Undergraduate Thesis - Feasibility of Rainwater Harvesting in Paarden Island

To illustrate the success of implementing rainwater harvesting systems a few case studies are presented with a focus on industrial applications from around the world.

 

Diamler-Chrysler Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany

UN-HABITAT (2005, p. 62) showed an example of where rainwater falling on 32 000 m² rooftops of 19 buildings is collected and stored in a 3 500 m³ basement tank which is then used to provide water for flushing toilets, watering vegetation and replenishing an artificial pond.

 

Yelahanka, Bangalore, India

Vishwanath (2008) studied an industrial unit of Escorts-Mahle-Goetze has a roof area of 1 280 m² which could harvest 62 million litres of rainwater per annum. The rainwater harvesting system was estimated to have a payback period of 4 years. Modern rainwater harvesting systems have an expected lifespan of about 10 years under normal circumstances. 

 

Indonesia, National Policy Implementation

UNEP (2002, p. 16) illustrates how Indonesia had groundwater reserves that were becoming very scarce within urban areas due to an increase in pavements and roofs that had been established. The population had consumed a large portion of the groundwater over the years. The government realised that they needed to change the way in which the stormwater drainage system worked and decided to implement a regulation that require all buildings to have an infiltration well on their site.  It was estimated that if each house in Java and Madura had its own infiltration well the deficit of 53% by year 2000 would have been reduced to 37% allowing a conservation of 16% through conservation.

 

Data Centres, USA

Jeffers (2011) did research of how the implementation of rainwater harvesting systems to as a source of cooling would help to increase the efficiency of Data centres which would lower the power usage effectiveness of the data centres which would in turn reduce the required water consumption of the data centres and also reduce the amount of water consumption of water utilised at power stations.

 

Jeffers (2011, p. 416) concluded that for high energy intensive industrial units that there would be a reduced local requirement of water, while also reducing the energy at the facility as well. There would also be a lower cost and requirement to produce and convey the power and water that would be used to generate the power. It was estimated that there could be a resulting energy saving of 15-20% depending on the system used and also the location of the data centre. It was assumed that higher energy saving could be achieved in arid climates.

Utilizing harvested rainwater reduces the regional requirements for both power and water which would result in reduced pollution and a lower carbon footprint (Jeffers, 2011).