The following link will provide information on the basic components of the rain water harvesting system :

www.rainwaterharvesting.org/Urban/Components.htm
Components of a Rainwater Harvesting System
A rainwater harvesting system comprises components of various stages - transporting rainwater through pipes or drains, filtration, and finally, ...

Further to my post above, the following additional information will also be useful :

Since agriculture is a major activity in all villages, hence it becomes necessary to adopt measures in agriculture where the consumption of water can be minimized. Only then the benefits of rainwater harvesting can be truly realized, since otherwise the water collected through rainwater harvesting will be simply drained away during the process of farming by not utilizing controls on consumption of water.

A popular method if saving water during agriculture is through the use of drip irrigation systems.

It will be advisable to incorporate the drip irrigation systems in tandem with rain water harvesting.

The following link provides basic information for drip irrigation systems :

http://www.jains.com/irrigation/drip%20irrigation%20system.htm

After the above page is opened, the top right of the page provides links to details of all components of the drip irrigation systems through the following clickable links :

Jain Drip
Polyethylene Hose & Tubes
Emitting Devices
Spray heads and Jets
Poly Fittings & Accessories
Sprinkler Irrigation Systems
Lawn & Garden Pop-ups
Overhead Sprinkler

Note that the material used is POLYETHYLENE for the hose and tubes (and not PVC).

The information through the above links could be used primarily to acquire basic information about the system, so that necessary precautions can be taken if procuring through local suppliers in the Africa region.

Vijai

Bucket drip irrigation uses only a dripline of no more than 100 feet, a container for the water to be syphoned out of, a hose to connect the container to the dripline. The Jain website is too much.

Dear Ken,
Thanks once for your cds but I want to know if at all you have any thing on this subject. And over the milk fungcide, what pestcan it be used for? I want to present some of the these formulars at hte forth coming District Agricutural Show

DAFF LOG.doc

Patrick,

Milk kills fungus. You will have to go on the internet to research. I know little about pest controls because I have almost no pests in my garden. Very rare. Healthy soil, produces healthy plants which resists pests and diseases.

Again, Vijai, thank you for your help. But, again, these products are only available in USA and India - and I told you last week, I believe that we HAVE a special source in USA that sells this for 7 cents a foot - Alas, I do not have time to go through your website to find the cost - it will take me too much time. If it is cheaper, please let us know - but I spent weeks researching and I believe this project is pretty much closed.

--
Ginger :)

dear Vijay,
thank you for your posts. I'm trying to understand them (coming from a country where it rains everyday, this is the hardest task for me to understand!) I'm not sure what Virginia heard, but this project is very much open and as far as I know (Paddy or Rick please correct me on this) but there is a thousand dollars put aside for rain water harvesting, so the people of Nabitende are very interested in this task,
thanks,
Sinéad

Ginger,

To clear a few basic issues here, the following might help :

AA
My 2 separate posts in this thread above relate to -
- rainwater harvesting (post 1)
- use of drip irrigation in tandem with rainwater harvesting (post 2). I believe your post above relates to this.

BB
The information in my posts is informative only, and meant for the benefit of any neighbours, including the people of Nabitende, who wish to gain knowledge on these aspects by accessing this resource from the internet.

CC
I do not recollect any direct interaction with you on this issue in the past. I have recently posted the link of the Jain site on another village on nabuur for information purposes of the neighbours, without any reference to you. I have also noted the contents of your subsequent posts in that thread where you have advised the facilitator to post that the task is closed, and that neighbours "need not waste time" or something like that. I found this pretty odd, since the purpose of my posts on nabuur has been educative only, and meant for the benefit of the affected people. Nevertheless, I have felt it appropriate not to post anything further on that particular thread.

DD
The "your website" as mentioned by you above probably refers to the link posted by me in my second post in this thread on Nabitende. It might help to know that this website belongs to Jain Irrigation, who are in the business of providing equipment for irrigation systems of the finest quality to several countries. I do not have any professional links with this company, and the purpose of my posting the link on nabuur in this thread was purely educative and simply to provide access to some of the best available technologies and equipment. I do not recollect any interaction by me on selling of equipment or prices etc, since that is not the purpose of my interaction on nabuur. In case any issues exist at your end about the prices, you will need to settle this directly with the organizations concerned.
I do not involve with funding, buying, selling, promoting specific products, etc on nabuur.

EE
In case any project is "pretty much closed" as you mentioned above, I guess all neighbours on nabuur would appreciate a post at the end declaring the thread as closed.

Vijai

Hi Sinead,

It was good to read your thoughts.

Water happens to be a critical input for human life, and large populations in several regions are deprived of this basic necessity.

The link through my first post in this thread opens a site which indicates the usual equipment that goes into rainwater harvesting. This will enable a quick understanding of the systems usually involved.

My second post in this thread adds information about drip irrigation. This will be necessary since in the dry season, agriculture will consume most of the water which was collected through rainwater harvesting during the wet season. Hence measures need to be adopted to reduce the consumption of water for agriculture. Use of drip irrigation will help reduce the consumption of water for agriculture in the dry season.

The link posted in my second post in this thread will open the website of a prominent company which details all equipment that goes into irrigation, including drip irrigation. It is a useful resource. Similarly, websites of other such companies could also be accessed. To start with, a basic understanding of the systems involved is required. Learning and understanding have to involve people all the way up to the individual villages, since they will be the ones to operate and maintain these systems.

Vijai

Sinéad, further to my post above, I have created a basic hypothetical example to estimate the quantum of water through rainfall in the Uganda region.

The link below provides data on monthly rainfall in Uganda:
http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/pageinfo_pays.php3?Pays=UGA&Opt=clima...

The picture I get from this link is -
- Uganda gets rain all 12 months of the year
- minimum average rainfall in a month is 55 mm
- maximum average rainfall in a month is 185 mm

For the purpose of our hypothetical example, let us consider the worse condition and assume that in any month the minimum rainfall is 50 mm. This is the average rainfall in one whole month.

Suppose we have a container, like a tub, which has a base area of 1 square metre. If we place this tub out in the rain, it will collect 50 mm (height) of water in one whole month (assuming there is no evaporation). At the end of this month, the tub will have collected about 50 litres of water.

Suppose a family of 4 people consume 20,000 litres of water in one month, If this family has to depend only on water collected from rainfall, then some 400 tubs of 1 square metre base area will be required to collect this volume of water in one month.

This area is the same as an area of 400 square metres or an area of 20 metres x 20 metres. This is known as the catchment area.

If this family is able to manage in only 10,000 litres in a month, then the catchment area required for them will be only 200 square metres, or 15 metres x 15 metres.

Suppose next that there are 100 such families in the village. Then the catchment area required for this village will be about 20,000 square metres. This is the same as about 150 metres x 150 metres.

Since a single space of this large size may not be available, so smaller catchment areas are to be created wherever possible, like on rooftops of individual houses, ponds in community areas, etc. The actual ground location in the village will need to be studied so that suitable locations for the catchment areas can be identified. Hence each village will have its own unique sizes, numbers and locations of catchment areas, since no two villages will be identical.

Other aspects that can be factored into this example can be the requirement of water for agriculture, or creating a reserve for the periods when the rainfall is much less than 50mm in a month, and so on.

The above is a very basic, hypothetical, and crude example of what rainwater harvesting is all about. I have described it in a manner which can be easily understood by a moderately literate person at the village.

It would be a good idea if the village can form a task force of 4-6 people who are old enough to remember the trends of rainfall etc in the region. They can understand the above example, discuss among themselves, and come out with their own estimates of how much water the village needs in a day, in a month, and so on. They can then upload this on this thread on nabuur. Neighbours who wish to participate must also contribute their opinions. The initial phase will be only discussions between the village representatives and neighbours on nabuur.

Once a consensus emerges on the volume of water to be collected, the next phase will involve location of suitable catchment areas in the village.

The next phase will involve discussions on low-cost options for creating catchment areas in the village.

Further stages will involve creating the catchment areas, collecting the rainwater, attending problems and making the system work.

The final stage, hopefully.......will be to put the village on the global map as a destination for studies in low-cost rainwater harvesting techniques !

But meanwhile, let's hope it gets started.

With best wishes

Vijai

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Water/Water.htm

Some of it is not appropriate.

Rick,

A dripline only requires 10 gallon of water every other day or 5 gallons per day average. The farmer has to get it from wherever it is available. It may be a lot of work but it is better than no fresh food.

I think the bucket drip irrigation can help most of our members in my community.Can you supply us this iterms and how long will it take for it to be in zambia.If you can supply how much will it cost us for 1 hactere?

Patrick,

You do not need to buy enough for 1 hectare. You move it several times a day to different rows of vegetables if the farmer is willing to carry the water.

Contact Dick Chapin, "R C Chapin" , about them. They are probably available in Zambia already. If not I can tell you how to make them yourself by buying black poly plastic tubing of 1/2 inch diameter. The kits usually sell for US$15-20. Making one yourself is cheaper and does not have to be imported. The drip outlets can be cleaned out.

The photo is at a school with different people each farming one bed and each with a bucket dripline. Let me know how I can help.

Drip photo.doc

Patrick,

Scroll up to your posting on pigs where I answered your question about drip irrigation.