Tank costs for domestic rainwater harvesting in East Africa

Journal article

Authors/Editors

Cruddas, Peter

Research Areas

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Publication Details

Author list: Parker A, Cruddas P, Rowe N, Carter R, Webster J

Publisher: Thomas Telford (ICE Publishing)

Place: WESTMINISTER

Publication year: 2013

Journal: Water Management (1741-7589)

Journal acronym: P I CIVIL ENG-WAT M

Volume number: 166

Issue number: 10

Start page: 536

End page: 545

Number of pages: 10

ISSN: 1741-7589

eISSN: 1751-7729

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

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Abstract

Rainwater harvesting from hard roofing can provide safe water to meet the basic domestic needs of several hundred million people in low-income countries. However, rainwater harvesting has a higher household cost than other lowtechnology water supplies such as protected springs. The storage tank is the most expensive part of the infrastructure required for rainwater harvesting: reducing this cost will enable rainwater harvesting to become a viable water source for many more households in low-income countries. This paper assesses the overall costs and different cost components of rainwater storage tanks. Costs are compared across a selection of tanks prefabricated in factories in Uganda, Kenya and the UK and constructed in situ in Uganda. Constructed tanks were always found to be cheaper than prefabricated ones. Tank size was an important factor, and it was found that tank cost per litre decreases as size increases. For all tank types, materials were the greatest cost.

Keywords

developing countries, economics & finance, water supply

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