Impact assessment of rainwater harvesting on ground water quality at Indore and Dewas, India

Abstract

The impact assessment of rooftop rainwater harvesting on ground water was carried out with the help of working tube wells to improve the quality and quantity of ground water. The rooftop rainwater was used to put into the ground using sand filter as pretreatment system. This led to a reduction in the concentration of pollutants in ground water which indicated the effectiveness of increased recharge of aquifer by rooftop rainwater. One of the interesting observations was that in certain areas, the amount of total and faecal coliform were observed high in harvested tube well water than normal tube well water. The reason of this increase was poor cleanliness of rooftop and poor efficiency of filter for bacterial removal. Thus, quality monitoring of rainwater harvesting system is an essential prerequisite before using it for ground water recharge.