EVERY HOME CAN HARVEST RAIN WATER AT A LOW COST
Aug 12, 2009
IT may seem perverse to promote rain-water harvesting when we have not had rain for some weeks. But the MP for Kabarole, Margaret Muhanga, among others, has been calling for water harvesting, and it is easier to fix the system on your roof when it is dry.
BY CRADDOCK WILLIAMS
IT may seem perverse to promote rain-water harvesting when we have not had rain for some weeks. But the MP for Kabarole, Margaret Muhanga, among others, has been calling for water harvesting, and it is easier to fix the system on your roof when it is dry.
When I was last in Kabarole, there were fewer than 15 metres of rain water guttering on the houses I saw. That could be a sample error, but I think it is indicative of a nationwide neglect.
Gutters are u-shaped troughs fitted under the edge of sloping roofs. They are closed at one end and open at the other into a downpipe box. The downpipe leads either into a wastewater drain or water tank, from which water can be drawn.
Recently, I saw a low-cost alternative for harvesting water on Mount Elgon. A village family cut a stem of bamboo, the length of their roof and wide enough to catch water running off the roof edge.
They split down the middle with a panga, then gouged out the nodal partitions with a chisel made from a lorry leaf-spring. Instead of metal brackets, they cut notches in timber lengths to hold the bamboo trough. Water from the open end poured straight into an old oil drum placed at the corner of the house.
The interesting feature was not tiles or mabati (ironsheets), but thatch — layers of grass, reed and plastic sheet.
The plastic guides the rain water down the roof slope to the gutter. The grass protects the plastic from sunlight which rots it, and the reeds on the inside hold the plastic and grass in place.
The writer is the associate economics director,
International Development Consultants, Kampala
IT may seem perverse to promote rain-water harvesting when we have not had rain for some weeks. But the MP for Kabarole, Margaret Muhanga, among others, has been calling for water harvesting, and it is easier to fix the system on your roof when it is dry.
When I was last in Kabarole, there were fewer than 15 metres of rain water guttering on the houses I saw. That could be a sample error, but I think it is indicative of a nationwide neglect.
Gutters are u-shaped troughs fitted under the edge of sloping roofs. They are closed at one end and open at the other into a downpipe box. The downpipe leads either into a wastewater drain or water tank, from which water can be drawn.
Recently, I saw a low-cost alternative for harvesting water on Mount Elgon. A village family cut a stem of bamboo, the length of their roof and wide enough to catch water running off the roof edge.
They split down the middle with a panga, then gouged out the nodal partitions with a chisel made from a lorry leaf-spring. Instead of metal brackets, they cut notches in timber lengths to hold the bamboo trough. Water from the open end poured straight into an old oil drum placed at the corner of the house.
The interesting feature was not tiles or mabati (ironsheets), but thatch — layers of grass, reed and plastic sheet.
The plastic guides the rain water down the roof slope to the gutter. The grass protects the plastic from sunlight which rots it, and the reeds on the inside hold the plastic and grass in place.
The writer is the associate economics director,
International Development Consultants, Kampala