The Technologies
RAIN is currently promoting several rainwater harvesting technologies. There are many different ways of rainwater harvesting. Although only technologies implemented within the RAIN programme are presented here, there are much more technologies practised all over the world. RAIN will keep optimizing and expanding its technologies through amongst others its Research & Development programme in Burkina Faso.
RWH catchment types
A catchment is a surface or area on which rain is falling and from which it is drained (on a surface or in the soil) towards a storage system. We distinguish following catchments:
- Roof catchment, for example Galvanised Iron (GI) or Corrugated Iron (CI) sheet roof
- Paved surface catchment, for example cement stone catchment
- Surface catchment, for example soil catchment
- Riverbed catchment, for example sandy dry riverbed catchment
RWH storage systems
The storage system is the medium in which the drained water from a catchment is stored. Within the RAIN programme, the following storage systems can be distinguished:
- Above ground RWH systems: Ferro cement tank, stone masonry tank and rain jar.
- (Partially) below ground RWH systems: circular stone masonry tank, hemispherical cement concrete tank and rectangular reinforced cement-concrete tank.
- Subsurface dam: sand dam.