Assessment of rainwater harvesting for drinking water supply in Bangladesh

摘要

Rainwater harvesting is a potential option of water supply to the coastal and arsenic affectednrural communities in Bangladesh and during the last few years, several projects were undertakennto promote and install various types of rainwater harvesting systems by governmentnorganizations and NGOs mainly for drinking and cooking water supply. A study was undertakennto assess the currently practiced rainwater harvesting systems located in the south west coastalnand arsenic affected areas in the country. A total of 1,000 rainwater-harvesting systems wereninvestigated using structured questionnaires; among them 14.8% were community based andn85.2% were household rainwater harvesting systems. The results of this assessment arenpresented in this paper. Availability of the harvested rainwater, operation, storage andnmaintenance of community based rainwater harvesting and ensuring water quality to meet thendrinking water standard are the important issues that must be addressed properly. A protocolnfor the operation and maintenance according to WHO guideline can be adopted for the safenand sustainable rainwater harvesting in the country.