"Best Innovative Award 2014” for RWH re-design

    Zonal officer, Zone-11  Thiru. C. Vijayakumar was given the “Best Innovative Award 2014” for the innovative work in Rain Water Harvesting structure. An RWH structure with a percolation pit and a collection chamber is a model Vijayakumar has proposed. “The surface runoff water along with silt is collected in the chamber which is connected to the percolation pit. While the silt settles down at the bottom of the chamber, water enters the pit. From the pit, the water can easily enter the ground and recharge it. Silt can be easily cleaned from the chamber,” he says, adding that an unclogged RWH will prevent water stagnation on roads and will also increase the durability of the structure.

    The Structure model for the existing and the proposed model  and its advantages is given in detail below.

I Existing Model  

• RWH structure has only percolation pit.
• The surface runoff water along with silt enters directly into the percolation pit.
• Since, silt enters along with the surface water, rate of percolation and rate of recharge is less.
• The entry of silt along with surface runoff reduces the voids and hinders the percolation of rain water and reduces the recharge rate.
• The silt particles gradually block the voids and reduce the percolation rate and finally, the RWH structure will get clogged.
• In a long run, the RWH structure will become functionless due to the deposition of silt Particles in the whole system and prevents the surface runoff water to percolate down.

II Proposed Model

• RWH has collection chamber and percolation pit.
• The surface runoff water along with silt is collected in the collection chamber. The overflow water from the collection chamber enters the percolation pit which enables the silt to settle down at the bottom of the collection chamber.
• Since, the silt gets deposited in a separate chamber, the system enables the rain water free from silt particles to enter the RWH structure and hence the rate of percolation and rate of recharge are high.
• Since, the entry of silt along with the surface runoff water is limited, the voids is not reduced and hence the rate of percolation and rate of recharge can be sustained for a long period.

• ADVANTAGES OF PROPOSED RWH STRUCTURE AGAINST THE EXISTING RWH STRUCTURE

• Silt can be collected in a separate chamber and which enables the periodical removal of silt.
• The proposed system allows the rain water free from silt will enter the percolation pit.
• The voids of percolation pit is maintained as such for a long period.
• The surface runoff water can be drained quickly, enables harvesting and recharge of large quantity of surplus rain water.
• Improves the quality of ground water and recharges the ground water aquifer.
• The durability of RWH structure is more and the functioning of the system can be sustained for a long period.
• The problem of water stagnation at public place can be prevented on one hand and quality and quantity of ground water can be improved on the other hand.