Storing rain water in wells

I had recently posted a note about collecting rain water to provide a safe and reliable source of drinking water. Visit

http://newstudentresearch.blogspot.in/2016/03/collecting-rainwater-at-family-level.html

However, it may be worth considering an alternative – that of providing about 5000 litres of rain water storage to meet multiple needs of a rural family. The concept of a well as a part of rural house is well understood. The only problem is that ground water levels have gone down so much that most of the traditional wells have gone dry. The alternative that is relevant here is that of using gutters at the edge of sloping roofs to collect run-off rain water and some plumbing to take it to the well. A special feature of such wells designed to store rain water would be the effort to minimize leakage of water. The sides as well as the bottom surface of the well would be cemented to avoid water loss. The following site provides some information on constructing small diameter wells reinforced with pre-cast concrete well-rings, but it is not specifically about wells designed to store rain water.   

www.wateraid.org/~/media/Publications/Hand-dug-wells.pdf

Keeping the roof and the water clean is a challenge; tradition is no use in these matters. A water filtering mechanism, a cover for the top of the well and a hand pump to raise water seem to be relevant items.

Engineers interested in improving the quality of life in rural areas should experiment with different design alternatives. Improving rural water supply should be India’s next big mission after the Swachh Bharat effort.

Collecting rainwater at the family level

There was a time when water cost nothing, but now a large number of families in India pay for the piped water they use. Many of those who do not get piped water pay a lot more for tanker water, which is usually of uncertain quality. Piped water costs as much as Rs 35 per kiloliter in some urban areas. Many families pay as much as a few hundred rupees a month to get water. Under these circumstances, it is logical to think of collecting rainwater for individual families. There is a lot of information on the Web. Visit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vukZHS9xYtQ and

http://www.samsamwater.com/rain/?gclid=CN347K7jq8sCFRUXaAodxlsBwQ

The first one is about water collection from a tiled roof in Mangalore. The second is about water collection in Africa. The following article provides additional information.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/rainwater-harvesting-system-zmaz03aszgoe.aspx

I would like to focus the rest of this post on drinking water. Water borne diseases continue to be a major problem in India and are the cause of avoidably high infant death rate. India receives an average of about 1 meter of rainfall annually. If we had a funnel with a collecting area of about 1 square meter, we could collect a thousand litres of water a year. How much drinking water do we need? The following article refers to an Indian Standard (BIS 1172, reaffirmed in 1998) which is reported to say that the requirement (per person per day) of drinking water is 5 liters per day, in addition to 5 more liters for cooking.

http://www.thehindu.com/features/homes-and-gardens/how-much-water-does-an-urban-citizen-need/article4393634.ece

I can do with a lot less of drinking water per day; I would think of two litres of drinking water per day per person is a reasonable design assumption. Keeping the collecting equipment and the collected water free of dust and other contamination is very important. A few cubic meters of water are what we need to collect and store; doing this at an affordable cost requires a fair amount of trial and error. The challenge is not unsurmountable. A country which has a million students starting engineering college every year can very well meet this challenge. We need to create a good product design leading to local manufacture and to the solution of a vexing problem.