Rainwater Harvesting Systems

Although it was once being used by most of the civilizations throughout the history, rainwater harvesting became less popular since people were able to access treated water easily. However, it is now becoming more and more popular again due to the decreased amount of ground water sources. In its simplest form, rainwater harvesting system is collecting rainwater in a tank with the help of gravity. Rainwater is gathered from rooftop through channels to a tank which is either on the ground or underground. The new and sophisticated systems can provide water which is clean enough to be used by the households for most of their water needs except drinking water.

In most of the countries all water is treated to drinking water quality and this water is used for all other needs such as watering plants, flushing and cleaning. As the ground water sources are falling gradually rainwater harvesting systems appear as a solution to the high treated water consumption and costs.

Although it is based on the simple principle of collecting the rainwater in a storage tank, in order to make it usable by the households, a rainwater harvesting system needs to have some important elements. The main stages in a rainwater harvesting system are transporting the rainwater, filtration, storage and cycling. A complete rainwater harvesting system consists of:

• Catchments: It is the surface that receives the rainfall and thus is the water supply of the system. It can be a paved area like a terrace, an unpaved area like lawn or a rooftop covered with galvanised iron or corrugated sheets.
• Coarse mesh: It is used to prevent the passage of debris.
• Gutters: Channels to collect and transport the rainwater. The most important thing about gutters is that they need to be supported so they don’t sag when they are filled with water.
• Conduits: Pipelines pipelines which carry rainwater from the catchment to the storage system.
• First-flushing: A simple valve that the first spell of rain is flushed out since it would carry high amount of pollutants coming from the air.
• Filter: It aims to remove suspending pollutants in the water before it enters the storage system.
• Storage tank: It is where the collected and filtered rainwater is stored for frther use.
• Pumping system: It is used to pump the water in the storage tank to the places of need.

Although they are simple in principle, rainwater harvesting systems should be installed by an expert. Systems are designed such that they occupy minimum space. While using rainwater harvesting systems, the plumbing system of the house needs to be divided into two so that water from the rainwater harvesting system will not be used in places where drinking water quality is required. Pressurizing and pressure maintaining elements in the systems will allow you have constant water pressure in your rainwater system. Rainwater harvesting system elements are made of durable materials and have a simple technical structure. These two features result in minimum maintenance requirements for the overall system. You may only need to clean filters from time to time and maybe some infrequent maintenance may be required for pumps.

If you need further assistance for rainwater harvesting systems contact us here.