ADOPTING RAIN WATER HARVESTING

and
Best Practises for Effective Rain Water Management in our House

TO PROTECT WATER BODIES FOR FUTURE

Gayathri and Family, Bengaluru

Since May, 2018
Site Dimension: 30’x40’

While designing of our Eco-house, we have adopted rain water harvesting methods, in the
design stage itself.

Since, May 2018, we are staying in our Eco house.

To validate the design expectation of rain water harvesting, a one year data of our
house, with respect to the volume of rain water storage, water consumption,
number of days rain water used etc. has been studied and data has been generated.

During the course, we have also adopted and practicing reduction methods, in
consumption of water.
 WATER CONSUMPTION
As per BIS, nearly 135 to 200 Litres of water is
required per capita per day (lpcd)

Requirement Approx.
Consumption
per person per
day, liters (lpcd)
Bathing, Wash Basin 30
Cloth washing 20 So, a family of 4 needs minimum
Toilet Flushing 45 600 litres per day !
Drinking 3
Wastage in purifier 8
Cooking 4
Vegetable + Groceries cleaning 5
House cleaning 7
Utensil washing 8
Other Purposes 20
Total 150
WATER CONSUMPTION PER FAMILY AS PER BIS WATER CONSUMPTION BY OUR FAMILY
Requirement Approx. For a family of 4 Requirement Our family
Consumption per persons per day, (4 persons)
person per day, litres consumption per
liters day, litres
Bathing, Wash Basin 30 120 Bathing, Wash Basin 80

Cloth washing 20 80 Cloth washing 80

Toilet Flushing 45 180 Toilet Flushing 0

Drinking 3 12 Drinking 12

wastage in purifier 8 32 wastage in purifier 32

Cooking 4 16 Cooking 16
Vegetable + Groceries 5 20 Vegetable + Groceries 20
cleaning cleaning
House cleaning 7 28 House cleaning 25
Utensil washing 8 32 Utensil washing 25
Gardening 10 40 Gardening 0
Other Purposes 10 40 Other Purposes 20

Total 150 600 Total 310

Net Reduction in water consumption by our family : 600 – 310 = 290 Litres per day (48.33%)
BEST PRACTISES ADOPTED TO REDUCE THE WATER CONSUMPTION IN OUR HOUSE
To reduce the demand of water, following reduction methods were adopted

1. Hand showers incorporated instead of bucket filling, for bathing purpose.

2. Initial cold water from the solar heater water lines, stored in buckets and used
for house cleaning/mopping purpose. After cleaning/mopping, this water is
used in garden.

3. Adopted and practicing , use of minimum flow of water, for utensil cleaning
purpose

4. Use of fresh water for toilet flushing and gardening, is completely eliminated.

5. Incorporated Drip Irrigation method, for watering the plants/trees, with the
recycled water, in the garden.

6. Toilet flush valve is set, to discharge minimum flow of recycled water.

 1. RAIN WATER HARVEST

Rain water being the purest natural water, suitable underground tank
constructed for its storage, through passive filtration.

 Consumption in liters per day : 310 litres

 Open terrace area availability for collecting rain water : 55.0 Sq.m
 Bengaluru’s distributed and average rain fall per year : 60 rainy days and 857 mm rainfall
 Rain Water Storage Tank : 6000 litres

 In a year, around 42,000 liters rain water is harvested which meets requirement of our house, for
nearly 136 days (37.2%) !
 METHOD OF COLLECTING RAIN WATER
Subsequent water
Rain raise through V
water Joint Arrangement of Water Tank
Rain water to the
from passive filtration
Terrace unit OH Tank SOLAR POWERED PUMP
1000
Passive
Filtration Rain
Chamber Water Layout
Water

From filtration unit

to the storage tank 6000 4000

Initial
rain fill
water /  During rain fall, the layout
Drain water tank valve will be
closed.
 The excess rain water from
6000 litre tank flows out to
4000 litre tank.
 Revisiting water consumption by our family
Requirement Our family
consumption
per day, litres
Bathing, Wash Basin 80
Cloth washing 80
Toilet Flushing 0
Drinking 12
wastage in water purifier 32

Cooking 16
Vegetable + Groceries cleaning 20

House cleaning 25
Utensil washing 25 212 Litres !!
Gardening 0 (68% of total requirement of our house)
Other Purposes 20
Total 310 Why to Waste this precious amount
of water ? Can it be reused?
 2. RECYCLING OF USED WATER
Bathing, wash basin
80 L Water after first use diverted
for reuse before letting it out !

Washing machine
80 L

Kitchen
vegetable/Groceries
20 L
cleaning water

Water Purifier waste

32 L PASSIVE, WATER RECYCLING UNIT

212 L
Toilet Flushing
The used water of the kitchen, washing machine, GREY
+
bathing is recycled with passive filtration for feeding WATER
STORAGE WATER Garden Plant/Trees
to the plants / garden and for toilet flushing. Thereby
the water demand is reduced drastically and TANK PUMP
effectively the available water is consumed. (400 Litres)
SOLAR POWER
 3. RECHARGE WELL
Why to waste extra rain water…..
Let it percolate inside earth….

1000 Zero waste of precious water

Rain
Water

Rech
6000 4000 arge Rain Water
well within site
area

Any overflow of rain water from

the water storage tank and also
the water falling within the site
area, is diverted to a recharge
well, for percolation, inside the
Recharge well
earth.
 Rain Water Management in our house
Consumption in Litres for Fresh Recycled
Water Water
Bathing and wash basin 80 0
 Saving of Fresh water per day: 180 Litres
Cloth Washing 80 0
Cooking 16 0  For 136 days of rain water use:
Vegetable + Groceries Cleaning 20 0 136 x 180 = 24,480 Litres
Drinking 12 0 
 (24,480 / 310= 79 days of water requirement of
House Cleaning 25 0
our family)
Utensil Cleaning 25 0
Other Purpose 20 0
Wastage in purifier 32 0  Effectively, 136 + 79 = 215 days in a
Toilet Flushing 0 100 year, we use rain water……………..
Gardening 0 80 (58.90%) dependency on the rain with
only 6,000 litres tank…
Total 310 180
 To Summarise……………..Water management in our house

 As per BIS standard, family of 4 needs 2,19,000 litres per year

 Our family Consumption is 1,13,150 litres per year

48.33 % reduction in water demand

 By effective utilization of fresh water and recycling the used water, we increased the rain water
usage from 136 days to 215 days.

Further reduction, of water demand from 48.33 %……………to……………. 58.9 %

So, 58.90% depend on rain water and thereby equivalent

reduction in Water Demand !
Trees and Plants grown around the
house, using recycled water and
Biogas slurry
 Contribution and its benefit……..
 We are satisfied that by adopting simple possible methods, we are able to effectively utilize the
precious water, thereby contributing towards protecting and sustaining the water bodies, for
future
 If Every House adopts this simple techniques of rain water harvesting and its management, the
demand for water, can be reduced drastically (by minimum 58.9 %). This is a big relief to the
water bodies and to the environment.

We opine the following can be considered to protect the precious water bodies…

 Water management can be decentralized to local areas for effective utilization of available rain
water, in that area itself. This Saves water transport expenses.
 Natural Water Resources can be sustained for longer time.
 “ River Diversion OR Mega Expensive Water Project” of bringing water from far away places, may
not be required.
Let us allow river to flow ……in its natural way….. at its wish !!!
KAVERI SHARAVATI
THANK YOU