Rainwater Harvesting at Village Education Resource Centre (VERC), Bangladesh
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Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh |
Total volume of rainwater harvested: Approx 340,000 litres |
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Bangladesh posed threat of unavailability of safe water in some critical areas of the country. The reasons vary from area to area – coastal area faces salinity and sub-surface rocky layer, gradual depletion of water table in the northern region and arsenic contamination. VERC and WaterAid Bangladesh jointly took the initiative to implement a RWH pilot project at VERC to try out the possibilities of storing and ground-water recharging of harvested rainwater. |
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The rainwater harvesting technique consists of Siltation chamber, Filter, Recharge well and Underground water tank. The catchment area of rainwater harvesting is 585 sq. meter, out of which rooftop area is 335 meter, paved area is 115 sq. meter and unpaved area is 135 sq. meter. The rainwater falling on roof top is conveyed to underground storage tank which is used for floor wash, toilet flush, kitchen, dish washing and car wash. From paved and unpaved area rainwater is conveyed towards recharge pit after series of filtration process such as siltation and filter chamber. The three chambered recharge well consists of filtration material and three borewell. The borewell extends upto 30 m below the ground to finally recharge the underground water.
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The rainwater harvesting system i.e. underground tank with capacity of 26,000 liters has potential to use rainwater for domestic purpose. Another rainwater harvesting structure i.e. Recharge well transmits around 340,000 L of rainwater having many environmental benefits with regards to prevent flooding, reduce energy costs, maintaining underground water level etc. In terms of cost saved per year is BDT 14240 and payback period is 22 years. |
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Md. Anwarul Islam |
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