Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting: Advantages & Disadvantages

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What Is Rooftop Rain Harvesting

This Rooftop rainwater harvesting system is mostly used for domestic purposes as well as in rural areas the RTRWH system is highly adapted. The rooftop rainwater harvesting system is a pretty simple and low-cost technique that requires minimum specific knowledge and it gives maximum benefit.

Generally, we have collected rainwater on the top of a roof and transferred it with gutters to a storage reservoir, where it provides water at the point of consumption and can be used to recharge a well or the aquifer.

The Rainwater harvesting system can supplement water sources when they become scarce or are of low quality like brackish groundwater or polluted surface water in the rainy season.

The rainwater quality may be affected by air pollution, bird droppings, insects, dirt, organic matter, etc. Therefore regular maintenance, as well as treatment before water consumption, is very important.

Components of Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting

The following components consist of Rooftop rainwater harvesting,

Catchments
Channels
Conduits
First-Flushing
Filter
Storage Facility
Recharge Structure

Here, We explain the components of Rooftop Rainwater harvesting in detail,

1. Catchments

This catchment area of the harvesting system is the surface that directly receives the rainfall and provides the rainfall and provides water to the system.

It can be an unpaved area like open ground or lawn and a paved surface such terrace or courtyard of a building.

This catchment roof is made up of reinforced cement concrete (RCC), Corrugated sheets or gal vanished iron sheets can also be used for a water harvesting system.

2. Channels

Rainwater is collected around the edges of sloping roofs in channels and it is carried to a storage tank, and the size of the channel is depending upon the flow during heavy rain.

Before constructing the channel make sure the channel should be in 10 to 15% large in size and it can be made up of Polyvinyl Chloride, Plain Gal vanished Iron OR Bamboo Trunk.

3. Conduits

Drains and Pipelines transfer the rainwater from the catchment area to the harvesting system and its conduits can be of galvanized iron or PVC.

4. First-Flushing

The first spell of rain carries a large number of pollutants from the catchment area and air, so first flushing is required.

5. Filter

A filter is too much useful for filtering rainwater because it carried suspended pollutants over the roof, and it consists of a different chamber that is filled with filtering media like Gravel, coarse sand, Fine sand, and Fiber layers for removing debris and dirt from the rainwater before it enters into the storage tank.

6. Storage Tank

The storage tanks are available in multiple options according to the size, shape, and material of construction.

Also, the shape of a storage tank may be square, rectangular, or cylindrical, and you can use different types of materials like Metal, Reinforced Cement Concrete, Masonry, Ferro cement, and Polyethylene material.

Mainly the storage tank is placed in three positions namely on the ground, Underground, and above the ground.

So that you can choose according to your availability of space also some maintenance measure is required like disinfection and cleaning.

7. Recharge Structures

Rainwater-charged groundwater aquifers as well as an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fracture, or unconsolidated materials such as gravel, silt, and sand through any suitable structure like dug wells, recharge trench and bore wells.

Advantages:

Help in reducing water consumption by as much as 40%.
The installation cost of Roof top Rainwater Harvesting is less.
Reduce the rate of the scarcity of water during the summer season.
This rainwater harvesting system is quite simple to operate and use.

Disadvantages:

It requires some technical skills to install a harvesting system.
This harvesting system required regular maintenance.
No rainfall and limited rainfall can limit the supply of rainwater.
If the harvesting system is not installed properly then it may attract mosquitoes and spread other diseases.

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