Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

National Seminar on Rainwater Harvesting and Water Management 11-12 Nov. 2006, Nagpur
69. Design and Development of a Roof-Top Rainwater Harvesting
Structure for Drinking Water Supply
*Lala I. P. Ray **S. Senthilvel
Abstract
In the present era of virtually ‘mining’ of the ‘liquid gold – WATER’ in rural
areas for increased agricultural production and meeting the acute water shortage
in urban areas for drinking and industrial water needs, rainwater harvesting seems
to be a feasible solution. The present study focuses on the role of rooftop rainwater
harvesting (RTWH) to supplement the local water demands of Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University (TNAU) campus, as a representative unit of evaluation.
The micro level experimentation conducted on a 624 m 2 projected area resulted in
encouraging results, indicating a good potential for harvesting rainwater. The
workshop complex, selected as the study plot, could effectively generate 8.6 m 3 of
water per annum from its rooftop during the rainy season and the volume of water
collected was found to cater to the water requirement of the hydraulics laboratory,
drinking water needs, washing water needs and the consumptive water use
requirement of the Theme park. A harvesting structure consisting of a collecting
unit, a filtering unit and a storage tank was designed to store the rain water for
drinking purpose. The designed structure works well to supply the drinking water
demand of the workshop complex.
Key Words: Roof-top rainwater harvesting, Collecting unit, Filtering unit, Storage
structures.
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*Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur - 721302
**Professor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641003
Research Scholar, Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, IIT Kharagpur-721 302. West Bengal
Email: lalaipray@agfe.iitkgp.ernet.in
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