MASTER THESIS
Spring 2012
Sustainable Water Management

Suitability of Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting

as Alternate Water Supply Option in the
Southwest Coastal Region of Bangladesh.

Writer
Kamal Ziaul Islam

Supervisor
Lisa Dessborn, Ph.D
External Supervisor
Md. Sirajul Islam, Ph.D.

External Examiner
Muhammad Abdul Awal, Ph.D.
Examiner
Jean O. Lacoursière, Ph.D.

 
 ABASTRACT

Bangladesh, a low-lying deltaic floodplain country, is supposed to be one of the most severely
affected countries in the world due to climate change. One meter rise in sea level may inundate
around 17% of the country along the coastal region. Being located at the peak of a funnel-shaped
ocean system Bay of Bengal, the coastal region of Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to cyclonic storm
surges as well. Along the coastal zone, effect of sea level rise is already evident. In addition to this,
human interventions as upstream withdrawal of water along the Ganges, excess withdrawal of
groundwater for irrigation, arsenic contamination of aquifer, and commercial production of shrimp –
all these aggravated the situation already. The south-west part of the country, known as Ganges
Dependent Area (GDA), is the most affected region. Around 12 million people along 9 districts are
severely in shortage of freshwater, where almost all freshwater sources including surface and
groundwater are contaminated with salinity level beyond acceptable limit. This study investigated the
prospect of rainwater harvesting as an option for freshwater supply in the region. Bangladesh is a
tropical country receiving an average precipitation of around 2300 mm. However, 80% of this rainfall
occurs during monsoon, so that the main issue regarding rainwater harvesting is designing adequate
storage capacity. This study considered the roof of the house to harvest water and a container to store
it. The minimum catchment’s area required for collection of rainwater for a rural household has been
found 6 m2. In addition, the maximum water requirement of a rural family based on six members in
the south west coastal region of Bangladesh has been calculated as 2m3. Finally, it can be suggested
that average rural houses based on six members needs a storage tanks with a capacity of 2000 liter.
Moreover, a low cost rain water harvesting system is proposed. The cost of the system is $261 and it
is affordable in coastal region. Furthermore rainwater samples were collected from normally found
rural household roof made of corrugated sheet (tin), roof tiles, reinforced cement concrete and paddy
straw. The samples were collected from the middle of June to the end of August. Different important
physical, chemical and bacteriological parameters were tested. The test results were compared with
the Bangladesh water quality standards. The tests have revealed pH values of the rainwater from
different roof types (6.2 to 6.45) and enormity of color from straw made roof sample beyond the
acceptable range. Other than this, the quality of water was quite acceptable. Although the presence of
total coliform was not detected, traditional filtering of that stored rainwater showed a promising
solution to mitigate potable water shortages in the region. Finally, a questionnaire survey was
conducted about potable water shortage at patkelghata of Satkhira district. About 47 percent
households in rural area have roof top made by tin (Corrugated iron on metal sheet). On the other
hand, concrete and tiles have the same percentage (24%). Similarly, it has been found that about
around 58 percent of household’s roof are within 25 to 50 square meters. About 64 percent families
have 4 to 5 persons and 89 percent families have 3 to 7 persons. According to the survey, about 18
percent people collect pure drinking water from 10-15km and same percentage from 500m. Out of 45
people’s opinion, 22 persons find out water contain high levels of salt and 19 persons indicated
arsenic. Nearly all people in this region use rainwater for cooking purpose in the rainy season. All
attendants showed huge interest on raising awareness to implement rainwater harvesting system.
Political and religious leaders can take part to increase awareness. Similarly, mass media should be
most effective way to increase awareness.

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 DEDICATION

“Through this work that my beloved parents and everyone who are dear to me can find the expression
of my deep gratitude and love”

iv
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My first and most solemn gratitude goes to the Almighty Allah for materializing my dream.

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Lisa Dessborn for his support, patience, and
encouragement throughout my graduate studies. It is not often that one finds an advisor that always
finds the time for listening to the little problems that unavoidably rise in the course of performing
research. Her technical and editorial advice was essential to the completion of this dissertation. Thank
you to Dr. Lena B.M. Vought, Mr. Peter Åberg, Dr. Peter Dahlblom, Dr. Britt-Marie Svensson and
Dr. Lennart Mårtensson for sharing their knowledge. Especially I would like to thanks to Dr. Jean O
Lacoursiere for his extra care to complete my Master’s program.

I would like to show my thankfulness to Dr. Abdul Awal and Dr. Md. Sirajul Islam who have guided
me by their advices, knowledge and overall assistance. I would like to thank at all my classmates for
the best moments we have shared together throughout the master program.

My thanks go to my colleague Mr. Shamsul Huda, who helped with collecting data from coastal
region. I am also grateful to my colleague Khurshida Pervin for helping considerably with realizing
the detail data interpreting of research.

My mother Hosne Aea, wife Ummay Ayma Pipa and child Zuairia Kamal Nuff receive my deepest
gratitude and love for their dedication and all over the year of support during my master studies that
provided the foundation for this work. Their encouragement, support and companionship have turned
my journey through Kristianstad University into a pleasure. And upon whom lies my endless love.

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 LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ADB Asian Development Bank

ADP Annual Development Program

ARF Mean Annual Rainfall

BADC Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation

BELA Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association

BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board

BWPDB Bangladesh Water and Power Development Board

CBO Community Based Organizations

CRF Critical Rainfall

DC Daily Consumption

DRWH Domestic Rainwater Harvesting

FC Fecal Coliform

FFW Food For Work

FWH Fog Water Harvesting

IDRC International Development Research Center

IRIN Integrated Regional Information Network

IRLP Inter River Linking Project

IRLP Inter River Linking Project

KRA Kenya Rainwater Association

LF Leakage Factor

LWC Liquid water content

MC Monthly Consumption

MFI Monthly Factor of Insufficiency

NEMAP National environment management action plan

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NGO Non Governmental Organization

NWP Netherlands Water Partnership

PVC Polyvinyl chloride

PWD Public Work Department

RCC Reinforced Cement Concrete

RHA Regional Health Authority

ROF Runoff Factor

RWC Rainwater Collection

RWH Rainwater Harvesting

TC Total Coliform

TS Total Storage

UNDP United Nations Development Program

UN-HABITAT United Nations for Human Settlements

UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund

WARPO Water Resources Planning Organization

WHO World Health Organization

YFI Yearly Factor of Insufficiency

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 LIST OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………….…………………... iii

DEDICATION..……………………………………………………………………… iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....………………………………………….…….………… v
LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………… vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………………… viii
LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………….. x
LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………………….. xi
1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND …………………………………. 01
1.1 Problem of Water Supply and Public Health: 1
1.2 Motivation of the study 1
1.3 Research Objectives and Approach 2
1.4 Delimitations 2
1.5 Assumptions 2
1.6 Background 3
1.6.1 Access to safe drinking water in southwest coastal area of 3
Bangladesh
1.6.2 Water management in south-west region of Bangladesh 4
1.7 Problem of Safe drinking water 5
1.7.1 Arsenic Contamination 5
1.7.2 Lack of aquifer 7
1.7.3 Land Subsidence 7
1.7.4 Cultivation of brackish water shrimp in constructed wetland 8
1.7.5 Reduction in upstream flow in dry period 8
1.7.6 Excessive use of underground water for irrigation in an 9
unplanned way
1.7.7 Contamination of surface water 9
1.7.8 Natural disasters 9
1.7.9 Salinity increase in ground and surface water 10
1.7.10 Health, social and financial implications 13
2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ………………….……….…………. 14
2.1 Historical Background …………………….………………..………. 14
2.2 Rainwater and Community…………………….………………….…. 14
2.3 Irrigation & RWH …………………….……………………..…..…. 18

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 2.4 Benefits: Poverty Alleviation and Socio Economic Development…. 19
2.5 RWH Practice in Bangladesh…………………….….…………….…. 21
2.6 Rooftop rainwater harvesting……….……………………...………. 23
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...………...………………………….………… 24
3.1 Study site.……...………………….……………………….………… 24
3.2 Water collection from Satkhira town ……………………………… 25
3.3 Climatic and Metrological Data……………………………………….. 26
3.4 Dimensioning of Rainwater Collection Systems………………………. 26
3.5 Catchment area calculation………………………………………… 27
3.6 Rainwater collection procedure……………………………………. 29
3.7 Questionnaire survey………………………………………………. 29

4 RESULTS ………..……………………………...………………………….…. 30
4.1 Proposed low cost rain water harvesting system …………………... 32
4.2 Assessment of potential rainwater collection……………………….. 34
4.3 Questionnaire survey findings……………………………………… 36
4.4 Rain Water quality…………………………………………………… 40
5 DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………………. 42
6 CONCLUSIONS ………….………………….………………………...….…. 46

7 REFERENCES …………………………..…………………………………… 48

8 APPENDIX ………………………………………………………………...…. 55

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Sl. no CONTENTS Page

1.1 Major river system of Bangladesh. 3

1.2 Discharge at Hardinge Bridge on Ganges 5

1.3 Arsenic awareness in a national newspaper 6

1.4 Arsenic Situation in Bangladesh 7
1.5 Cultivation of brackish water shrimp in constructed wetland 8
1.6 Dry season water shortage (Effect of upstream withdrawal). 8
1.7 Cultivation of brackish water shrimp in constructed wetland 9
1.8 Cyclone risk Map 10
1.9 Sea level rise effect. 11
1.10 Groundwater salinity scenario after Farakka barrage. 12
1.11 Groundwater salinity 12
2.1 Monthly average rainfall in Bangladesh 21
2.2 Annual Rainfall in Bangladesh 22
3.1 Location of study site, Satkhira district, Bangladesh 24
3.2 Van pullers carry water from Satkhira district town 25
3.3 Monthly average rainfall in Satkhira district 26
3.4 Rainwater harvesting roof top Catchment 28
3.5 Roof Catchment Area 28
4.1 First flush Device 31
4.2 Proposed design and typical rural rooftop rainwater harvesting 32
diagram
4.3 The comparative analysis of demand and yield of the rainwater of a 34
year for a rural family.
4.4 Storage tank size for various rural families 35
4.5 Roof materials 36
4.6 Roof Area. 37
4.7 Household size in rural area of Bangladesh. 37
4.8 Drinking water sources. 38
4.9 Drinking water source contaminated 38

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 LIST OF TABLES

Sl. No CONTENTS Page

2.1 Ownership of water and its impact………………………………… 15

4.1 Runoff coefficient for different catchments……………………….. 30
4.2 Piping Dimensions………………………………………………… 31
4.3 Estimation of rainwater collection system 33
4.4 Rain water quality………………………………………………. 40
5.1 The currently accepted national standards for arsenic in drinking 44
water Standard Countries

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 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Water is the most fundamental to life of all the earth‟s resources. Water management has been gaining
particular attention for the last fifty years since the access to water resources is becoming a
painstaking task for hundreds of thousands of people in the developing world. Water resources
management policies carried out by developing countries face difficulties to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals concerning access to fundamental necessities such as food, education, health,
sanitation and water. (UN Water, 2010)

According to the report of the World Health Organization and UNICEF 2010, about 884 million
people namely 84% of the world population do not use a clean source of drinking water. Moreover,
the number of people living in rural areas do not use a clean source of drinking water is five times the
number living in urban areas. Moreover, 2.6 billion people are not able to use water based sanitation.
Though 1.3 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, the world is likely to
fail the MDG sanitation target by a billion people (Zacharie, 2010).

1.1 Problem of Water Supply and Public Health:

Bangladesh is a tropical country located in South Asia. It has a huge population; about 140 million
with a land area of 147557 sq. km. This country is one of the economic water scarcity countries in the
world. It has suffered deficit in water resources since 1970s (Islam, 2010). People of Bangladesh
would use surface water for drinking and cooking purpose till around 1970s. Both child and infant
mortality was very high because of water born diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and dysentry.
Surface water was highly polluted by many sources including micro - organism. In 1971, to reduce
the incidence of such diseases including childhood mortality, World Bank and UNICEF began
addressing surface water contamination problem and motivate people to sink tubewells into shallow
aquifers of Bangladesh which were free from micro organisms causing water borne diseases. To bring
a change in their usual habits of using surface water was very difficult initially. Therefore, extensive
social, financial, technical and motivational efforts at national level were turn them from the surface
water to ground water practice. Due to these endeavors, people began to drill tubewells into
underground shallow aquifers to have pollution free clean water. (World Expo, 2008)

1.2 Motivation of the study

In Bangladesh for instance, there is great potential for sustainable water management. Internal
renewable water resources are about 105 km³ per year and transboundary rivers provide another 1,100
km³ annually. Previous studies have revealed that 76% of rural population have access to clean water
resources. For a sustainable development, society must move efficient and appropriate water use.
Fresh and pollution free water availability has been a matter of concern all over the world. Water

1
harvesting represents a new environmental concept of sustainable development focusing on renewable
water source. Rainwater is the most exploited source of water generation by populations in both well
watered and the most arid regions in the world.

According to the ADB report 2011, Salinity level has been increasing in the last several years in the
Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira district. Prolonged dry weather and rising sea levels are expected to
increase saline levels even more. Moreover, salinity originally started after the Farakka barrage
operation in India in 1975, which reduces the flow of Gorai river. This river is a distributary of
Ganges river and a major source of freshwater in Khulna division. The present drinking water source
is mainly from groundwater drawn from deep and shallow tube wells. A large area of Satkhira and
Jessore districts currently suffer from recurring and worsening water logging that can be exacerbated
by increased rainfall and rising sea levels caused by climate change.

The search for a new water resource is an essential for that division. Rainwater is the only source,
which is easy to collect individually and with a minimum cost. The only thing needed is the roof of
the house to harvest water and a container to store it. In southwest part of Bangladesh where arsenic
water contamination, water table depletion, salinity increase and drinking water collection problem,
people have to find alternative sources of water. In such a case, rainwater harvesting is an important
source for drinking and cooking purposes.

1.3 Research Objectives and Approach

The goal of this research is to explore the potential of rainwater harvesting system as a simple
approach to secure safe drinking water in the southwest region of Bangladesh. Shatkhira district has
been selected for taking rainwater samples and questionnaire survey.

Research Objectives

1. To develop a low cost design for rooftop rainwater harvesting system in the rural areas of
south west coastal region of Bangladesh.
2. To identify and analyze the rainwater quality.
3. To conduct a questionnaire survey to find people‟s view on rainwater harvesting.
1.4 Delimitations

1. The research will be confined only to the rural area in southwest coastal region of
Bangladesh.
2. The study will be confined to rural houses at Satkhira, Bangladesh.
3. The study will be confined to single storey buildings of Satkhira, Bangladesh.
1.5 Assumptions

1. The per capita water consumption is assumed to be 94.75 lpcd (MH and PWD, 2002).
2. Cooking and drinking: 5 lpcd.

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1.6 BACKGROUND

1.6.1 Access to drinking water in southwest coastal area of Bangladesh

Lack of access to safe drinking water and sufficient sanitation facilities are a major barrier to
improving the health and wellbeing as well as reducing poverty in the south-west coastal regions of
Bangladesh. Arsenic contamination of shallow aquifer, salinity in ground and surface water, lack of
aquifer and difficulties in extracting saline free water are some of the main causes. This affects the
health of local residents and has a negative social and economic impact on the community.

The south-west coastal area of Bangladesh is the home of large numbers of poor and marginal farm
families (Farmers having irrigated land up to 1.25 acres or unirrigated land up to 2.5 acres (i.e. one
hectare)) and export oriented shrimp workers. A large area of Bangladesh is formed by the siltation
process of three rivers: the Ganges (Padma), Brahmaputra (Jamuna) and Meghna. In the monsoon, the
main river basins flood resulting in a disturbance of human habitation, agricultural land and pollution
of drinking water sources. The period from November to May is considered as dry season. During this
dry season only 22 percent of the total annual rainfall takes place in the country. The evaporation rate
is four times higher than the total amount of rainfall. This result is a lack of water because of the
decrease of water flow in the rivers and the drying up of large numbers of water bodies (Mamun,
2004).

Figure 1.1: Major river system of Bangladesh. (Islam M.S. 2012)

Prior to the 1950‟s, communities in the rural areas of Bangladesh carried out a practice known as „the
ethics of commons‟ that governed the uses of open ponds and dug wells designated for drinking

3
water. Rapid population growth and poverty, combined with the tradition of drinking water from
ponds and poor sanitary practices, contributed from the 1960s to 1970s to a high level of mortality
due to waterborne diseases. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has since installed more than 1.2
million bucket or hand pump tubewells in rural areas. Six times as many hand pump tubewells have
been installed by private individuals, NGOs and other agencies. Tubewells changed peoples‟ practices
and most of the traditional dug wells and ponds have been neglected in rural areas. That ruined the
condition of these sources of drinking water and eroded the practice of the ethics of commons
(Mamun, 2004).

The introduction of safe drinking water through hand pump tube-wells, adequate sanitation coverage
and improved primary health has contributed to a significant fall in mortality from diarrhea diseases
from about 300,000 deaths for each year in the 1980s to 150,000 in 1997. However, the overall
situation is far from satisfactory. Mortality rates of infants and children under six years are 56 deaths
for every 1000 live birth. In addition, water borne diseases still continue to account for a majority of
these deaths. Since 1995 Bangladesh has been facing a new public health challenge related to water
supply with the recognition of arsenic in large number of tube-wells. A countrywide arsenic testing
program supported by the Government of Bangladesh and UNICEF found in 2006 that 20 percent of
the shallow (dug) wells all over Bangladesh were contaminated with Arsenic above the national
standard (Khan, 2004).

Poor sanitation facilities are a different cause for the lack of safe drinking water. As of 2008,
approximately 40 percent of the population does not have access to any sanitary latrine and the rest
practice open defecation or use unsanitary hanging latrines. Although nearly 75 percent of urban
population uses various kind of on-site sanitation, mostly pit latrines. The sludge from these pit
latrines are usually discharged through open drains and into the adjacent rivers, groundwater and
nearby ponds creating an extremely contaminated environment. Only the capital city Dhaka has a
sewer system. Although groundwater is considered safe all over the country in terms of
bacteriological contamination, studies show that about half the shallow tubewells are contaminated
with bacteria. The situation is believed to be similar for deep tubewells. The level of contamination
increases significantly in the monsoon season. This contamination has happened mainly because of
poor maintenance and improper sanitary protection of tubewell surroundings (Mamun, 2004).

1.6.2 Water management in south-west region of Bangladesh

Bangladesh coastal embankment project of 1960s: Upstream river and tidal borne sediment
concentration has created the formation of land mass of the coastal region. This procedure of land
formation was disrupted by the implementation of coastal embankment plan in the 1960s. Under this
project 97 polders were constructed (37 in southwest coastal region) to free the marshland from saline

4
water and to enable higher levels of agricultural production. The construction of polders has
controlled entrance of river water to the marshland which resulted in an increase in elevation of river
beds due to the concentration of tidal sediments on the river bed instead of the marshland. The
elevation means in some areas stream beds are now higher than the adjacent marshland and as a result
excess water on the marshland can not pass into the river which causes water logging. The problem of
water logging becomes more severe and prolonged when saline water enters into the marshland
during high tide.

Decline of the flow of river Ganges in dry period due to over-extraction of water upstream: Ganges or
Padma is the largest river that flow over Bangladesh. In dry season, about 5 thousand cumec water
would flow on the river. This flow had been about four thousand cumec in 1930s and 1940s. The
Ganga water distribution agreement, commonly known as Farakka Treaty made accessible of only
800 cumec water for Bangladesh during the dry period with the left over amount being diverted by
upstream country India. India diverts water through a feeder channel from Farakka barrage to the river
Hugli to ensure suitable navigation at Kolkata seaport. It is important to note that this feeder channel
can turn away 1150 cumec of water which is needed to retain the required depth of the river Hugli.
The decline of fresh water flow of Ganges, because of the extraction of water by India, has meant an
increase in salinity in the river Balashsar and other rivers of Bangladesh (Mamun, 2004).

Figure 1.2: Discharge at Hardinge Bridge on Ganges. (Islam M.S. 2012)

1.7 Problem of Safe drinking water

1.7.1 Arsenic Contamination

Arsenic contamination is found in underground water in this region. Most tubewells are affected by
arsenic poison. A study carried out by a non government organization Uttaran indicated that 79% of

5
the shallow tubewells of the area contain arsenic beyond the acceptable limit (Khan, 2004). According
to national newspaper Prothom Alo (2012), there is no arsenic mitigation project. The policy makers
committee is inactive. The number of arsenicosis patient is increasing day by day. There are 56,758
people became arsenic patient in the country till 2010 (Prothom Alo 2012). In 2008 and 2009 this
number was accordingly 24,389 and 38,320.

Figure 1.3: Arsenic awareness in a national newspaper.

(Source: Prothom Alo. Date: 2012-04-02)

About 28.9 percent drinking water sources are contaminated with arsenic. There are 9,72,865 water
sources contaminated with arsenic in 3132 union (small administrative area) of 301 Upazilla of 55
Districts (PHD survey, 2009). Arsenic Situation all over the country is shown in figure 1.4.

6
 Figure 1.4: Arsenic Situation in Bangladesh (Rahman et al. 2003)

1.7.2 Lack of aquifer

Groundwater occurs in porous geological formations known as aquifers. For extraction of

groundwater coarse clean sand is suitable. This coarse sand has considerable porosity and
permeability and can store a huge amount of water. Fine sand also can store a considerable amount of
water. However, as the location of the area is in the lower part of Ganges delta the sediments of the
region have very low permeability and are not able to store water. As a result, the region lacks aquifer
that fresh groundwater can be extracted from.

1.7.3 Land Subsidence

According to a study conducted Dr. M. Haque, Director of Delta Research Institute of Dhaka
University, most of the area of wetland is subsiding by 1 to 2cm every year. In the last 3 to 4 decades
this continuous subsidence has meant land within the WAPDA embankment and hydraulic structures
are gradually going down and the levels of sea water have increased (Mamun, 2004).

7
1.7.4 Cultivation of brackish water shrimp in constructed wetland
Bangladesh is one of the largest shrimp exporter countries in the world. In the southwest area shrimp
cultivation is underway in nearly all the wetlands. In most of the cases, saline water from the river is
brought into the wetland for shrimp and other saline fish cultivation, which is increasing the salinity
of the adjacent cultivable agricultural land, fresh water ponds and shallow aquifer through seepage
and percolation.

Figure 1.5: Cultivation of brackish water shrimp in constructed wetland (Islam K.Z. 2011)

1.7.5 Reduction in upstream flow in dry period

Padma is the largest river in Bangladesh. In the past the southwest coastal area was rich in inland
fresh water as the river Ganges had flowed through it. However, the present scenario changed
following two disastrous events: the change of the course of the river Ganges and the closing of the
face of the origin of the river Matha Vanga. This had a serious implication for safe drinking water
accessible from ground water sources. The reduction of upstream flow deteriorated the recharge rate
of the ground water table, reduced fresh water bodies and resulted in over-extraction of groundwater
for irrigation and use of water from fresh water ponds.

Figure 1.6: Dry season water shortage (Effect of upstream withdrawal). (CEGIS, 1998)

8
 1.7.6 Excessive use of underground water for irrigation in an unplanned way

Since the 1980s huge land in the southwest coastal region, except the slight saline land, has been
brought under irrigation for cultivation of Borro rice through withdrawal of underground water in the
dry season. The lack of surface water during dry period has compelled the farmers to exploit
underground water for irrigation, often leading to underground water table decline beyond the suction
limits of shallow tubewell, making millions of shallow tubewells dysfunctional. This over-extraction
of ground water is one of the possible reasons for the arsenic contamination of shallow aquifer.

Figure 1.7: Cultivation of brackish water shrimp in constructed wetland (Islam K.Z. 2011)

1.7.7 Contamination of surface water

Surface water of this region is being contaminated by industrial waste water, domestic solid waste and
waste of markets etc. According to a research conducted by ICZM in Bagerhat district found that each
household generated 2 kg of waste on a daily basis and another study carried out in Morrelganj
Upazila of Bagerhat district found nearly 61% of households dispose of it in nearby water bodies and
89% of households do not dispose of their household solid waste to any fixed place. The same study
found that about 70% of household latrines are either constructed directly on water bodies or are
latrine pits attached to nearby water bodies through pipes (Mamun, 2004).

1.7.8 Natural disasters

The region frequently experiences natural disasters (e.g. cyclones, water logging, tidal surges, river
erosion, floods etc) which are responsible for the destruction of safe drinking water sources and
sanitation facilities. During devastating cyclone Sidr in late 2007 the majority of drinking water

9
sources became contaminated and sanitation facilities were damaged. Under the Sidr rehabilitation
programs water supply was restored by various government and non-government agencies. However,
the majority were again destroyed by the recent cyclone Aila.

Figure 1.8: Cyclone risk Map (DMB, 2003)

1.7.9 Salinity increase in ground and surface water

The present crisis of saline free drinking water in the area is anticipated to increase in the future due to
the Inter River Linking Project (IRLP) of India and global climate change. The effect of worldwide
climate change on Bangladesh will be more severe than most other countries. Large parts of the
coastal area (14-17% of the total land mass in Bangladesh) will go under the water. About 20 million
people will loose their home. If the mean sea level increases by only one meter, 22.889 square meters
of the country will go under the water and about 62% of greater Khulna will be submerged. The
implication of global climate change in Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat of southwest coastal region is
already touchable. The last three decades have seen the mean sea level in the southwest coastal region
rise by 3 to 4 mm yearly. The elevation of the ground level of the coastal region is only a little higher
than the sea level and in the near future all the fresh water sources may be totally destroyed as a result
of the predicted one meter increase in sea level (Mamun, 2004).

10
 Figure 1.9: Sea level rise effect. (Islam M.S. 2012)

The overall situation is going to be further aggravated by the planned IRLP of the Indian government.
IRLP will be the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in the world. Under this project, about
30 links and some 3,000 reservoirs will be built to link 37 Himalayan and Peninsular rivers to form a
gigantic water network. It will cost $120 billion and handle 178 square kilometer of inter basin water
shift per year. This project has raised concern in Bangladesh as diversion of water from common
upstream rivers through construction of barrages, particularly on the distributaries and tributary of
river Bramaputra, would have severe implications for the accessibility of surface water. Water experts
estimated that diverting about 10 to 20 percent of water of the river Brahmaputra in India could cause
100 Bangladeshi rivers to dry.

11
 Figure 1.10: Groundwater salinity scenario after Farakka barrage.
(Source: Islam M.S. 2012)

This will further decrease the depth of the rivers in the southwest coastal area. Saline water intrusion
from the sea into the inlands will increase salinity and create scarcity of fresh water. At present the
Madhumati and Gari rivers are important sources of fresh water in the southwest coastal region. If
IRLP is implemented the flow of saline free fresh water from both Bangladeshi rivers will be lost and
the crisis of access to saline and arsenic free safe drinking water supply would be worsened.

Figure 1.11: Groundwater salinity. (Islam M.S. 2012)

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1.7.10 Health, social and financial implications

People in the southwest region suffer from various diseases caused by drinking water with high levels
of impurity or arsenic contamination and salinity. Various intestinal diseases, skin diseases, dysentery,
diarrhea and fever are part of life. Further health concerns linked to a lack of pure drinking water
include malnutrition among women and children, skin turning black, reproductive problems for
pregnant women, physical weakness and anxiety. Women can be particularly susceptible to diseases
(e.g. rickets) as they take less water than men (Khan, 2004).

Women and young girls face a number of human rights abuses as a result of the lack of safe drinking
water. In coastal region of Bangladesh it is the women‟s role to collect pure drinking water. The
drinking water can be collected many kilometers from the home and there are numerous incidents of
violence against women and girls as they get assaulted on the way to get water or when they get
home. Collecting water means women do not have time to work in their homestead garden, which is
often their only source of productivity and earnings.

Moreover, there are other social crises related with poor access to safe drinking water: The education
of children is hampered; young children are often absent in school when their mother goes to collect
water; there are common incidents of child labor; the household has fewer time to socialize and widen
social networks; women are teased and hassled on their way to fetch water; social stigma prevents
young girls getting wedded and leads to an increased rate of separation; population resettlement; and
local contentions and litigations related to water use have become a usual phenomena.

Gathering safe drinking water means a major amount of productive hours is consumed. Household
expenditure increases due to purchase fresh water to enable cultivation of crops. Cost of buying
vegetables increases at the same time as the stability of houses is reduced and shortage of food occurs.
Maintaining domestic animals and poultry become difficult. Scarcity of organic manure makes
carrying out farming activities difficult. All these factors together comprise a major financial problem
for the poor.

13
 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Historical Background

Rainwater harvesting is a common practice in the countries and areas where the annual rainfall is high
and pure drinking and usable water is scarce. All over the world, economical and social condition
have prompted the low-income groups to harvest the rainwater for household and essential uses. A
number of countries of the world in different regions have showed the popularity of this method. It is
originated almost 5000 years ago in Iraq; rainwater harvesting is practiced throughout the Indian
subcontinent, the Middle East, in Mexico, in Australia as well as Africa and United States. As the
population of the world increased geometrically, irrigation as well as household water usage
increased, leading to a consequence of crisis of water supply in different region. Among other
available alternative sources for water management, rainwater harvesting has become the most
economic solution (Boers and Ben-Asher, 1982).

2.2 Rainwater and Community

Domestic Rainwater Harvesting (DRWH) is a subset of rainwater harvesting whereas policies and
legislation mostly refer to the general concept. The popular means of water harvesting is surface run-
off providing water in large quantity mainly for agriculture. In water policies of the African countries,
for instance Kenya, RWH as a means of poverty alleviation refers to harnessing water by constructing
appropriate dams and hydraulic structures for collection of water for small-scale agriculture and
livestock. In Kenya, DRWH can mean both surface run off and rooftop water harvesting while in Sri
Lanka and Thailand it means only rooftop water harvesting. Due to recent rapid development of roof
water harvesting in a number of countries, some policy documents now distinguish between roof
water harvesting and rainwater harvesting. Although one of the largest developments of roof water
harvesting took place in Thailand in the 1980‟s, neither rainwater harvesting nor roof water harvesting
is mentioned in the local Water Act (Ariyabandu, 2003).

National water policy of Bangladesh clearly identifies the problems associated with over-use of
surface and ground water, which has been causing water table depletion and pollution of ground water
resulting in salt-water intrusions and arsenic threats. While the national water policy recognizes
sustainable development of surface, ground and rainwater as a possible solution, it does not refer to
roof water harvesting. Therefore, explanation is essential for the implementation of policies,
depending on the need of the hour. As shown in table 2.1, in most countries of the world, the state
owns the water resources, while the current debate in the water sector reforms is the Community
Verses State Ownership in Water Resources Development. Although the presumption of most
activists is that water resources development should be transferred to community ownership for it to

14
serve the communities and attain sustainable development, all water policies (contributing to this
view) are still engrossed in the conventional state ownership of water resources.

Table 2.1: Ownership of water and its impact. (Ariyabandu, 2003)

Country Status Description

Sri Lanka Public Ownership No restriction on development of DRWH

India Not specified Water is a state object

Bangladesh State ownership No constraints on development of DRWH

Thailand State ownership Storage of water requires a license as decided by the river
including basin committees
atmospheric water

Kenya State ownership Requires a permit to construct water works. Not clear
whether this includes DRWH. No restriction on water for
domestic use.

Uganda State ownership Requires a permit to construct water works. Not clear
whether this includes DRWH. No restriction on water for
domestic use.

Ethiopia Public Ownership No permit is required. But large scale water development
is practiced without permission. Status of DRWH is not
clear. No restriction on water for domestic use.

Instead of strong policies, particular reasons and circumstances led the success of DWRH in the past.
Still, it is strongly assumed that implementation policies and legislation will be very important for the
sustainability of DRWH in future. At present, the NGOs and special government projects are working
to foster DRWH. Without state commitment, this trend cannot continue. Also, the possession of water
should be handed over to the water user communities, along with that, demand receptive approaches
should be adopted in selecting water supply options. This will obviously pave the way for
development and promote of DRWH based on need (Ariyabandu, 2003).

Community based operation and maintenance, along with spontaneously community participation and
control, is essential to the successful completion, operation and maintenance of any rainwater
harvesting system project, eventually that encourages demand management. Demand management
policies are unlikely to succeed without strict individual self-discipline and the public control /
recommendations agreed by the community themselves regarding efforts to promote water

15
conservation. Evidences illustrate that combined public private sector approaches for rainwater
harvesting initiatives can work effectively in certain circumstances (Gould, 2007).

In a research in the semi-arid region of Brazil (an initiative developed by NGOs with the support of
Brazilian Federal Government Institutions and international funding organizations), instead of
focusing on top-down, short-term, palliative measures based on the construction of hydraulic structure
dams and wells, it focused on bottom-up, low cost, long-term measures and significantly, it involves
an educational component. So, the provision of safe water is closely related to the empowerment of
the poor population which leads to the sustainability of the actions. This case shows the significance
of the partnership between governmental institutions and grassroots organizations in the context of
mitigation through the combination of learning and technical components.

The educational component of this project is thus the basis for any needed social transformation of the
area. At this stage, it is very important to assess the impact of the research project on the quality of
life of the beneficiary population. Looking at the political implications and socio-economic situations
are important in order to appropriately mitigate the scarcity of water. The social problems have to be
addressed and raising public awareness is the only way through which this can be done (Branco et al.
2005).

In Bangladesh the Ministry of Environment and Forest was established in 1989 to deal with the
emerging environment related issues. The „National Environment Policy, 1992‟ was adopted in the
consecutive years; a new environmental law called the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act,
1995 was enacted repeal the earlier environmental law of 1977 and reform the Department of
Environment. The national environment management action plan (NEMAP) has also been finalized
and is being implemented. Eventually, other environment related laws were framed including the
followings: 1. The Environment Court Act, 2000,

2. The Environment Conservation Rules, 1997,

3. The Environment Pollution Control Ordinance, 1977,

4. The Water Pollution Control Ordinance, 1970. and so on.

Though all these acts and rules are specific about wetland conservation and water pollution, very few
works has been done for water conservation especially regarding rainwater, groundwater and
groundwater recharge from the part of the government. In 2002, The Ministry of Housing and Public
Works Department had published a rainwater-harvesting manual applicable for the rural and urban
areas of Bangladesh. The guidelines of the manual were applied in the installation of rainwater
harvesting system in one governments housing (Member of Parliament Hostel) as a study. However,
after the change of Government the study was left incomplete as well as the publication of the

16
manual. To make the rain water harvesting a practice for any target area, examples should be the first
step. With that, Government should outline appropriate policies regarding tax incentive to individual
households for the rain water harvesting practice that will encourage the citizens to adopt it. All the
existing urban public buildings and new building constructions can be a good place to start installing
and study the output of rain water harvesting. Promotional and educational activities from local
government will also be necessary to realize the following issues that could be solved or improved by
rain water harvesting:

• Water shortage, i.e. of safe drinking water

• Seasonal flooding

• Groundwater recharges i.e. water management

• Health and sanitation

• Alternative water supply

Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO)
is institutions under the Ministry of Water Resources, the Government of the People's Republic of
Bangladesh. They are among the key organizations dealing with countrywide macro level water
resources planning and management. At present, these two organizations are helping the government
with tasks such as monitoring and implementation of the National Water Management Plan (NWMP)
and its impact, keep of water resource assessments, maintenance and updating of the National Water
Resources Database (NWRD) and MIS etc. But these organizations can help the government in
planning large scale rain water harvesting project through local government and monitor the
application and out come. The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA),
Participatory Review International Network, BRAC are some private organization and NGO‟s that are
working hand in hand with Bangladesh government with the energy conservation issues. Through the
recent new activities, BELA has become a true pressure group against environmental violations.
Environmental effect research has played a significant role in popularizing the environmental law
amongst the general public. In the implementation phase of the government plans, these NGO‟s can
work directly with communities under local government to learn environmental effect and involve
people in water conservation practices. Including female and old citizens will definitely improve the
outcome which was successful in similar projects in several parts of India. Already all these practice
has been started in Bangladesh in different areas starting with small residential area and aiming at
huge commercial buildings areas where catchment area is larger (MoEF, 2003).

17
2.3 Irrigation & RWH

In Tanzania, many farmers depend on rainfall for agriculture. Therefore, future food security depends
upon developing better dry land cropping systems. A significant step towards tapping the potential of
these scientific systems is be to use the accessible rainfall, known as „green water‟, more efficiently.
The challenge is to choose and apply appropriate RWH interventions that capture the unproductive
green water flows. In-situ, micro catchment and macro catchment rainwater harvesting systems were
tested against the local practice of flat cultivation as control. The benefits were slowed in terms of
grain yield. In-situ rainwater harvesting provided no benefit. Micro catchment rainwater harvesting
resulted in increased yield per unit area cultivated. On a total system area basis, however, production
decreases were observed. A cost-benefit analysis does illustrate a benefit in the short rainy season.
Macro-catchment rainwater harvesting provided increases in grain yield in both the short and the long
rainy seasons (Hatibu et al. 2006). Along with economic justification, the promotion of rainwater
harvesting projects requires an analysis of the eco-hydrogeology and human dynamics. Based on the
case from Tanzania, rainwater harvesting for crop production showed the potential for poverty
reduction which is evident in the results from two-seasons (2002 to 2003) yield monitoring for maize
and lablab. According to the results obtained from the yield monitoring exercise, rainwater harvesting
for crop production has a great potential of poverty reduction given impressive returns to land and
labor even during average seasons. Interventions to improve productivity of rainwater (more crops out
put per drop) while maintaining the integrity of the eco-hydrology and other natural systems in the
watershed would result in tremendous economic benefits. This would result into large financial
earnings too. Such efforts could be in empirical knowledge of which best agronomical and runoff
management practices could optimize physical yields for the intercrop (Mutabazi, et al. 2005).

Hatibu et al. (2006) also presents an analysis of economics of rainwater harvesting by a number of
poor farmers in Tanzania. Results show that rainwater harvesting for production of paddy rice paid
most with returns to labor of more than 12 US$ per person-day invested. These benefits are very high
due to the fact that without rainwater harvesting it is not possible to produce paddy in the study area.
The results also show that contrary to expectations, improving rainwater harvesting systems by adding
a storage pond may not lead to increased productivity. Another finding that goes against the widely
held belief is that rainwater harvesting results in more benefits during the above-average seasons
compared to below-average seasons. It is therefore, concluded that there is a potential for combining
rainwater harvesting with improved drainage of roads. The construction of rural roads in semi-arid
areas can beneficially be integrated with efforts to increase water availability for agricultural needs.
(Hatibu et al. 2006). He et al. (2007) evaluates the determinants of farmers‟ decisions, using a binary
logistic regression model, to adopt rainwater harvesting and supplementary irrigation technology
(RHSIT) and its flexibility of adoption in the rain-fed farming systems. In 2005, this study based on a
survey of 218 farmers in the semiarid areas of Loess Plateau. The result illustrates 12 variables to be

18
important in explaining farmers‟ adoption decisions. Farmers‟ educational background, contact with
extension, active labor force size, positive attitudes towards RHSIT and participation in the Grain-for-
Green project are some of the variables having significantly encouraging effects on adoption of
RHSIT, while farmer‟s age and distance from water storage tanks to farmers‟ dwellings have notably
negative correlation with adoption of the technology. Variables such as level of family income, family
size, risk preference, off-farm activity, and land tenure do not significantly influence adoption. This
information will help prioritize the factors that influence adoption decisions and provide approaching
on pathways to increase the adoption of RHSIT. In Gansu and other provinces in northwest China, the
initial implementation of Rainwater Harvesting Agriculture (RHA) suggests that RHA has the
potential to improve performance in rain-fed farming systems and to address environmental problems;
example: soil erosion. The small-scale, low cost RHA systems make application by household farmers
simple. Successful RHA needs to be integrated in a comprehensive agricultural-management system;
i.e. with other agricultural technologies and management practices. Also, the spread of RHA over
large areas entails consideration of a range of technological, agro-hydrological, ecological, social,
cultural, economic, and political factors. In particular, training and extension services to farmers is
required to develop and disseminate more effective and affordable types of RHA technologies as
alternatives and to design and develop alternative policy instruments and social institutions that
facilitate adoption of RHA practices (Li et al., 2000). Also in a time period of 2002 to 2004, the
influence of different in situ rainwater harvesting and moisture conservation methods on soil moisture
storage and growth of Tamarix ramosissima was studied in the semiarid loess region of China.
Rainwater harvesting and moisture conservation treatments increased growth of T. ramosissima, tree
height was significantly higher for the rainwater harvesting and moisture conservation treatments than
the controls. (Li et al., 2005)

2.4 Benefits: Poverty Alleviation and Socio Economic Development

The basic three components of rainwater harvesting system; a collection surface or catchment, gutter,
down pipe and a water store, yields several benefits. Krishna (2003) opined that the most important
benefit of rainwater harvesting is that the water is totally free of cost. The only cost is for collection
system and storage establishment. Also, the use of harvested rain water is located close to the source,
which eliminates the complexity and very costly underground pipe distribution systems. When
groundwater is unavailable or unacceptable, rainwater provides a water source, or it can add limited
groundwater supplies. A superior solution for irrigation, rainwater harvesting reduces flow to storm
water drains and also reduces non-point source pollution while reducing the consumers‟ utility
expenditure. Having lower hardness than groundwater, rainwater helps prevent scale on home
appliances and extends their longevity (Li et al., 2005).

19
Studies carried out on worldwide basis show that in the past fifty years, the world‟s population has
doubled, as did the per capita water consumption rate (from about 400 m3/year to about 800 m3/year)
having only a small proportion of the accessible water is safe for human use. Many countries of
Africa have been experiencing an increasing pressure on their available water resources, with growing
demand and costs for agricultural, domestic and industrial consumption. Likewise these pressures
have caused both environmental deterioration like pollution of freshwater ecosystems and
overexploitation of vital water catchments, resulting in groundwater levels depletion. Water stress has
a number of consequences including Social, Economical, and Environmental etc.

A huge proportion of Africa‟s population is affected by safe water shortages for domestic use. As a
response to the 1971–74 droughts with the introduction of food-for-work (FFW) programs,
government initiated soil and water conservation programs promoted the application of RWH
techniques as alternative interventions to address water scarcity in Ethiopia. These also proposed to
generate employment opportunities to the people affected by the drought. Issues like drought,
sanitation, poverty etc strongly support the need to focus on development and promotion of RWH
technologies as one of the alternatives to improve water availability for different uses including
domestic water supply, sanitation and food production (Seyoum, 1994).

Having a population of about 25 million people, Kenya has current water supply coverage of 42% that
means millions of Kenyans with no access to safe and an adequate water supply, facing severe social
and economic consequences. The organization Kenya Rainwater Association (KRA) established to
bring together individuals and institutions would like to face the challenge of low water coverage by
using rainwater, applied low cost technical options and built local capability through community
based organizations (CBOs). This also built the rural organization and management capacities. A
combination of developed health awareness and benefits from safe water and income from surplus
farm production resulted in an increase in willingness to pay for improved housing and water supply.
The lessons learnt in this study includes necessary community involvement in Rainwater Harvesting,
use of motivation, observation at commencement, mobilization and participation for achieving desired
goal, control of Quantity and quality of the output (Mbugua, 2000).

The research study of He et al. (2007) indicates that the rainwater harvesting and the supplementary
irrigation technology (RHSIT) extension project should incorporate consideration of farmer
educational attainment, farmer age, and active labor force members. The benefits of RHSIT must be
clearly apparent by the users looking at their own socio-economic conditions. The results also suggest
the need for greater institutional and political input into RHSIT projects. There is a need to develop
and design alternative policy instruments and institutions for extension, training, technical assistance,
credit services that will assist adoption of the farmer participatory practices to better in shape the
needs of farmers in particular.

20
Also in Zimbabwe, the successful acceptance of RWH technologies has possible to alleviate problems
faced by poor „subsistence‟ farmers. Benefits of RWH technologies comprise an increase in
agricultural productivity, enhancing household food security and raising of incomes. These
technologies also assisted in developing environmental management through water conservation,
decrease of soil erosion and recovery of wetlands in the study area. Moreover, the major constraints
facing technology adopters were labor shortage, water distribution problems and water-logging during
periods of high rainfall and risk of injury to people and livestock as a result of some of the
technologies. However, the farmers who have adopted RWH have developed ways of dealing with
some of the cited problems, for example, formation of labor groups to mitigate against labor shortage.
It was concluded that RWH technologies are appropriate for smallholder farmers in semi-arid areas
provided they suitably tailored the conditions of the locality where they are promoted. Other benefits
of adopting RWH include improvement of people‟s standard of living (break out of the cycle of
poverty) and reduction in environmental degradation (Mutekwa & Kusangaya,2006)

2.5 RWH Practice in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a tropical country. This country receives heavy rainfall during the rainy season with an
average annual rainfall of 210 cm (BBS, 1997). In Bangladesh, the surface water was used as the
principal source for drinking water up to the recent past.

Figure 2.1: Monthly average rainfall in Bangladesh. (Islam, M.S. 2012).

Although traditional rainwater harvesting is a familiar term for Bangladesh, it is not a widespread
practice as only 35.5 percent of the households in coastal region use this method as source of pure
drinking water due to high salinity problem (Ferdausi & Bolkland, 2000). This amount of rainfall
makes rain water harvesting an obvious solution for the arsenic contamination which affects 50% of

21
the area of the country. Arsenic contamination in underground water becomes a nation wide problem
(Rahman et al. 2003). Moreover, the increasing population in the rural as well as urban areas is
putting tremendous increased load on underground aquifers. The piezometric level of Dhaka megacity
has decreased by more than 2 meter in the last decade. Dhaka receives an annual rainfall of 180 – 200
cm. which can easily be an answer to the vertical recharge for the aquifers (Kabir and Faisal, 1999).
Rainwater harvesting will also facilitate the urban users with some additional benefits: decrease in the
street water logging etc. The absence of water supply facility as well as economical condition has
prompted the low income groups to harvest the rain water for household and essential uses which is
evident in the fact that 52 indigenous methods have been practiced by the tribal people of Bangladesh
(Kabir and Faisal, 1999). Although these methods are small scale, labor intensive, area specific and
paced with slow rural life, they involve significant low cost while maintaining ecological balance and
sustainability. Thus these indigenous local methods can facilitate the new rainwater harvesting
techniques with their strength, screening them from their inherent limitations (Mbilinyi et al. 2005).

Figure 2.2: Annual Rainfall in Bangladesh. (Rahman et al. 2003)

In the present context, rainwater harvesting is seriously considered as an alternative option for
sustainable water supply in Bangladesh. Although the establishment cost of this method is
burdensome for low income group, rooftops in rural or urban houses can be designed to collect

22
rainwater solving the challenging issues of minimizing the storage cost, management and allocation
the water use. In the case of rainwater harvesting system builder, at first stage of construction,
investments in money, time, and design are minimal for adopting rooftop rainwater harvesting
(Thomas, 1998).

2.6 Rooftop rainwater harvesting

Experiments and studies have been done not only to establish the portability of rainwater but also to
design buildings installed with rainwater catchment facilities with optimum treatment facilities.
Materials like galvanized metal roofs and ceramic tile have been recommended by Woods and
Choudhury (1992) for quick transportation of rainfall and minimization of loss through evaporation.
Additional attention is given to storage capacity for a particular family according to duration of dry
periods, robustness, affordability and durability of materials, safety and maintenance of the filtration
system. Increased awareness on water crisis has led rainwater harvesting to be proposed as a
community facility. For example, the small and medium residential and commercial construction of
United States has shown increasing interest in rainwater harvesting since 1996 (Choudhury &
Vasudevan, 2003). Many Cities and states around the world are adopting rules related rainwater
harvesting, especially in United States (TWDB, 2005). The most universal and critical services to a
building, water supply reaches building through one of the following three ways: piped supply, rivers
and other water bodies and rainwater. It is almost the only way to upgrade ones household water
supply without waiting for the development of community system. The acceptance of rainwater
harvesting will expand rapidly if this method is treated like other building services and if designed
into the structure instead of being retro-fitted (Thomas, 1998).

23
 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Study site:

The study site has been selected to represent climatic conditions where atmospheric water could be
considered to secure safe drinking water for southwest part of Bangladesh. Patkelghata in Satkhira
district was selected for its flat landscape marked by a little fluctuation in climatic by the incidence of
rain throughout the year.

Figure 3.1: Location of study site, Satkhira district, Bangladesh. (Source: www.worldatlas.com).

24
3.2 Potable Water collection from Satkhira town

Comprised between 21‟50 to 22‟50 of latitude north and 89‟ to 89‟20‟‟ of longitude east,
Patkelghata is located in the Satkhira district on the southwest part of Bangladesh, at 6 meter (20 feet)
above the sea level. The territory extends over an area of 344km2 covered mainly by plains.

The water supply of the local population is made through surface water, underground water and rain
water during monsoon. The proportion of villagers connected to the modern facilities of water supply
such as municipal water supply. The Satkhira municipality has deep tubewell and one overhead tank.
The pipe network distribution system is situated around the town. People outside of the town collect
drinking water from Satkhira town. The distance of Satkhira municipality is 14 kilometer. Recently, a
non government organization has installed deep tube well in patkelghata and made a local water
supply network. This piped water supply system could supply only one kilometer radius from its
pump house. So, the majority of people have to fetch water from district municipal water supply
system.

Figure 3.2: Van pullers carry water from Satkhira district town. (Source: Mamun, 2004)

25
3.3 Climatic and Metrological Data

3.3.1 Rainfall analysis:

The climate of Bangladesh is characterized with high temperature, heavy rainfall, excessive humidity
and seasonal variation. In rainy season, rainfall occurs due to north-easterly winds and annual rainfall
varies from 1250mm to 3500mm (Islam, 2010) in different parts of the country.

The rainfall pattern is based on the mean rainfall intensity. The average yearly rainfall in the country
during 1958-1996 varied from 1500 to 2800 mm i.e. 1.5 to 2.8 m3 of rainwater was available per
square meter of catchment area each year for development of rainwater based water supply system
(Islam, 2010). Monthly average precipitations in Satkhira show distinct seasonal variations with
maximum in July (ca. 375mm) (Fig. 3.3). This district experience regular rainfall all year round, the
locality of Patkelghata has highly variable rainfall and a distinct short dry season from December to
March.

Figure 3.3: Monthly average rainfall of Satkhira district (Data source: BMD, 2011).

3.4 Dimensioning of Rainwater Collection Systems

The volume of rainwater was estimated by the system assessed through the Rational Equation and the
dimensioning the required storage set in accordance to the method of Ahmed and Rahman (2000).

26
Potential rainwater harvesting flow rate:

The potential for rooftops (catchment) to collect rainwater is dependent on the area of the interception
surface, the intensity of the rain and the nature of the material used to drain water drops with the least
resistance possible.

For this study, a family consisting of five members having water demand of 5 l/capita/day for 3
months (for only drinking and cooking purpose) was considered.

The available rainwater was estimated by the equation (Ahmed and Rahman 2000)

Y = ( f × A × R) /1,000 m3 ---------------------------------- (i)

Where Y is the amount of water yielded per month,

f is the catchment‟s efficiency or coefficient of available runoff,
R is monthly rainfall (mm) and A is the catchment area in square meters.

The minimum catchment area A required for the collection of rainwater for N number of people
supplied with q liters per capita per day (lpcd) for the intensity of rain fall, I can deduce from the
equation (Ahmed and Rahman 2000)

A = 0.365 (q N) / ( f I)----------------------------------------- (ii)

About 25% of the rainwater should be presumed to be lost by evaporation and for washing the
catchment area using first rain that produces inferior quality rainwater (Ahmed and Rahman
2000).

The Eq. (ii) can be written for an average annual rainfall of 2.46 m/year, and a coefficient of
runoff of 0.70 in the following form (Ahmed and Rahman 2000):

A = 0.212 q N--------------------------------------------------- (iii)

3.5 Catchment area calculation

There are different types of roof was found in southwest coastal region in Bangladesh. The rural
people are poor and unable to make extra catchment for rainwater harvesting. Therefore the traditional
roof made by tiles, CI sheets or tin, concrete or straw have to be used as roof catchment. Different

27
types of roof orientation in the rural area were taken for rainwater collection catchment area. Concrete
roof is plain and parallel to ground surface. Tile, tin and straw made roofs look like triangles.

A B

C D
C

Figure 3.4: Rainwater harvesting roof top Catchment (A & C) CI sheet or tin, (B) tiles, (D) tiles & tin.

Concrete roof area is calculated by multiplying width and length. CI sheet or tin and tiles made roofs
different than concrete roof. This type of roof area is calculated in a different way.

Catchment area, A= L*W (L=length and W= width)

USE THE VERTICAL PROJECTION

OF THE EAVE LINE, NOT THE
SLOPED ROOF AREA

Figure 3.5: Roof Catchment Area.

28
3.6 Rainwater collection procedure

Rainwater has no bacterial content. The quality of rainwater prior to interception is more dependable
than that of other water resources. There are four types of roof structures available in that area.
Samples are collected from normally found rural household roof made of corrugated sheet (tin), roof
tiles, reinforced cement concrete and paddy straw.

The samples were collected from the middle of June to the end of August, 2011. Normally the
samples were collected after 20 to 30 minutes of heavy rainfall. The physical and chemical tests were
conducted for color, total dissolved solids, lead, turbidity, hardness, acidity, pH, nitrate, fluoride. The
chemical analysis was performed according to the standard methods for the examination of water and
wastewater. On the other hand, microbiological tests were conducted for total coliform(TC) and fecal
coliform(FC). Each rainwater sample was tested. The samples were tested at BADC water testing
laboratory.

3.7 Questionnaire survey

A structured questionnaire was developed to know the people knowledge, view and opinion for the
rainwater use in daily life. The questionnaire was developed by discussion with rural people. The
questionnaire surveys were conducted with various groups of inhabitants of that area. The groups are
consisted with students, farmers, religious leaders (Imams), teachers and housewives. The survey was
conducted among the students and teachers of Haruner Rashid College, Patkelghata, Tala upazilla,
religious leaders were different parts of the district. Farmers and housewives were from patkelghata
area of Satkhira district.

29
 4. RESULTS

4.1 Proposed low cost rain water harvesting system

Based on rural housing complex of the southwest region, a rain water harvesting system in rural area
consists of:

Roof catchment
Gutters
Down pipes
First flush devices
Storage tank

Roof catchment

Roof tops, rocky surface or hill slopes or artificially made impervious/ semi- impervious land surface.
For the rural housing/building, rooftop is considered as the catchment area. Rooftops of different
materials like corrugated iron (CI) sheet, aluminium sheet, plastic sheet, tiles, straw etc. can be used.
The runoff coefficient depends on the rooftop materials as shown in table 4.1 (Pacay & Cullis 1989)

Table 4.1: Runoff coefficient for different catchments ( Hofkes 1981)

30
Gutters and down pipes

Different materials like PVC pipes, G.I. pipes, Ferro-cement pipes can be used for gutters. The
diameter of pipes are determined depending on the intensity of the rainfall (cm/hr). The dimensions
depending on rainfall intensity illustrates in table 4.2. It is recommended to take the dimension 10-
15% more than the required one.

Table 4.2: Piping Dimensions (Stein & Reynolds, 2000)

Highest Rainfall (cm/hr)

Pipe 1 2 3 4 5 6

Diameter, cm Area (Sq m.)

5 55.27 27.64 18.42 13.82 11.05 9.22

7 163.58 81.79 54.54 40.89 32.72 27.26

10 351.54 175.77 117.17 87.88 70.31 58.60

12 638.05 319.03 212.67 159.51 127.61 106.35

15 1036.32 518.16 345.44 259.08 207.27 172.72

20 2235.20 1117.60 745.06 558.80 447.04 372.54

First flush devices

A separate vertical pipe is fixed with the down pipe using a „T‟ junction or similar- junction as shown
in the figure below. The initial rainfall contains the majority of contaminants. The initial flush of
rainfall running of the roof washes into the „first flush down pipes‟ or into the drain.

Figure 4.1: First flush Device (RHPL, 2007)

31
Storage tank

Both underground and overhead storage tank can be constructed using different materials. Different
types of tank are available in the local markets of different sizes. For storage tank, most commonly
used materials are:

Plastic storage tank, Pre cast Reinforced Cement Concrete storage tank,
Cement concrete storage tank, Ferro-cement storage tank,
RCC storage tank, Galvanized Iron Storage tank etc.

Top view

Fig 4.2: Proposed design and typical rural rooftop rainwater harvesting diagram.

32
Cost assessment of rainwater collection system:

Table 4.3: Estimation of rainwater collection system

Unit price($) Total price($)

Gutters 10 m 0.31 3.1

Pipe (2 inch φ) 16 feet 0.5 8

Pipe (3/4 inch φ) 1 feet 0.25 0.25

Cup (Holler type) 1 piece 2.5 2.5

Structural T socket 1 0.63 0.63

material Tap 1 0.82 0.82
Lock 1 0.19 0.19
Great ball (2 inch ) 2 5.63 11.25
L lbo 2 0.5 1
Brick(9.5”×4.5”×2.5”) 50 0.06 3.13
Tank (1000 liter) 2 97.5 195
Labor 25 25
Annual maintenance 10 10
Total 260.87

By keeping in mind that this research aims to promote an inexpensive and easy way to get fresh water
to meet the needs of rural population, the entire system has to deal with first of all the financial aspect
of each household and secondly to promote the use of local material in the concept. After all the
calculations, a total amount of $261 would be necessary for building and operating whole system. The
table 4.3 presents the list, unit price and total price of all materials that would be required.

33
4.2 Assessment of potential rainwater collection

Water demand and yield:

The minimum catchment area, A= 0.203 qN

Here, q is the liters per capita per day (lpcd)= 5 l/d,

N is the number of people supplied with q lit/capita/day = 6

The minimum catchment area, A = 0.203*5*6 = 6.09 m2 = 6 m2

The annual water requirement of a rural family (six members) in the south west region of Bangladesh
is 11 m3.

The annual water requirement = 6 person* 5 l/person/day * 365 day

= 10950 liter = 10.9 m3

= 11 m3

Water Demand = =5*6*days

Water Yield, Y = ( f × A × R) /1,000 m3

Annual Yield=0.75*6.09*R/1000

Where C=0.75, A=6.09 m2

Water demand and yield of the rainwater of a year for a rural family is given in table 4.3

The comparative analysis of demand and yield of the rainwater

of a year

30
Demand/Yield, m3

25
20
Cum Dem,m3
15
Cum Yield,m3
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month

Figure 4.3: The comparative analysis of demand and yield of the rainwater of a year for a rural family.

34
Storage tank size:

According to equation-(iii) the minimum catchment‟s area, A required for collection rainwater for a
rural household is found 6 m2. .The annual water requirement of a rural family (six members) in the
south west region of Bangladesh is 11 m3. The amount of water yield per month calculated according
to equation. The annual yield of rainfall is calculated 8.26 m3 by the minimum catchment area 6.09 m2
and estimated to be enough to fulfill the required demand of water. Usually a rainfall occurs between
45 days in Bangladesh. Here for storage calculation minimum duration between rainfalls is taken 60
days. So, sixty days demand is 2000 liter and here suggestion to build storage tank = 2000 liter
capacity.

Calculate storage tank capacity of a rural family (six members):

Average Rainfall = 915 mm

2 Months demand =6 person* 5 l/person/day * 60 day = 1.98 m3 = 1980 liter.

Storage = 2000 liter.

Suggestion to build storage tank = 2000 liter

Figure 4.4: Storage tank size (volume) for various rural families.

Finally, it can be suggested that average rural houses build storage tanks with a capacity of 2000 liter
(based on six members). The storage tank volume given in the table (6) is the minimum size required.

35
Therefore, the storage tank volume should not be less than above dimension and there is no restriction
if any rural family wants to build storage tank of higher volume.

4.3 Questionnaire survey findings

The questionnaire survey results that were very important for this study are described below step by
step.

Roof materials:
Different types of roofing materials are used in rural areas in Bangladesh. These include cement
concrete, tiles, CI/ metal sheet, straw with or without polythene covering. About 47 percent
households in rural area have Tin (Corrugated iron on metal sheet). On the other hand, concrete and
tiles have the same percentage (24%). The roofing materials are suitable for rainwater catchments.
Now few people use straw as the roofing materials. However, this can be used with some
modification such as polythene covering for straw.

Figure 4.5: Roof materials

Roof Area (m2):

There is no data available on the average roof size in rural areas in Bangladesh. In the field survey, it
was found that about around 58 percent of household‟s roof are within 25to 50 square meters. About
22 percent of roofs are within 9.5 to 25 square meters. On the other hand, about 11 and 9 percent roof
size is within 50 to 100 square meters and above 100 square meters. The minimum catchment area
was estimated 6.09 m2 to be enough to fulfill the required demand of water.

36
 Figure 4.6: Roof Area.

Household size in rural area of Bangladesh:

Household size is one of the important parameter in designing a rainwater harvesting system. It is
related to the total water demand, catchment area and storage volume. About 64 percent families have
4 to 5 persons and 89 percent families have 3 to 7 persons. The average household size is taken as 6
for the calculation of design storage capacity.

Figure 4.7: Household size in rural area of Bangladesh.

37
Drinking water sources:

Tube well is very popular drinking water source all over in Bangladesh. In the survey, twenty one
households were collecting water from a tube well. Similarly twenty four households have collect
water from municipal water supply. Deep tube well is used to collect water for municipal water
supply. Open well and pond water is not popular for drinking purpose due to contamination.

Figure 4.8: Drinking water sources.

A question was used to investigate the distance from home to water sources. According to the survey,
about 18 percent people collect pure drinking water from 10-15km and same percentage from 500m,
16 percent people collect pure water from 1-5km. Similarly only 17 percent people collect water from
their own arrangement shallow tube-well.

A question was set to know the reason for collecting water from long distances. They have water
around them but the water is polluted by arsenic and has high iron and hardness. The smell of tube-
well water is not good and there is not any pure water supply system. Out of 45 people‟s opinion, 19
persons indicated arsenic and 22 persons find out water contain high levels of salt. Many people have
stomach pains and are aware about arsenic contamination and water hardness. For that reason, they
collect water from long distances.

38
 Figure 4.9: Drinking water source contaminated

In this survey, about 85 percent of people are harvesting rainwater at the time of monsoon. Similarly,
approximately 82 percent of people drink rainwater and about 96 percent use rainwater for cooking.
All people in this survey agreed that rainwater is safe for drinking.

Almost all students and teachers agreed to the question about quality and supply can be improved by
harvesting rainwater after 15 minutes. On the other hand 9 farmers have no proper idea about
rainwater quality and one farmer want to boil for quality improvement.

Nearly all people in this region use rainwater for cooking purpose in the rainy season. Though they
have water around them but they have to collect pure water from long distance. Rural people know
that rainwater is safe for drinking and cooking. However, they cannot use rainwater properly due to
lack of rainwater harvesting technology and implementation. Local government such as Union
Parishad and Upazilla Parishad and local NGOs can implement rainwater harvesting system at
household level. Many government departments such as Department of Agriculture Extension, Public
Health Engineering Department and Local Government Engineering Department could be engaged for
RWH system implement and support. Moreover, all attendants have same opinion about raising
awareness to implement rainwater harvesting system. Political and religious leader can take part to
increase awareness. Similarly, mass media should be most effective way to increase awareness.

39
4.4 Rain Water quality:

To obtain accurate, reliable and representative data, the water samples were collected after 15 minutes
of rainfall. The tests were conducted for two times and the values of different parameters were
compared with those of standard drinking water in Bangladesh.

Table 4.4 : Rain water quality

Name of Bangladesh Open

Parameter Unit Standard limit air Tin Tiles Concrete Straw

PH 6.5-8.5 6.2 6.3 6.25 6.35 6.45

EC μS/cm 600-1000 101.7 105 107 115 290

TDS mg/L 1000 71.19 80 75 80 203

Iron mg/L 0.6-1.0 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.25 2

Arsenic Ppb 50 >10 >10 >10 >10 >10

Lead mg/L 0.05 0.032 0.029 0.028 0.029 0.029

Color TCU 15 10 12 12 15 30

Turbidity NTU 10 0.80 0.82 0.80 0.82 0.83

Fecal Coliform N/100ml 0 0 0 0 0 0

The PH values of the rainwater from different roof types 6.2-6.45 which was within the acceptable
range of 6.5 to 8.5. The rainwater collected from tiles roof was the lowest value among the other roof
types. The acceptable range of conductivity is 600-1000, but the test results were below the limit
which varies from 101.7 to 290.The acceptable range of total dissolved solid is 1000 mg/l, but the test
results were well below the standard limit which varies from 75 to 203. The tolerable range of iron is
0.6-1.0 mg/l, the test results were within the range but sample from straw was higher than the
acceptable range. The acceptable limit of turbidity is less than 10 NTU. The test result was varied
from 0.80 to 0.83, which were safe. The color test of straw sample yielded a result of 30 TCU, which
exceeded the acceptable limit of 15 TCU. The test results of other sample were varied from 10 to 15,
which were safe. There would not be any total and fecal coliform according to the standard for
drinking water in Bangladesh. The test report found zero fecal coliform in the samples except straw

40
sample. However, rainwater can be contaminated by dirt, debris and bird droppings and contaminants
from roof and gutter during dry period. The catchments area and gutter and storage tank should wash
properly before monsoon. To harvest good quality rainwater for human consumption, householders
are encouraged to use one of the various alternatives for roof washing and collection or disposal of the
first flush of rainwater from roofs since first flush picks up most of the dirt, debris and bird droppings
and contaminants from roof and gutter during dry period.

41
 5. DISCUSSIONS

Rainwater harvesting is a potential alternative water source at present all over the world. Zhu et. al.
(2004) opined that rainwater harvesting has vast socio-economic importance in areas where all water
sources are scares or polluted. Islam et. al. (2010) expressed that rainwater harvesting is ideal for
Bangladesh due to plenty of rainfall during monsoon. Traditional collection system renders rainwater
harvesting quite feasible at the household level. Disadvantages of rainwater harvesting include a
significant space requirement for the storage tank and low mineral salt in rainwater. Mineral salt may
be added to harvested rainwater to counter the problem of low mineral salt.

Satkhira is one of the densely populated districts of south west coastal region of Bangladesh. So, the
space requirement for storing harvested rainwater constitutes a significant obstacle to implement the
system. Rainwater harvesting has performed in several countries, but the quality indicators of
rainwater vary from place to place due to environmental conditions (including potential pollution
sources) and level of cleaning and maintenance during the collection and storage period. Of late,
Government of Bangladesh has taken a decision in principle recently to furnish a new rule that each
and every new building must have the rainwater storage system (The New Nation 2009) and this is a
good indication to implement this alternative water source system effectively.

Different materials can be used as gutters and down pipes. The cost of G.I. pipes is very high
comparing to other materials. PVC pipes are cheap and available in coastal region of Bangladesh. The
PVC pipes are suitable for gutters and down pipes. A storage tank is the most expensive component of
rainwater harvesting system. Storage tanks are constructed from different materials. Now plastic tanks
are cheap and available all over Bangladesh. The costs include gutters, down pipes, tap, storage tanks
and labor cost. By keeping in mind that this research aims to promote an inexpensive and easy way to
get fresh water to meet the needs of rural population, the entire system has to deal with first of all the
financial aspect of each household and secondly to promote the use of local material in the concept.
After all the calculations, a total amount of $261 for 2000 liter capacity would be necessary for
building and operating whole system. However, Dakua (2012) found that a rainwater harvesting
system with 15000 liter capacity costing is $1620. Low cost rainwater harvesting system will be
sustained in coastal areas.

The first test result for color for rainwater collected from straw made roof, 30 NTU, exceeded the
acceptable limit. The color content level of rainwater in other roofs was found within the standard
limit. Most people can detect colors above 15 true color units (TCU) in a glass of water. Levels of
color below 15 TCU are usually acceptable to consumers, but acceptability may vary (WHO, 2008).
High color could also indicate a high propensity to produce by-products from disinfection processes.
No health-based guideline value is proposed for color in drinking-water.

42
The pH value is an important safe drinking water quality parameter. The standard pH values of
rainwater vary approximately from 6.5 to 8.5. The values may differ due to the mixing of other
chemical components from the air or roof catchment or from storage tank. Khemani et al. (1989)
expressed that the pH values in Indian cities Agra and Delhi have been found to have decreased by 2.8
(9.1 to 6.3) and 0.9 (7.0 to 6.1) units, respectively after the period of two decades during which the old
cities developed industrially to a great extent. The main cause for the decrease in the pH values was a
significant increase of acidic components and decrease of soil-oriented components in the rainwater.
Ariyananda (2005) stated that the pH values in the cement tanks decrease during the wet season and
increase during the dry season. She investigated the pH values of rainwater in different countries. She
also recorded the mean pH value in urban area of Ethiopia was 8.2, 8.8 in Uganda and 9 in rural area
of Sri Lanka. The pH values of collected rainwater were found 7.63 to 8.8 with a mean value of 8.35
(Sazakli et al. 2007). They had collected the rainwater into ferro-cement storage tanks. The rainwater
was collected from the cement-paved hill slopes and it served as catchment areas. But some of the
other studies reported that the pH values for rainwater varied from 4.17 to 6, which means the
rainwater of those places is acidic (Mantovan et al. 1995; Chang et al. 2004). The pH values of the
rainwater of this study were within the Bangladeshi standard and the values were from 6.2 to 6.45,
which indicated that the colleted rainwater was acidic. But the test results of this research were with in
the acceptable range of Bangladeshi drinking water standard.

Solids can be found in nature in a dissolved form. Salts break into positively and negatively charged
ions in water. Conductivity is the ability of water to conduct an electrical current, and the dissolved
ions are the conductors. The basic unit is "mho/cm", otherwise known as 1 Siemen. The useful unit
for freshwater is micromhos/cm (umhos/cm, or uS); tap water ranges between 50 and 800 uS (depend
on the source). Because electrical conductivity greatly depends on temperature, scientists use the term
“specific conductivity” if the value has been corrected to reflect the measurement temperature.
Rainwater conductivity equals zero (i.e., the rain is essentially distilled water). Rain falling into a
water body, or rain runoff flowing into it, will decrease conductivity/salinity. Electrical conductivity
and Total dissolved Solid of the test results of this research were below the acceptable range of
Bangladeshi drinking water standard.

Iron is an essential nutrition element in human life. Minimum daily requirement of iron for human
body depend on age, sex, physiological status and range from about 10 to 50 mg per day. According
to WHO groundwater may contain iron (II) at concentrations up to several milligrams per liter in the
water when directly pumped from a well. Usually taste is not noticeable at iron concentrations below
0.3 mg/liter. The test results of all samples are with in acceptable limit except straw sample that
exceed the permissible limit.

In a number of countries, the World Health Organization interim arsenic guidelines of 0.01 mg/L have
been adopted as the standard. However, many countries have retained the previous WHO guideline of

43
0.05 mg/L as the national standard. Many European countries have adopted the WHO provisional
guideline of 0.01 mg/L as their national standard. In the United States of America, the Safe Drinking
Water Act (SDWA) directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish national
standards for public drinking-water supplies. EPA‟s provisional maximum contaminant level (MCL)
for arsenic in drinking water is 0.05 mg/L. New standard value currently proposed is 0.005 mg/L. A
number of Countries where the national standard for arsenic in drinking water remains at 0.05 mg/L
include Bangladesh, China and India. The collected samples are below the Bangladesh national
arsenic standard. The Table 5-1 shows the currently accepted national standards for arsenic in
drinking water in some selected countries.

Table 5.1: The currently accepted national standards for arsenic in drinking water Standard Countries

National standards for arsenic Countries

Countries whose standard is lower than 0.01 Australia (0.007 mg/L, 1996)
mg/L

Countries whose standard is 0.01 mg/L European Union (1998), Japan (1993), Jordan
(1991), Laos (1999), Laos, Mongolia (1998),
Namibia, Syria(1994)

Countries whose standard is lower than 0.05 Canada (1999) 0.025 mg/l
mg/l but higher than 0.01 mg/l

Countries considering to lower the standard United States (1986*) , Mexico(1994)

from 0.05 mg/L

Countries whose standard is 0.05 mg/l Bahrain, Bangladesh (unknown), Bolivia

(1997), China (unknown), Egypt(1995), India
(unknown), Indonesia (1990), Oman,
Philippines (1978), Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka
(1983), Viet Nam(1989), Zimbabwe

When the storage period elapsed three months then some total coliforms bacteria were found in the
stored rainwater (8, 9 and 11/100 ml respectively). This total coliform might enter into the tank
mixing with air through the inlet of the storage tank. So, to avoid such kind of contamination, the
storage tank should be well monitored and maintained during the stored period. To reduce total

44
coliform from the stored rainwater, locally made sand filter can be used. The effectiveness of the sand
filter to reduce the total coliform was studied. From the study, it was clear that 30 cm sand layer
reduced 30% of the total coliform and 45 cm and 60 cm sand layers reduced 40% and 60% of the total
coliform respectively. So, the locally made sand filter was able to reduce a significant number of total
coliform bacteria (Islam, 2010).

Public acceptability of the degree of hardness of water may vary considerably from one community to
another, depending on local conditions. The taste threshold for the calcium ion is in the range of 100–
300 mg/l, depending on the associated anion, and the taste threshold for magnesium is probably lower
than that for calcium. It is not a pollution parameter but is a quality indicator. In some instances,
consumers tolerate water hardness in excess of 500 mg/l (WHO 2008). Depending on the interaction
of other factors, such as pH and alkalinity, water with hardness above approximately 200 mg/l may
cause scale deposition in the treatment works, distribution system and pipe work and tanks within
buildings. Soft water, with a hardness of less than 100 mg/l, may, on the other hand, have a low
buffering capacity and so be more corrosive for water pipes. No health-based guideline value is
proposed for hardness in drinking-water (WHO 2008).

45
 6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

From this research, the rainwater harvesting was a very useful and acceptable potential source of safe
water for drinking and cooking purposes in the water scarce and the arsenic contaminated areas. In the
saline and arsenic contaminated areas, this source might be an alternative water source. Also at the
area like Satkhira, where there is scarcity of safe drinking water, rainwater harvesting may be very
useful. The minimum catchment‟s area required for collection rainwater for a rural household has
found 6 m2. In addition the annual water requirement of a rural family based on six members in the
south west coastal region of Bangladesh has calculated 11 m3. Finally, it can be suggested that
average rural houses based on six members build storage tanks with a capacity of 2000 liter.
Moreover, a low cost rain water harvesting system is proposed. The cost of the system is $261 and it
is affordable in coastal region.

The questionnaire survey revealed the roof orientation and structures of rural house roof which could
be used as catchment (to collect the rainwater) and available size of rural house roof areas. The survey
result also revealed that the roof condition of the selected area is suitable to use as catchment for
rainwater. Moreover, the available average sizes of the roofs are suitable for rainwater harvesting
system. The test results showed that the quality of rainwater was acceptable as safe drinking water
without any treatment in southern part of Bangladesh.

Rural people know that rainwater is safe for drinking and cooking. However, they cannot use
rainwater properly due to lack of rainwater harvesting technology and implementation procedure.
Local government such as Union Parishad and Upazilla Parishad and local NGOs can implement
rainwater harvesting system at household level. Many government departments such as Department of
Agriculture Extension, Public Health Engineering Department and Local Government Engineering
Department could be engaged for RWH system implement and support. Moreover, all attendants have
same opinion about raising awareness to implement rainwater harvesting system. Political and
religious leader can take part to increase awareness. Similarly, mass media should be most effective
way to increase awareness. A detailed survey on the rainwater acceptability in water scare area like
Khulna division could be conducted to get the clear picture of the water requirement. Social campaign
is needed to create awareness about the rainwater as good alternative option.

Moreover, this test result was applicable only for this area, because there would be spatial variation of
quality of rainwater due to variation of air quality or the environment. Further study should emphasize

46
careful handling of the storage tank and closing of the inlet. Also rainwater storage tanks may be used
in future studies. Care should be taken during storage period to ensure that coliform cannot enter into
the tank. So, the water can be used for the whole storage period as safe drinking water. In case of
necessity, the water tank can be chlorinated as per standard guidelines.

Finally, one could also recommend that once such systems are in operation, an investigation

of the microbiology and the chemistry of the collected stored water in different areas should be
initiated to monitor the proper operation and management of the systems. This could be the subject of
further study.

47
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Appendix-A

Questionnaire
Name:
Father’s Name:
Mother’ Name:
Village:……………….,Union:…………………..,Upazilla:………………., Zilla:…
1. Roof structure/ made by: (1) Concrete, (2) Tiles, (3) Tin, (4) Other …….
2. Roof Area (sft) :
3. Family size: ………. Members.
4. Drinking water sources – a) Tube well, b) Open well, c) Municipal water supply, d) Rain water,
e) Pond.
5. Distance from drinking water source to home: …………Kilometer.
6. Why do you collect water from long distance?
Answer:
7. Have you experienced sickness / uncomforted as a result of drinking this water?
Answer:
8. Do you experience that the water is a) saline; b) contains high levels of iron c) Is hard (high
levels of Ca)?
9. How that influences the use of the water?
Answer:
10. Have you harvest rainwater before for any purpose:
(a) No; (b) Yes, If yes then purpose :
11. Do you drink rain water?
a) Yes b) No
12. Do you cook by rain water?
a) Yes b) No
13. Do you feel rain water is safe for drinking?
Answer:
14. Do you think rainwater can be used for drinking purposes in this community?
a) Yes b) No c) No comments – because have no proper idea. c) Do not know.
15. Do you think rainwater can be used for cooking purposes?
a) Yes b) No c) No comments – because have no proper idea. c) Do not know.
55
16. Do you think water quality and supply can be improved by harvesting rainwater?
Answer:
17. What would you suggest local government or NGOs can do to improve rain water harvesting?
Answer:

Appendix-B
Field Survey Data
Roof materials:

Roof structure/ made by: (1) Concrete… (2) Tiles…. (3) Tin… (4) Other

Roof made by Total number Percentage Remarks

Concrete 11 24.44
Tiles 11 24.44
Tin 21 46.67
Straw 2 4.44
45

Roof Area (m2) :

Roof size (m2) Total number Percentage Remarks
9.5-25 10 22.22
25-50 26 57.78
50-100 5 11.11
>100 4 8.89
45

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Family size: ………. Members.
Family size(Persons) Total members Percentage
2 2 4.44
3 6 13.33
4 15 33.33

5 14 31.11
6 5 11.11
7 2 4.44
8 1 2.22
45

Drinking water sources – a) Tube well, b) Open well, c) Municipal water supply, d) Rain water, e)
Pond.
Drinking water Total number Percentage Remarks
sources

Tube well 21 46.67

Open well 0 0
Municipal water 24 53.33
supply

Rain water 0 0
Pond 0 0
45

Distance from drinking water source to home: …………Kilometer.

57
 Distance from Total number Percentage Remarks
drinking water
source to home
100-250 m. 14 31.11
250-500 m. 9 20
500 m. - 1 km. 5 11.11
1-10 km. 8 17.78
10-15 km. 9 20
45

Have you experienced sickness / uncomforted as a result of drinking this water?

Do you experience that the water is a) saline; b) contains high levels of iron c) Is hard (high levels of
Ca)?
Drinking water Total number Percentage Remarks
source
Saline 12 26.67

Contains high 20 44.44

levels of iron
Hard(high levels of 5 11.11
Ca)?
Arsenic 8 17.78
45
Have you harvest rainwater before for any purpose:
(a) No; (b) Yes, If yes then purpose :
Yes = 37 , Percentage = 82.22
No = 08 , Percentage = 17.78
Do you drink rain water?
Yes = 37 , Percentage = 82.22
No = 08 , Percentage = 17.78
Do you cook by rain water?
Yes = 43 , Percentage = 95.56
No = 02 , Percentage = 4.44
Do you feel rain water is safe for drinking? Answer: all
Appendix-C

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 Rain water quality

Standard
Name of limit(According Open
Parameter Unit to B.G. 1997) air Tin Tiles Concrete Straw

PH 6.5-8.5 6.2 6.3 6.25 6.35 6.45

EC μS/cm 600-1000 101.7 105 107 115 290
TDS mg/L 1000 71.19 80 75 80 203
Iron mg/L 0.6-1.0 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.25 2
Arsenic Ppb 50 >10 >10 >10 >10 >10
Lead mg/L 0.05 0.032 0.029 0.028 0.029 0.029
Color TCU 15 10 12 12 15 30
Turbidity NTU 10 0.80 0.82 0.80 0.82 0.83
Fecal
Coliform N/100ml 0 0 0 0 0 0

Appendix-D
Cum
Demand, Demand, Cum Cum Cum
Month Days mm mm Yield (m3) Dem,m3 Yield,m3 Yield,m3
January 31 930 930 0.06 0.93 0.06 0.06
February 29 870 1800 0.20 1.8 0.26 0.26
March 31 930 2730 0.24 2.73 0.50 0.50
April 30 900 3630 0.40 3.63 0.90 0.90
May 31 930 4560 0.91 4.56 1.81 1.81
June 30 900 5460 1.53 5.46 3.35 8.14
July 31 930 6390 1.51 6.39 4.85 14.56
August 31 930 7320 1.48 7.32 6.33 20.13
September 30 900 8220 1.16 8.22 7.49 25.39
October 31 930 9150 0.59 9.15 8.09 25.98
November 30 900 10050 0.15 10.05 8.23 26.13
December 31 930 10980 0.03 10.98 8.26 26.16

Total Rainfall (mm) in Monsoon over Khulna Division

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 Years June July August September Monsoon
1980 783 614 709 361 2467
1981 828 1239 786 460 3313
1982 713 520 1054 449 2736
1983 704 682 1094 649 3129
1984 1709 986 949 391 4035
1985 892 626 909 581 3008
1986 914 879 1111 1729 4633
1987 857 1697 1066 653 4273
1988 1538 929 712 332 3511
1989 991 1016 428 729 3164
1990 1072 1498 806 998 4374
1991 1884 1669 1408 1620 6581
1992 1047 1554 1199 695 4495
1993 2097 1263 1436 1386 6182
1994 1379 1432 1306 561 4678
1995 1560 1560 1580 1459 6159
1996 1883 1363 1266 890 5402
1997 1307 1968 1711 1554 6540
1998 821 1609 1379 1235 5044
1999 1363 1807 1737 1824 6731
2000 1279 1989 1621 1499 6388
2001 1776 1248 731 1015 4770
2002 3162 1701 1694 1374 7931
2003 1541 1281 1113 1161 5096
2004 1890 1475 2148 2565 8078
2005 1415 1891 961 1744 6011
2006 1439 2219 1573 1922 7153
2007 1876 2629 1065 1534 7104
2008 1299 1828 1193 1593 5913
2009 847 1456 2213 1696 6212
2010 1355 1000 872 1000 4227
2011 2057 - - - -
Average 1383.688 1407.355 1220.323 1150.290323 5139.935

60