Investigation of the Current Situation and Prospects for the Development of Rainwater Harvesting as a Tool to Confront Water Scarcity Worldwide

Abstract

Nowadays, available water resources face severe pressures due to demographic, economic, social causes, environmental degradation, climate change, and technological changes on a global scale. It is well known that rainwater harvesting, a simple and old method, has the potential to supplement surface and groundwater resources in areas that have inadequate water supply. In recent decades, many countries have supported the updated implementation of such a practice to confront the water demand increase and to reduce the frequency, peak, and volume of urban runoff. These considerations motivate interest in examining the current situation and the prospect of further development of this method worldwide. The present paper aims at the investigation of the current situation of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as an alternative water source to confront water scarcity in various countries around the world. In particular, the paper presents the following: (a) the causes of water shortage; (b) a concise historical overview of the temporal development of the RWH method; (c) the evolution of the concept of RWH; (d) the efforts to renew interest in RWH; and (e) incentives and perspectives for the spreading of the RWH method in various countries worldwide.

Water Conflicts: From Ancient to Modern Times and in the Future

“…Many researchers have confirmed that rain harvesting (RH) can provide water in urban/suburban, industrial, and rural areas [107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118], promising to save freshwater, a potential that may reduce tensions and competition among users. It is considered a low health risk, cost-efficient, and an environmentally friendly technology [119][120][121], a fact that has allowed its expansion in many developing and developed countries (EU, USA, UK, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Africa) [116]. Experience indicates that RH requires advances in the domains of technology [116,122], urban and water planning [121,123], policy [116,124], assessment of economic impacts [125,126], and health risks [122].…”

“…It is considered a low health risk, cost-efficient, and an environmentally friendly technology [119][120][121], a fact that has allowed its expansion in many developing and developed countries (EU, USA, UK, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Africa) [116]. Experience indicates that RH requires advances in the domains of technology [116,122], urban and water planning [121,123], policy [116,124], assessment of economic impacts [125,126], and health risks [122].…”

Reliability Analysis of Rainwater Harvesting Tanks for Irrigation Use in Greenhouse Agriculture

“…Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is an ancient water management practice, which was adopted mainly in arid and semi-arid areas of the world as a method for conservation, storage and distribution of fresh water for potable and non-potable use [1][2][3][4].…”

“…Although the use of RWH systems has been abandoned or reduced in the last century in recent years, in many parts of the world, there has been a renewed interest in rainwater collection techniques, as a sustainable source of water to meet domestic, irrigation and livestock water needs. This is related to the pressures on existing water resources by rising water demands due to climate variability, urbanization, and growing population, as well as increased food production [1,3]. In addition, the role of rainwater harvesting systems is important in flood mitigation [3].…”

The Quality of Stored Rainwater for Washing Purposes

“…Rainwater harvesting increases water self-sufficiency and delays the need to build new centralized water infrastructure [3][4][5]. Globally implemented RWH systems could cover up to 90% of household water consumption [6] and the RWH plays a critical role in solving the world's problem of increased water stress [7,8]. Also, these systems can be useful in the reduction of flood risk in urban areas [9,10].…”