Rainwater harvesting in buildings: Requirements, Methods:-components, transport & Storage

Water is no doubt the most vital thing on earth. Every living being residing on earth requires water. Water gives you the energy to do work, digest, and maintain hydration in your body. But what if you don’t get the amount of water that you need? Yes! There is only one obvious answer. Living creatures will die without water. Now, you must be thinking about 98% water and 2% of the land. The world has 98% filled with water. However, these water are not consumable. From the 98% of the water, around 93% are saline water. The remaining 5% are freshwater that you can consume. 

In such cases, you should save water as much as you can. So, when you are talking about preserving water, rainwater harvesting stands as one of the most preeminent ways to save water. You can find two types of rainwater harvesting broadly. One is surface runoff rainwater harvesting, and the other one is rooftop rainwater harvesting. Here in this post, you will read about rooftops rainwater harvesting in buildings.

What is exactly rooftop rainwater harvesting in buildings?

Most of the houses come with a flat roof. So, when waterfalls on it, it drains down to the ground. The rooftop rainwater harvesting in such cases is the collection of rainwater that falls on the roof. Your house must be having a pipeline that drains the rainwater to the ground. However, harvesting occurs when you collect that rainwater in a tank. Or you may also divert the water to flow into a manmade water recharge system. If you follow any of these methods, you can ensure the correct level of groundwater.

Requirements of rainwater harvesting in a building

You hardly have to spend any cost on rooftop rainwater harvesting. The major component that you need is the catchment. And here your terrace serves as a catchment. The other things that you need are a channel to divert the water and finally a tank. You can also make an artificial groundwater recharge system to ensure the correct level of groundwater. 

Components of the rainwater harvesting

There are several components of rainwater harvesting that makes it a successful process. Here are the components of rainwater harvesting.

Catchment

This is usually the area that receives the rainfall. In most cases, you don’t require a catchment, if you have a building. This is because; your terrace or rooftop will work as your catchment. Your rooftop may be an RCC flat roof or a sloping roof. You can collect water using it as a catchment.

Sand gravel filter

These are the filters made with brick masonry. Then it gets filled with pebbles, gravel, and sand. 

Charcoal filter

This is a filter that can be made with a Situ or drum. The main fillets that get used are pebbles, gravel, sand, and charcoal. Every layer of this filter gets separated with wire mesh.

PVC Pipes

PVC pipes act as a channel. It helps you divert water from the catchment to the tank. 

Methods of rainwater harvesting

There are several methods of rainwater harvesting. It includes:

  • Storage for direct use
  • Recharge groundwater aquifers
  • Recharging bore wells
  • Recharge pits
  • Recharge shafts
  • Dug well recharging
  • Trenches recharging
  • Percolation tank

Conclusion 

Keeping it short, this is how you can do rainwater harvesting. Now that you know the methods and components, you should start harvesting rainwater for groundwater recharge pr for direct use. It is never too late. you should start preserving the water for your future generation now. Your initiative can make this world a better place to live. if you have any more suggestion, you can comment below.

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