RAINWATER CONSERVATION FROM THE ROOF IN HYDERABAD, AP,

INDIA

M M Sharma
ICRISAT, Patancheru P O, 502324 AP:
Residence Address: 19, Hastinapuri Colony, Sainikpuri PO, 500094.
Tel Office 040-30713170, Mobile: 9849021472, Tel Resi. 040-55172220,
E-mail: murli.sharma@cgiar.org

Hyderabad has serious water problems like other Indian cities, largely because urban
populations have increased much faster than anticipated. Water, because of its importance as
a natural resource for both domestic and industrial use, is a limiting factor in the quality of life.
The publics expectations from the Government to improve the water supply are very high. It
is essential to understand that water, as a precious natural resource, cannot be created. The
key is to manage it in whatever manner possible. The Government does not have a magic
wand to solve this problem, and developing dependable sources is time-consuming,
technically difficult and expensive. But the problem of guaranteeing a sufficient supply of
clean water is too serious an issue to be left to the Government alone. The public also needs
to step forward to help manage water and create awareness for its proper use.
Water inflow to Hyderabads two important drinking water reservoirs, Osman Sagar and
Himayat Sagar, has gradually reduced over the years because of urbanization in the
catchment areas. It is therefore essential that this loss of water be compensated through the
efficient management of rainwater in urban areas.
In Hyderabad, the protected water supply meets about 40% of domestic water requirements.
The remainder is met by ground water. Practically every household has a dug well or bore
well. The distance between two bore wells in most areas is as close as 30-60 feet. Due to
poor recharging and excessive drawing, most dug wells in city area have gone dry. The water
table accessed by the much deeper bore wells has lowered considerably, and in several
areas of the city bore wells go dry as early as January, long before onset of the monsoon. In
several colonies, the depth of new bore wells is over 700 feet, a depth unheard of 10 years
ago in Hyderabad. As the water table goes down, so does the quality of water and its
chemical constituents. Nature provides ground water for our need, not our greed! The Deccan
Plateau is no exception. Deep bore wells are unlikely to yield sufficient water to a family, who
may wind up spending more and more money digging to greater depths, harvesting water of
increasingly poor quality. All too frequently, water is actually lost when it flows through cracks
in the bore well column, and then is accessible to no one.
What is the answer to this dilemma? In a single word, rainwater!

My family and I decided to try to satisfy our water requirements with rainwater from the roof of
our house, which was constructed in 1995 (Fig.1). The concept comes from western
Rajasthan, where rainwater conservation has prevailed for centuries. Annual rainfall there
rarely exceeds 350 mm, so people are used to conserving whatever water they can.
Rainwater can easily be collected from the roof and stored in an underground tank for
domestic use (Fig.2). All one needs to do is calculate the area of the roof (length x width in
metres). In Hyderabad, the average rainfall is about 800 mm. One mm of rain on one square
metre of roof surface gives one liter of water. With this simple equation, it is simple to
calculate the total quantity of water received on the roof surface.
From our 160 square metre roof area, we get 1,25,280 liters of rainwater (160 sq m x 783 mm
= 1,25,280 liters). It is important to work out the optimum size of your underground rainwater
tank. Since the rainwater does not fall at one time, and because the stored rainwater is drawn
out regularly from the tank for domestic use, it is not necessary to construct a storage tank
that will hold the whole 1,25,280 liters. Instead, one should calculate the optimum size of the
rainwater tank by a simple computation. Hyderabads Rainwater Year starts during Standard
Week no.22 (Table 1). In our case, considering that we draw out 350 liters of water per day,
the optimum capacity of our tank worked out to be 54,800 liters. But considering the structural
design of the building, and expecting occasional high rainfall years, we constructed a much
bigger tank (90,000 liters). With experience, it is possible to work out a simple rule of thumb:
the capacity of underground tank should be 25- 45% of the total quantity available from the
roof, depending on the amount withdrawn from the tank.
The rainwater from the roof is directed toward one corner of the roof (Fig.3), where it enters a
PVC pipe that leads to the tank. The water first enters a small tank (Fig.4.) about 50 cm wide
x 100 cm long x 50 cm high. This tank has three vertical filters of the following size mesh:
2.5 cm x 2.5 cm mesh, 2. 1cm x 1 cm mesh and 3. 2 mm x 2 mm mesh
Water is filtered to catch leaves and other debris. It is essential to keep the filters vertical and
never horizontal, as the latter are likely to get blocked. Vertical filters will never block, even if
some trash is carried down from roof. After passing through fine mesh, the water enters the
underground tank through another PVC pipe (Fig.5). Despite keeping the roof clean, some
soil invariably gets into the tank. But this is no problem as it settles within a few hours and the
water remains crystal clear. Once a year, when the tank is dry, we clean it.
It is essential to ensure that sunlight does NOT penetrate the tank to avoid formation of algae.
The rainwater from the tank is pumped to a small overhead tank for use in the kitchen and
toilets. The water is not treated with any chemical. Wastewater is directed to a soak pit and
absorbed in the soil profile. The soil profile itself is a good filter and by slow percolation
wastewater enriches groundwater table. We have used this system for several years and it
works very well without any problem. 2
In the plan of our house (Fig.6), we constructed the tank under the kitchen, storeroom and
living room. In the storeroom, we have steps leading down to the tank for inspection and
cleaning purposes. Rainwater is pumped by a small 0.5 hp electric pump to fill the overhead
tank, which supplies water by gravity to the kitchen, toilets and taps for watering plants. As a
matter of practice, we keep the roof clean. Also our roof is whitewashed with white cement.
The white roof surface reflects sunlight and keeps the house cool.
In 1995, we spent about Rs 33,000 to construct the tank. A substantial part of this money was
spent on making strong cover for the tank, which also became the floor for kitchen, storeroom
and living room. Considering the amounts charged by commercial water tanker suppliers in
the twin cities, we have already recovered the cost of the tank. We do not treat our stored
rainwater with any chemical. For kitchen use, we use an ordinary kitchen filter. Since the tank
is kept closed to avoid sunlight, it does not breed mosquitoes. For our three-member family,
we manage rainwater so that it lasts throughout the year. We are very pleased with this
successful experiment and strongly recommend it to others. It is an eco-friendly and
sustainable way to live with nature.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am grateful to Dr W D Dar , DG, ICRISAT, Dr Rex Navarro, Dr RC Sachan and Dr CT Hash
for their encouragement during our informal discussions on this project. I wish to thank Mr.
Rajendra Kumar, a senior architect and an excellent person, who translated my dream house
into reality. Mr. Raghavendra Rao Sudi,
Mr. Ch Srinivas Rao, and Mr. Sube Singh helped me in computing the concept wherever I got
stuck. Thanks to Mr. Eric M McGaw for editing the manuscript.
Fig 1. Picture of the building for this test case attempt for rainwater conservation.
Fig 2. Close-up picture of the roof that acts as catchment area for rainwater collection.
Fig 4. Picture showing water pipe from roof, three simple vertical mesh filters , inlet pipe for
underground tank, and pump for the overhead tank.
Fig 5. Pictur inside underground tank showing water inlet pipe (big), and small flexible hose to
pump water in the over-head tank.
Table 1. File:
Rainwater conservation from Roof Consider "Rainwater Year" at Hyderabad beginning with
Standard week no 22
Normal annual rainfall at Hyderabad: 783 mm
Roof area of our house: 160 sq.m.
Total Rainwater on our roof : 125280 lit
Maximum water in the tank at any time: 54806 lit
Optimum size of underground tank: 60000 lit
Rainwater Rainwater Weekly Rainwater Cumulative Cumulative Water Normal on Addition
Withdrawl Balance Standard Rainfall Roof in Tank from Tank in Tank S.No Month Week No.
mm. mm. lit. lit. lit 1 5-6 22 8.3 1328 1328 0 1328 2 6 23 17.1 2736 4064 2450 1614 3 6 24
18.8 3008 7072 4900 2172 4 6 25 32.1 5136 12208 7350 4858 5 6 26 36.4 5824 18032 9800
8232 6 7 27 31.8 5088 23120 12250 10870 7 7 28 32.1 5136 28256 14700 13556 8 7 29 43.2
6912 35168 17150 18018 9 7 30 45.6 7296 42464 19600 22864 10 7 31 38.5 6160 48624
22050 26574 11 8 32 27 4320 52944 24500 28444 12 8 33 27.1 4336 57280 26950 30330 13
8 34 34.9 5584 62864 29400 33464 14 8 35 38.1 6096 68960 31850 37110 15 9 36 37.9
6064 75024 34300 40724 16 9 37 43.9 7024 82048 36750 45298 17 9 38 37.9 6064 88112
39200 48912 18 9 39 42.9 6864 94976 41650 53326 19 10 40 18.9 3024 98000 44100 53900
20 10 41 18.2 2912 100912 46550 54362 21 10 42 17.7 2832 103744 49000 54744 22 10 43
15.7 2512 106256 51450 54806 23 10 44 13 2080 108336 53900 54436 24 11 45 7.7 1232
109568 56350 53218 25 11 46 4.9 784 110352 58800 51552 26 11 47 5.7 912 111264 61250
50014 27 11 48 2.6 416 111680 63700 47980 28 12 49 2.1 336 112016 66150 45866 29 12
50 1.1 176 112192 68600 43592 30 12 51 1.6 256 112448 71050 41398 10 31 12 52 1.1 176
112624 73500 39124 32 1 1 2.3 368 112992 75950 37042 33 1 2 0.5 80 113072 78400
34672 34 1 3 2 320 113392 80850 32542 35 1 4 0.4 64 113456 83300 30156 36 1 5 2.4 384
113840 85750 28090 37 2 6 1.3 208 114048 88200 25848 38 2 7 2.4 384 114432 90650
23782 39 2 8 3.3 528 114960 93100 21860 40 2 9 2.5 400 115360 95550 19810 41 3 10 0.5
80 115440 98000 17440 42 3 11 2.8 448 115888 100450 15438 43 3 12 5 800 116688
102900 13788 44 3 13 2.3 368 117056 105350 11706 45 4 14 4.6 736 117792 107800 9992
46 4 15 6.4 1024 118816 110250 8566 47 4 16 6.5 1040 119856 112700 7156 48 4 17 5.6
896 120752 115150 5602 49 5 18 5.4 864 121616 117600 4016 50 5 19 4.5 720 122336
120050 2286 51 5 21 6.8 1088 123424 122500 924 52 5 21 11.6 1856 125280 124950 330
11 Crystal clear Rainwater in the tank 12 13