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I have seen some of these small rainwater harvesting facilities in Ethiopia - lined ponds with corrugated iron roofs. The government was promoting the widespread construction of these things for small scale irrigation with little regard to the economic viability of building them. I am sure that they are also used for drinking water and would have a few suggestions to make in that respect;

• Ensure the catchment area is a clean as possible from faecal contamination
• Build some sort of sediment trap/ simple sand/gravel filter to pass the water through before it enters the tank
• Keep interior of the tank dark to avoid algal growth
• Use fixed bucket to extract water so that it is not so subject to pick up dirt in the house/yard

Even with these precautions, the water will probably still not be pure. Disinfection by boiling, chlorination or solar radiation UV disinfection may be the best low cost/low tech. way forward.

Similar structures in Palestine are disinfected with chlorine from time to time but that may be too expensive or difficult for parts of Ethiopia and Sudan.

An excellent website that deals with many issues relating to Rainwater Harvesting and low-cost tanks is https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/research/dtu/rwh/

Martin Ager

I have seen some of these small rainwater harvesting facilities in Ethiopia - lined ponds with corrugated iron roofs. The government was promoting the widespread construction of these things for small scale irrigation with little regard to the economic viability of building them. I am sure that they are also used for drinking water and would have a few suggestions to make in that respect;

• Ensure the catchment area is a clean as possible from faecal contamination
• Build some sort of sediment trap/ simple sand/gravel filter to pass the water through before it enters the tank
• Keep interior of the tank dark to avoid algal growth
• Use fixed bucket to extract water so that it is not so subject to pick up dirt in the house/yard

Even with these precautions, the water will probably still not be pure. Disinfection by boiling, chlorination or solar radiation UV disinfection may be the best low cost/low tech. way forward.

Similar structures in Palestine are disinfected with chlorine from time to time but that may be too expensive or difficult for parts of Ethiopia and Sudan.

An excellent website that deals with many issues relating to Rainwater Harvesting and low-cost tanks is https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/research/dtu/rwh/

Martin Ager