1st International Conference on Rain Water Cistern Systems
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA - June 1982

Section 6: Related Topics

Page 338

Underground Pipes to Recharge Rainwater Storage in Aquifers

Katsuyoshi Ishizaki, Fumio Yoshino & Akira Terakawa
Ministry of Construction, Japan

Introduction

Rainwater cistern systems have high potentialities to supplement and thus reduce the demands on public water supply systems if the storage tank cost can be made more feasible. In general, the cost of water tanks is relatively high in comparison to other components of the total rainwater cistern system. Thus, an underground aquifer can be considered as one method to minimize the total. cost of rainwater cistern systems if an aquifer, rather than a storage tank, can be used to store rain water. Using underground pipes as an infiltration technique is a possible solution.

Underground pipes, which are permeable and buried in the topsoil, are being used for crop irrigation and also for drainage. They were recently found to be also useful in the field of groundwater recharge (Ishizaki, Kitagawa, and Terakawa 1981). Because ordinary methods to recharge groundwater, such as well injection and ponding, have common problems of clogging, considerable design and cost studies will be necessary to maintain them as infiltration facilities (Ishizaki and Kitagawa 1981). Because of aerobic conditions, underground pipes used for irrigation have little chance of clogging. Also, the cost of these pipes is relatively low because of their simple structure. Thus, we discuss the possibility of using an underground aquifer as the storage element and underground pipes as the catchment and conduit for rainwater into the aquifer.

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