Rainwater harvesting can be defined as the collection and storage of rainwater run-off from a variety of surfaces for domestic use or agricultural purposes. The investiga-tions described here are for the storage of rainwater for domestic purposes. This water is collected mainly from roofs, and is sometimes referred to as ëblue waterí in contrast to ëgreen waterí, which is water that is utilized by living organisms (plants and ani-mals) for production.Awareness of the need for rainwater harvesting has been growing with the realiza-tion that in many areas existing water resources cannot meet the needs of an expand-ing population. The quality of existing water supplies is often poor and leads to continuing problems of water-borne diseases. In many areas there is little or no likeli-hood of a piped water supply becoming available. Therefore, roof-water harvestingwould appear to offer a feasible way of improving quality and availability.
Publication year
2005
Language
English
Keywords
construction, rainwater, tanks, water harvesting, water management
Geographic
Kenya
