9th International Rainwater Catchment Systems Conference
"Rainwater Catchment: An Answer to the Water Scarcity of the Next Millennium."
Petrolina, Brazil - July 1999

Section 4: Technology of Rainwater Catchment Systems

Paper 4.3

Sri Lanka's Experiences with Low Cost Extraction Hand Pump, Storage Cover, First Flush and Guttering in Domestic Rainwater Catchment Systems

Devapriya Hapugoda
Lanka Rainwater Harvesting Forum
Sri Lanka
E-mail: rwhf@itdg.lanka.net

In Sri Lanka rainwater catchment has been traditionally used in the wet as well as the dry zones. Owing to the high cost of storage tank covers, extraction pumps, first flush devices and guttering, most systems remain under-utilised. In 1995, I supervised an action research study on the feasibility of rainwater harvesting under the World Bank assisted Community Water Supply and Sanitation Project.

This study resulted in incorporating rainwater harvesting into official water supply schemes. Since then, thousands of rural domestic water supply systems have been using rainwater harvesting. Among the technologies that have resulted are the low cost reliable storage tank covers made of ferrocement and clay bricks, a low cost low head extraction pump, made of PVC parts used to extract water from underground tanks, simple semiautomatic first flush devices and simple guttering. This paper describes these technologies, which will improve the quality of rainwater harvesting while keeping the costs reasonable. This will allow low-income communities for whom rainwater harvesting seems the best option for domestic water supply to apply this system.

PDF of full document available to members (4pp, 17kb)