WHY SHOULD WE HARVEST RAIN WATER?
An
Introduction:
Although close to three quarters of our planet is water, not
all of it is suitable for use. The water in the oceans and seas cannot be used
as drinking water and little of it can be utilized for other purposes.
It is a well know factor
that, there is a constant shortage of water in many areas of our country that
is either good for drinking or home and industrial use. Areas on the planet
that have long faced water shortage were able to combat this problem by
harvesting whatever amount of rainfall that they receive.
After the survey
which was carried out by the UN Agency of WFP it was found out that over the on
past period of three years, it was found out that there has been a markable
decline rain quantity in the Northern Tanzania Regions, mainly Kilimanjaro,
Arusha and Manyara. Some districts have taken at most three years consecutively
getting few millimeters of rain.
WFP introduced the
Rain Water Harvesting facilities in some of the districts of Longido,
Simanjiro, Monduli, Ngorongoro and Kiteto. In these districts some primary
schools benefited from the project, of which proved to be a reliable solution to
the problem. This project was funded and supervised by the WFP
Why should we harvest
the rain water?
Today,
due to the Climatic change around the globe, scarcity of good quality water has
become a major cause of concern. However rain water which is pure and of good
quality is always left to drain and get lost in the ground.
Water
is our most precious natural resource and something that most people take
for granted. We are now increasingly becoming aware of the importance of water
to our survival and its limited supply, especially in many areas of our country
where it has became very dry due to climatic change and lack of better management
of it.
According
to the survey conducted by the WFP, due to the scarcity of rain which resulted
to the scarcity of water the following occurred:
EFFECTS ON THE EDUCATION
SECTOR:
· An
extremely shortage of water at the schools, most of the accessible water
through dams and wells is not portable with a lot of salt concentration.
· In
some of the few schools which are having RWHT (Rain Water Harvesting Tanks) the
tanks are excessively leaking due to age a result hence very few water are
taped during rain season.
· Available
Dams are quite far from the school 5-40 kms. Pupils spend extra class hours
fetching for water which leads to poor class concentration and increased
truancy. In some cases pupils spend more than 10 hours fetching for water
· Due
to shortage of water, hygiene and sanitation is highly at risk among the
targeted schools. Poor hygiene (kitchen and Latrines), poor food preparation
and saving poor cleanliness among the cooks
· Likewise,
it has been found that shortage of water have continued to de-motivate
teachers. Teachers’ retention is highly low within the selected schools. This
situation has negative impact on the quality of education and performances.
· There
is lack of responsibility and community ownership-in some cases even the small
repairs to the existing tanks were found not possible due to several reasons
including lack of funds. We therefore strongly recommend establishment of water
management fund through the water management committees in collaboration with
the community and government-this will ensure effective management of the water
Tanks including minor and major repairs as well as fostering for community
ownership
· Because
of not having meals at schools this has made the attendance of pupils to
deteriorate a factor which has led to high percentage of drop-outs.
· The
most vulnerable group on this are the girls who are subsequently forced into
early marriages.
· The
relationship between parents and the school administration has dropped sharply
because parents no longer visit the schools to check the performance of their
kids because they are afraid they might be asked the whereabouts’ of their
children.
· Other
activities which normally take place at schools like sports no longer exists.
· Because
of not preparing meals at schools the distributed food by the donors got
spoiled and was subsequently declared un fit for human consumption, and the
donors themselves had to incur another costs to destroy it at the schools!!
EFFECTS ON OTHER
SOCIAL ECONOMIC AREAS
·
There was out-break of the waterborne
diseases such as cholera
·
Parents had to migrate from one place
to another looking for water for the animals
·
Out-break of STD was on the increase
since girls had to get water by any means otherwise they will not be
understandable at home.
·
Poverty in general was on the increase
since few economic activities could be undertaken most of the time was spent on
fetching water.
A picture showing a woman fetching a water fro a pond for home consuption
due to shorteg of water in Matui Simanjiro District)
But what is
rain water harvesting?
The harvesting of rainwater simply involves
the collection of water from surfaces on which rain falls, and subsequently
storing this water for later use. In short,
Rainwater harvesting is a process or technique of collecting, filtering, and storing
and rainwater for later use in various purposes.
Normally water is collected from the roofs of buildings and stored in
rainwater tanks. This is very common in some areas of our country where this
method is already in use. In any way the water collected can be considered to
be precious.
To reduce the consumption of groundwater, many people around the world
are using rainwater harvesting systems. This practice has been around for
thousands of years and has been growing at a rapid pace. Till today, rainwater
is used as a primarily source of drinking water in several rural
areas. The best thing about rainwater is that it is free from pollutants
as well as salts, minerals, and other natural and man-made contaminants
Rainwater harvesting techniques
The collection of rainwater
from the roofs of buildings can easily take place within our cities, towns,
even in villages provided there is a building with iron sheets such as in
schools or health centres. All that is necessary to capture this water is to
direct the flow of rainwater from roof to gutters then to down pipes and
finally to rainwater storage tanks. By doing this, water can be collected and
used for various uses. The water collected from the rain can
largely be self sufficient water supply for
a vast majority of people in our country.
What
About Dirty Roofs?
There are a number of devices (first
flush devices) which allow for the first flow of water to the rainwater storage
tank to be diverted from the tank. By doing this, any dirt on the roofs of
buildings that has built up prior to the rain can be excluded from the tank.
Sizing of Rainwater Storage Tanks
The most appropriately sized
rainwater storage can be chosen by quantitatively assessing the performance of
various sized storage capacities. By assessing the performance of various sized
storage capacities, it is possible to make an informed decision as to what
would be the most suitably sized storage capacity for the given application.
The input for the assessment is historical rainfall pattern, and the number of
people thajt the system will be saving.
Water Balance for Estimation of
Rainwater Storage Capacity
The size
of the area of capture or roof area must also be known when estimating the
amount of rainfall that is able to be collected. The larger the roof area, the
more rainfall that is able to be collected.
Contact Tel: 0754 363238, Kennedy Mlay
0754 42 8243 Mr. Kahigwa
