as the world’s population expands.
• Every year, approximately 25 million people die, by either drinking
polluted water or because they do not have enough water to meet their
daily needs.
• Near about 27 to 150 liters ( 6 to 42 gallons) are needed per person
per day for drinking, sanitation, bathing and cooking etc.
 Rainwater Harvesting
• Rainwater harvesting is the simple process or technology used to
conserve Rainwater by collecting, storing, conveying and purifying of
Rainwater that runs off from rooftops, parks, roads, open grounds, etc.
• The concept of RWH has a long history, Evidences indicate domestic
RWH having been used in the Middle East for about 3000 years and in
other parts of Asia for at least 2000 years.
• Rainwater harvesting can be done at individual household level and at
community level in both urban as well as rural areas.
 Conti…..

• Rain water in India-

Total annual rainfall in India: (area x height)
India’s area : 329 million hectares
if evenly spread, average height: 1.28m
329 x 1.28 = 412.12 millimeters
 Why Rainwater Harvesting (RWH)?
• Rainwater Harvesting yield abundant amounts of water. For average
rainfall of 1,000mm, approximately four million liters of rainwater can
be collected in a year in an acre of land (4,047 m2), post-evaporation.
• As RWH is neither energy-intensive nor labor-intensive,- a cost-
effective alternative to other water-accruing methods, such as
desalination of seawater & water transfer.
• Rainwater harvesting system is one of the best methods practised
and followed to support the conservation of water. Today, scarcity of
good quality water has become a significant cause of concern.
• However, Rainwater, which is pure and of good quality, can be used
for irrigation, washing, cleaning, bathing, cooking and also for other
livestock requirements.
 Rainwater Harvesting - Purposes
Rainwater Harvesting techniques can serve the following purposes:
• Two Major Purposes: Agricultural and human consumption
• Freshwater augmentation (increase)
• Increase groundwater recharge
• Reduce storm water discharges, urban floods and overloading of sewage
treatment plants
• Reduce seawater ingress in coastal areas
* Rainwater harvesting is a sustainable process that helps in preserving
water for future needs. Water scarcity is a major concern in today’s
scenario. The process of rainwater harvesting is a good way to conserve
water.
 Objectives of Rainwater Harvesting
a) Increase volume of water bodies - Many parts of the world have two kinds
of seasons like rainy season and dry season. During dry season, there is very little
or no rain. Due to this, the water bodies like pond, rivers, etc. are dried.
b) Lessen flood and soil erosion - By storing rainwater, it reduces the surface
runoff. This reduces the surface erosion. By capturing rainwater in reservoirs, the
flood problem in large rainfalls is also diminished.
c) Prevent overuse of underground water - As population of a locality
increases, its demand for water increases too. To meet this, underground water is
used. Due to this reason, the level of underground water is decreasing rapidly. By
using rainwater, the demand on groundwater is reduced.
d) Save money - Pumping up of underground water is very costly than that of
rainwater harvest. So, the use of rainwater saves money.
 How we can harvest rainwater?
• Broadly there are two ways harvesting rainwater-
a) Surface runoff harvesting
b) Roof top rainwater harvesting
• Surface runoff harvesting-
In urban area rainwater flows away as surface runoff. This runoff could be
caught and used for recharging aquifers by adopting appropriate methods.
• Roof top rainwater harvesting-
It is a system of catching rainwater where it falls. In roof top harvesting,
the roof becomes the catchments, and the rainwater is collected from the
roof of the house/ building. This method is less expensive and very
effective.
 Components of RWH systems
• Rainwater harvesting systems consists of the following components:
• Catchment- Used to collect and store the captured Rainwater.
• Conveyance system – It is used to transport the harvested water from
the catchment to the recharge zone.
• Flush- It is used to flush out the first spell of rain.
• Filter – Used for filtering the collected Rainwater and remove
pollutants.
• Tanks and the recharge structures: Used to store the filtered water
which is ready to use.
Catchment Area
 Catchment Area
• It is the area that gets rainwater directly. From this rainwater is
collected and stored. According to the types of the catchment area, it is
again of two types as follows.
a) Rooftop catchment - The terrace may be flat RCC/stone roof or
sloping roof. Therefore the catchment is the area, which actually
contributes rainwater to the harvesting system.
Roof top rainwater harvesting
 Conti…
b) Land surface catchment – Here, rainwater is collected from the
common surface of any ground or land. This method of water collection
is also very intricate. This method can be improved by improving
surface runoff capacity. That is done using a number of techniques.
 Transportation
• Rainwater from rooftop should be carried through down take water
pipes or drains to storage/harvesting system. Water pipes should be
UV resistant ( ISI HDPE/PVC pipes) of required capacity.
 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 storage/ rechargeable water by the probable
contaminants of the atmosphere and catchment roof.
 Filtration and Storage system
• Filter are used for treatment of water to effectively remove turbidity,
colour and microorganism. After first flushing of rainfall, water
should pass filters.
• Storage system- all collected rain water are store in tanks or barrels
used.
 Filtration system
• There are different types of filters in practice, but basic function is to
purify water.
Sand Gravel Filter- these are commonly used filters, constructed by
brick masonry and filleted by pebbles, gravel and sand. Each layer
should be separated by wire mesh.
i) Charcoal Filter- i) Sand Gravel Filter
 PVC-Pipe filter
iii) PVC filters are made up of PVC pipes filled with sand and gravel
separated by a layer of gravel.
• This filter can be made by PVC pipe of 1 to 1.20m length; diameter of
pipe depends on the area of roof. Six inches dia. pipe is enough for a
1500Sq.ft roof and 8 inches dia. Pipe should be used for roof more
than 1500Sq.ft. pipe is divided into three compartments by wire mesh.
 Delivery system
• It is a system to delivered of water for uses. There are use of pumps to
take out water from tank and deliver for many purpose. Water is
deliver by pips.
Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) Techniques for Urban and
Rural Areas
• Commonly used recharging methods are-
i) Recharge of bore wells
ii) Recharge of dug wells
iii) Recharge pits
iv) Recharge trenches
v) Percolation Tanks
vi) Gully Plug
vii) Gabion Structure
viii) Rainwater harvesting through check dams/Cement plugs/ Nala
Bunds
Recharge of Bore wells and dug wells
 Traditional methods of rainwater harvesting in India
• Indian administrations are taking many new projects to locate and to
revive the age-old conventional water harvesting methods.
• These approaches are found to be very easy, reliable, and eco-friendly.
The existence of many such ancient structures has been proven by
archaeological findings.
i) Jhalaras are the stepwells having stairs in its sides. Shapes of these
structures are almost rectangular. These structures collect the buried
discharge of a nearby water reservoir, pond, or lake.
ii) Talabs are either pond or pans. They are utilized for meeting
consumable water for drinking and domestic work purposes. These
structures can be natural or man-made.
 Conti…
iii) Taanka is a traditional structure of rainwater harvesting seen in the Thar
Desert region of Rajasthan. This structure consists of a cylinder-shape
underground well. It collects rainwater from rooftops, courtyards, or
artificially prepared catchment flows and sore for future use.

iv) Ahar pynes are found in South Bihar. These are artificial lakes in which
three of their sides are ridged, whereas the fourth side is open. The open side
is joined to the end of a diversion channel as in pynes.

v) Johads are the small-size muddy check dams that are built to store
rainwater. They also help in recharging groundwater.
 Advantages of Rainwater Harvesting
The benefits of rainwater harvesting system are listed below.
• Less cost.
• Helps in reducing the water bill.
• Decreases the demand for water.
• Reduces the need for imported water.
• Promotes both water and energy conservation.
• Improves the quality and quantity of groundwater.
• Does not require a filtration system for landscape irrigation.
• This technology is relatively simple, easy to install and operate.
• It reduces soil erosion, storm water runoff, flooding, and pollution of surface water
with fertilizers, pesticides, metals and other sediments.
• It is an excellent source of water for landscape irrigation with no chemicals and
dissolved salts and free from all minerals.
Disadvantages of Rainwater harvesting
• In addition to the great advantages, the rainwater harvesting system
has a few disadvantages like unpredictable rainfall, unavailability of
the proper storage system, etc.
• Listed below are few more disadvantages of the rainwater harvesting
process.
i) Regular Maintenance is required.
ii) Requires some technical skills for installation.
iii) Limited and no rainfall can limit the supply of Rainwater.
iv) If not installed correctly, it may attract mosquitoes and other
waterborne diseases.
v) One of the significant drawbacks of the rainwater harvesting system
is storage limits.
 Examples

• In the state of Tamil Nadu, rainwater harvesting was made

compulsory for every building to avoid ground water depletion.
• In Rajasthan, rainwater harvesting has traditionally been practiced by
the people of the Thar Desert.
• At present, in Pune (in Maharashtra), rainwater harvesting is
compulsory for any new society to be registered.
 References
• Concepts and practices of rain water harvesting - central pollution
boar, Ministry of environment and forests
website- http://envfor.nic.in/cpcb
• Handbook for Rainwater Harvesting for the Caribbean - Prepared for
UNEP by the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute.
• Rainwater Harvesting by Victor F. Medina – Engineering research and
development center-U.S.Army.
THANK YOU