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