8th ASCE Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability PMC2000-084

RAINWATER HARVESTING AND THE RELIABILITY CONCEPT

M. Mafizur Rahman, M. ASCE

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology,Dhaka-1000
mafiz@dhaka.agni.com

Fateh-Ul-Anam Muhammad Shafee Yusuf

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology,Dhaka-1000
F-Yusuf@TTIMAIL.TAMU.EDU

Introduction
Rural water supply in Bangladesh is based on groundwater, as it is free from pathogenic
microorganisms and available in adequate quantity in shallow aquifers. In Bangladesh,
except in coastal and hilly areas, a remarkable success has been achieved by providing 97
percent of the rural population with tubewell water. In the coastal belt, high salinity in
surface and ground water and in the hilly areas, absence of good ground water aquifers as
well as difficulties in tubewell construction in stony layers are the main constraints for
the development of a dependable water supply system. At present, the success achieved
in hand tubewell based rural water supply is on the verge of collapse due to the presence
of arsenic in ground water in access of acceptable levels in the shallow aquifers.
Provision of arsenic contamination free water is urgently needed to mitigate arsenic
toxicity and to protect the health and well being of the rural population living in acute
arsenic problem areas. The people, particularly the women, living in the problem areas
have to walk long distances to fetch water from an available source (Ahmed, 1993).

A rainwater based water supply system requires determination of the capacity of the
storage tank and catchment area for rainwater collection in relation to the water
requirement, rainwater intensity and distribution. The main advantages of a rainwater
system are that the quality of rainwater is comparatively good, it is independent and
therefore suitable for scattered settlement and the owners/users can construct and
maintain the system. On the other hand, the availability of rainwater is limited by the
rainfall intensity and availability of a suitable catchment area. The mineral free rainwater
may not be liked by many and the poorer section of the people may not have a
roof/catchment area suitable for rainwater harvesting.
The design of rainwater roof catchment system is very simple if the standard
deterministic method such as mass curve analysis is adopted. The most important aspect
of the design is the uncertainty of the parameters. The design of a rainwater roof
catchment system deals with a number of uncertain factors, which the design should
incorporate. Rainfall, per capita water consumption, available roof area, economic
capability of the household to construct the storage tank are uncertain parameters and are
the design parameters for design of a roof catchment system. This emphasizes the need of
reliability based design approach be adopted instead of the deterministic approach. The
reliability concept is important for the rainwater catchment system before it is constructed

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as well as for the existing system after the construction. The objective of the study is to
highlight the aspects of reliability based design and presenting the utility of the results.

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study include:

1. Determination of the storage tank size for available roof area to collect water from
rain for drinking purpose.

2. Estimation of reliability that the demand will be met for an available roof area for the
local rainfall.

3. Determining the frequency of shortage of water from roof catchment system for
different sizes of roofs, tanks and consumption.

Data Collection
The major data for design of a rainwater storage system is the rainfall information of
Barisal in the southern part of Bangladesh. In this study, monthly rainfall data are used
for analysis. Shorter time intervals (i.e. daily, weekly data) increase the accuracy of the
results only slightly, but do increase the amount of calculations considerably. Monthly
average rainfall data of 21 years (1975 to 1995) of these locations were collected from
Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD).

Roof
No. of people Rainfall data Per capita material
daily characteristic

Mass Curve
Analysis

Degree of security
Storage Volume Reliability of a of different tank
for different tank size for sizes for varying
demands and roof various demand demands and roof
areas sizes
and roof area

Figure 1. Overall design methodology

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Methodology

Overall design procedure is explained in Fig. 1. Mass curve analyses was the basic
method applied for the design of storage device.

Input variables include monthly average rainfall data, roof area, roof runoff coefficient,
per capita water consumption per day and the size of the population using the storage
system. These data were used to calculate the water available as supply from the roof
catchment system and the demand. Supply of water was calculated following the basic
equation:

Q=A*f*R (1)

where, A is the roof area (m2), f is the roof runoff coefficient (a character of the roofing
material and slope) and R is the monthly average rainfall depth (m) and Q is the amount
of water (m3) obtained as supply for use. Hofkes (1981) showed typical values of the roof
runoff coefficients .

The tank size necessary for storage of rainwater for any year is the difference between the
maximum surplus of water in the rainy season and the maximum deficit in the dry season
as determined by the mass curve method for that year.

The statistical distribution for demand and supply of rainwater follow normal distribution
(Yususf, 1999). The reliability (Rahman, 1997) that water of any given demand area will
be available from available roof was determined by the load resistance concept by mean
first order second moment method (MFOSM) method.

Forecast of situation arising from the construction of a tank smaller than the design size is
important. The constructed tank of sufficient volume provides the security that rainwater
will not spill over the tank for a span of time (few years). Tank volumes for different
security levels were calculated depending on the demand and the roof area.

Design Consideration And Calculations

The design of rainwater storage system depends on a number of uncertain factors. These
are, the rainfall itself, the per capita water consumption in a day, the number of people
using the storage system and the size of the roof area available to supply water. It is
necessary to provide the explanations in a stochastic manner rather than only the
deterministic approach. The storage tank volume (liter) was determined for varying
demand (litres/ day) and available roof area (m2). Since many uncertain factors are
involved, the “Reliability” concept was introduced with rainwater harvesting. Reliability
means the probability that a given size of tank will be sufficient to supply necessary
amount of water. The probability that a tank of a given size will be sufficient to store all
the water over a certain span of years are also important. It was determined by
introducing a term “Degree of security”.

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Roof runoff coefficient ( f ) was assumed to be 0.8 (applicable for corrugated sheets)
throughout the study. Yusuf (1999) showed insignificant difference among the end results
for variation of this parameter in the range of 0.75 – 0.85.

Mean roof area of the individual households was approximated to be around 40 m2.This
approximation is important in the implementation stage while utilizing the results of the
study but not during the analyses, since the study was performed for a range of situations
where the individual households as well as the community level uses were considered.

Per capita water consumption was assumed to be 6 liters/day and the average size of the
household were assumed to be 5. The results were presented based on the total water
demand in a day and not on the per capita demand or the population size. Demand and
supply of rainwater were assumed to be normal variates (Yusuf, 1999) for the statistical
calculations.

Results And Discussions

Fig.2 shows the tank sizes for Barisal. From the number of users and the per capita
consumption in a day, the total demand per day can be calculated in liters. This gives the
value in abscissa in Fig. 2. The roof area available in a particular situation should be a
given data. A particular curve should be selected based on this data. Thus the tank size
required can be calculated for a case from the ordinate. Curves are provided for roofs
having sizes of 20, 40,60,80 and 100 m2. Roof area for which curves are not given but
falls within these values, proper interpolation should be done. Tank size reduces as the
roof area increases for a fixed demand. Bigger roofs provide more water even as a result
of small rainfall in the dry seasons reducing the need of stored water in these days.

20000

18000

16000
60
Tank Size (liters)

14000 Catchment Area (m 2)

80
20 40 100
12000

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Demand (liter/day)

Figure 2. Tank sizes for Barisal

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 100
90
80
70
60
Reliability (%)

50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2
Demand / Area (liter/day/m )

Fig. 3 Reliability of supply of demand at Barisal

Fig. 3 shows the reliability of supply of water for Barisal. The total demand in a day
should be divided by the available roof area and the abscissa is fixed for a location. As
the roof area increases for any fixed demand, the demand/ area value decreases and a
shift in the abscissa occurs to the left. This increases reliability.

Storage tank size for varying demand, roof area and degree of security for Barisal is
provided (Fig.4). As the roof area and demand are fixed the abscissa is determined. A line
for a particular degree of security should be chosen and the tank size for unit roof area
can be determined. The actual tank size can be found by multiplying this value with the
roof area which was used for determining the abscissa.

1200
Degree of security 99%
Storage Volume / Area (liter/m 2)

1000 Degree of security 90%

Degree of security 80%
800

600

400

200

0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
2
Demand / Area (liter/day/m )

Fig. 4 Storage tank size for varying demand, roof area and degree of security for Barisal

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Conclusion

The results can be utilized for design of a new roof rainwater catchment system as well as
for assessing the reliability index of the existing rainwater roof catchment systems. Fig. 2
can be utilized prior to construction of designing the storage tank system for given
demand and roof size. The roof size and demand can be estimated from the field data
prior to construction. For a specific location demand and rainfall can be estimated
probabilistically with a mean. These values will provide the reliability index (Fig. 3)
indicating the overall reliability of the system prior to installation. This index physically
means the reliability that the rainfall is enough to provide the demand under the given
values of roof size and rainfall whatever the size of the storage tank is. Storage tank size
can be determined (Fig. 4). For given roof catchment area and demand so that the tank is
filled for some given period of time to provide the supply.

The results, thus provide guidelines for design of roof catchment system with known
reliability and functionality.

References

Ahmed, A. (1993), Prospects for Rainwater Catchment in Bangladesh and Its Utilization, Proc. 6th Int.
Conf. on Rainwater Catchment System, Nairobi, 1-6 August.
Hofkes, E.H. (1981), Rainwater Harvesting for Drinking Water Supply. International Reference Center for
Community Water Supply and Sanitation, The Hague.
Rahman, M.M. (1997), Reliability analysis for the planning of flood control and environmental
conservation, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tokyo
Yusuf, F. M.S. (1999), Rainwater Harvesting Potential in Bangladesh, M.Engg thesis, Department of Civil
Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka

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