Rainwater Harvesting: An Alternative Source of Safe Drinking Water in Bangladesh

Groundwater has been reported to be contaminated by the Arsenic (As) since 1993, which was highly hazardous for human health and for food safety as well. The groundwater of 61 districts has been heavily contaminated by As. Thus, about 38,000 cases of arsenicosis were identified in Bangladesh. A lot of research works had been carried out to reduce the As-concentration at the acceptable limit. A lot of As removal technologies and options are available in Bangladesh. Almost all of those have technical and economic constraints to use by rural uneducated and poor people. To overcome the As contaminated health hazards, rainwater harvesting was found to be one of the best remedial measures for the rural people of Bangladesh. A Yield Before Spillage (YBS) model using spreadsheet was developed for the study to optimize the rainwater storage tanks according to different numbers of family members ranging three to seven. It was found from the simulated results that different capacities tanks would be able to supply the required water demands of those different family members. The stored water could be used for drinking, cooking and dishwashing of a family throughout the year. The study found that the method to be very much potential.