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Rainwater Harvesting for Rain Shelter Farming at Lojing Highland Ir. Lim Sin Poh 1, Engr.

John Lim Chee Kiang 2 & Engr. Lau Mee Chong 3


1

. Director 2. Associate 3. Engineer G&P Water Sdn Bhd

ABSTRACT Forested land at Lojing Highland in Gua Musang, Kelantan has been cleared for agriculture farming since 1990 due to increasing demand from both local and overseas for highland vegetables and flowers. The area cleared for vegetable farming and floriculture in Gua Musang has escalated from 200 ha in 2002 to 1,200 ha in 2008 . Due to its sensitive highland environment, agricultural activities in Lojing Highland have caused severe erosion and sedimentation problems. Among the several known soil conservation strategies, one would be to promote rainwater harvesting as a source of irrigation water supply using the installed rain shelter as a rain collection area. Apart from providing clean irrigation supply, temporary storing of rainwater in the storage tank could reduce the erosive impact of rainwater thus minimizing land erosion. This paper presents the rainwater harvesting analysis based on historical daily rainfall data. The assessment results show that the rainwater harvesting system could meet at least 80% of the required irrigation water demand. A typical rainwater harvesting system for Lojing Highland is proposed. The system should be advocated to farmers as part of their Best Management Practises involving water and soil conservation. 1.0 INTRODUCTION

Lojing Highland lies between Gua Musang in Kelantan and Cameron Highland in Pahang as shown in Figure 1. It is located at about 1,000 m above mean sea level and has similar climate pattern and development activities with Cameron Highland. Figure 2 shows extensive rain shelter farming at Lojing Highland. The cool temperature at Lojing Highland offer significant opportunities to grow commercial temperate crops, particularly vegetables, flowers and fruits. The Kelantan State Government planned Lojing Highland as the agricultural cultivation hub for temperate crops. Lojing Highland is located at the upper basin of Sg. Nenggiri, with the main rivers of Sg. Jelai, Sg. Brook, and Sg. Belatop flowing through this location. The water catchment at the upstream is considerably small, limiting water resource. Currently, these rivers are the major source of irrigation water for the farming area. Land clearing at the headlands and with uncontrolled agriculture practices in Lojing Highland along with limited soil conservation measures has caused severe erosion and sedimentation problems to its downstream areas. Rivers were polluted with high sediment content impacting water supplied for domestic and irrigation usage. Presently, farmers in Lojing Highland can no longer abstract water for irrigation within their plot of land. In order to obtain cleaner water free from sediment contamination, farmers have to tap irrigation water several kilometers upstream of the river. With more forested lands cleared for agriculture, and if river pollution continues unabated, inadequate clean water for irrigation will inevitably become an issue.

Figure 1: Location of Lojing Highland

Figure 2: Rain Shelter at the Farms in Lojing Highland

Apart from that, high sediment content in irrigation water sourced from the river (Figure 3) also affects the irrigation system in Lojing. In most of the rain sheltered tomato farms using a drip irrigation system, tiny hoses are needed to convey water to each plant as shown in Figure 4. The tiny hoses can be easily clogged by coarse sediment. Farmers have to install sediment filters to filter the water from sediment before entering the drip hose (Figure 5). To ensure sufficient irrigation supply and mitigate land erosion, rainwater harvesting was conceived as the appropriate strategy to be advocated in Lojing Highland.

Figure 3: High sediment content in river water

Figure 4: Drip Irrigation system

Figure 5: Sediment Filter

2.0 2.1

WATER RESOURCES A IN LOJING HIGHLAND Water Demand

In Lojing Highland, more that 80% of the agriculture activities are using a rain-shelter system while the remaining is an open crop system. Water consumption for each crop type depends on the rate of evapotranspiration which in turn depends on the type of crop and the surrounding hydro-meteorological conditions including humidity, wind, etc. Crops under rain-shelters normally require less water as the confined overhead environment keeps humidity levels high and air circulation low compared with the open crop systems. Lojing Highland is located in a region with abundant rainfall and rich water resources as a result of an average annual rainfall of about 2,400 mm. Rainwater harvesting can provide an alternative source of irrigation water to ensure consistency is water supply all year round. The dimension of a typical rain shelter in Lojing Highland is 100 ft (30.5 m) x 30 ft (9.1 m); and tomato is the main crop planted in Lojing using rain-shelter systems. The water demand of rain-shelter irrigation for tomato was estimated based on the following criteria: (a) (b) Each rain-shelter contain about 500 crops Each crop demand about 500 ml of water a day

Based on the above criteria, the water demand for tomato crops under each rain shelter with a drip irrigation system is about 0.25 m3/day. Considering 1 ha of land area typically contains about 30 rainshelters, water demand for 1 ha of land would come to about 7.5 m3/day. This is 8 times less than that of an open system which has a water demand 55 m3/ha/day. With the low water requirements of tomato planting under rain shelter and a large roof area to collect rainwater, a rainwater harvesting system is highly recommended for these types of crops in Lojing Highland.

2.2

Rainwater Harvested Yield

Rainwater harvestable yield for rainwater harvesting system with a prefixed roof area, tank size and rainwater use pattern will mainly depend on the rainfall characteristics such as, the sequence of rain day and the daily rainfall amount (Chong S.F et al. 2010). In this Study, the nearest rainfall station, Brooke station which is located about 10 km from Lojing Highland was selected to carry out a rainwater yield analysis (Figure 1). Table 1 shows the location and details of the Brooke rainfall station.
Table 1: Description of Brooke Rainfall Station Station Station Station No State ID Name Type 1 4614001 Brook Auto Kelantan

Elevation 1,042 m

Period of Record 1984-1985,1988, 1994-1995, 1997-2003, 2006-2007

No of Years 16

2.3

Rainfall Characteristics in Lojing Highland

Similarly with Cameron Highland, the daily rainfall distribution at Lojing Highland is generally consistent over the years with an average monthly rainfall about 150 mm/month. The Northeast Monsoon (November and December) brings heavy rainfall to Lojing Highland with a monthly rainfall of about 300 mm to 370 mm. Table 2 shows the long term mean monthly and annual rainfall for the Brooke Station at Lojing Highland.
Table 2: Long Term Mean Monthly and Annual Rainfall for Brooke Station, Lojing Highland

Station Name Brook

Jan 216

Feb 143

Mac 177

Average Monthly Rainfall (mm) Apr May Jun July Aug Sep 221 183 149 139 153 185

Oct 270

Nov 367

Dec 302

Average Annual Rainfall (mm) 2,402

Sources: DID, 2010

2.4

Design Criteria for Rainwater Yield Simulation

The yield from the rainwater harvesting system depends directly on several parameters such as rainfall characteristics, rainwater demand, catchment area, tank storage size and water use pattern. The yield is also affected by the first flush amount and losses on the roof due to evaporation and splashing. The above parameters have been described by various guidelines and papers published by government agencies. 2.4.1 Roof Area In Lojing Highland, a typical rain-shelter has a 30.5 m x 9.1 m (100 ft x 30 ft) roof dimension equivalent to a roof area of 275m2. This catchment area has been selected for the rainwater yield simulation. The roof area corresponds to the rainwater catchment area.

2.4.2 Rainwater Storage Tank Size The rainwater tank is an important component in the rainwater harvesting system from the perspective of cost and space allocation. In this Study, an analysis on the relationship between tank storage size and

rainwater yield was carried out to determine the optimum tank storage size for a rain-shelter having a roof size of 275 m2. 2.4.3 Rainwater Demand and Pattern of Water Use The collected rainwater is for crop irrigation under each rain-shelter only. The rainwater demand was estimated based on crop water demand and number of crops in each rain-shelter. Water demand data for tomato planting was obtained from Cameron Highland by considering each pot for tomato crop consumes 500 ml of water a day and each rain-shelter contain 500 pots of tomato crop. The water use pattern of 0.25 m3/day for each rain-shelter was used for the rainwater yield assessment. 2.4.4 Losses from Roof For roof systems in a tropical region like Malaysia, the roof structure is usually heated up due to prolonged exposure under the sun. Other than the Northeast Monsoon season, rainfall usually occurs in the late afternoon. A value of 0.5 mm of rain falling on the roof is commonly used in Malaysia to estimate losses due to evaporation and splashing. This value has been adopted in the yield computation. 2.4.5 Rainwater Yield Simulation Model With the rainwater harvesting system as described above with the adopted parameters, a daily water balance model was configured to compute the daily rainwater yield as shown in Figure 6. A spreadsheet was developed to facilitate the daily water balance computation.

Figure 6: Schematic Diagram for the Rainwater Yield Simulation Model for Lojing Highland

The tank storage sizing for the rainwater harvesting system was simulated based on the following formula:
St +1 = (St C t ) + (R t va t FFt O t )

Where: S C R Eva FF O t 3.0 = = = = = = = Storage Harvested yield for consumption Rainfall Roof Evaporation First Flush Overflow Time, day ANALYSES AND RESULTS

3.1 Annual Rainwater Yield Figure 7 and 8 shows the rainwater yield that could be harvested for irrigation use based on different storage tank sizes. Rainwater yield analysis using Brooke rainfall data shows that, the annual rainwater yield at Lojing Highland ranged between 65.0 m3 to 81.5 m3 for a storage tank sized between 0.5 m3 to 2.0 m3 indicating an increment in water yields with tank size. The annual water yield for storage tank size 1.0 m3 is 73.7 m3/year which is 81% of the annual water used (91.25 m3) for each rain-shelter. The annual rainwater yields derived in this analysis were used to decide the storage tank size with the computation of the return of investment of the rainwater harvesting system for irrigation water supply at Lojing Highland.

Figure 7: Average annual rainwater yield

Figure 8: Average monthly rainwater yield

Table 3: Average Monthly Rainwater Yield for Lojing Highland based on selected Tank Storage Size Tank Storage Size, m3 0.50 1.00 Average Monthly Rainwater Yield, m3/month Jan 5.60 6.33 Feb 5.05 5.90 Mar 5.00 5.79 Apr 5.31 5.94 May 5.35 6.12 Jun 4.84 5.63 Jul 4.69 5.49 Aug 4.97 5.79 Sep 5.44 6.30 Oct 5.79 6.43 Nov 6.62 7.06 Dec 6.42 7.00

1.50 2.00

6.66 6.93

6.36 6.57

6.25 6.50

6.29 6.54

6.60 6.86

6.08 6.34

5.88 6.17

6.28 6.65

6.78 7.01

6.72 6.94

7.34 7.43

7.38 7.61

Table 3 show the average monthly rainwater yield for various tank sizes in Lojing Highland while the graphical presentation is shown in Figure 8. The monthly water demand for tomato crop on each rainshelter was about 7.5 m3/month. Results from monthly rainwater yield analysis show that the average yield for dry months (during June and July) can supply 6.17 m3, or meet about 82% of the demand using a 2 m3 tank size. During wet seasons (from November to December), the rainwater yield can meet a 100% of the demand (7.5 m3/month) with 2 m3 storage tank.

3.2

Percentage of Rainwater Yield over Rainwater Demand versus Storage Tank Size

Figure 9 shows the percentage of annual rainwater yield over the estimated rainwater demand for the selected water tank storage. Rainwater demand was fixed at 250 liters/day for each rain-shelter. The average percentage of rainwater yield compared to the estimated rainwater demand range from 71% to 89% with the storage tank size ranging between 0.5 m3 to 2.0 m3. Results show that, a single 1.0 m3 rainwater tank with a 275 m2 roof catchment area could meet approximately 80% of the estimated irrigation water demand; while a 2.0 m3 rainwater tank with a 275 m2 roof catchment area could meet approximately 90 % of the estimated irrigation water demand.
Percentage of Average Rainfall Consumed/Total Demand verusus Tank Size
95.00

90.00

Percentage of Average Rainfall Consumed/Total Demand

85.00

80.00

75.00

70.00

65.00

60.00 0.0 0.5 1.0 Tank Storage Size, m3 1.5 2.0 2.5

Figure 9: Percentage of Average Rainfall Consumed over Total Demand versus Storage Tank Size

3.4 Number of Days with Full Tank, Empty Tank and Meeting Rainwater Demand Analysis was carried out to compute the number of days the rainwater tank is filled or emptied over the simulation period. The computation also includes days when the harvested rainwater is able to meet a 100% of the daily irrigation water demand, defined here as self-sufficient. The results are summarized in Table 4 below.

Table 4: Days of Tank Storage Condition and Self-sufficiency Average Number of Days in a Year Storage tank Size, m3 Full-Tank Empty-Tank Self-Sufficient 0.5 153 136 255 1.0 150 85 291 1.5 148 59 311 2.0 146 44 324

Table 4 shows that the average full storage tank days in the year range within 153 to 146 days for the storage tank size of 0.5m3 to 1.5m3 respectively. The empty tank period varies from 136 to 44 days for the similar storage tank size respectively. In the case of the 2 m3 tank size, the full tank period is much longer than the empty tank period due to the low irrigation water demand of the crop. The average number of days where the rainwater yield could fully meet the rainwater demand ranges from 255 days in a year to 324 days for the storage tank size ranging from 0.5m3 to 2.0m3. 3.5 Analysis on Losses from Roof Analysis was carried out with difference value of losses from roof. The simulation result (Figure 10) shown that, with different value of loss from roof, the differences on percentage of annual rainwater yield over the estimated rainwater demand was less that 10% for storage tank size 0.5m3 to 2m3. For tank size 2m3, the differences of percentage were about 5% only. Lojing highland was located in a tropic region with high rainfall amount on one rainfall event; therefore losses due to roof system have no significant effect to the rainwater yield. In this study, losses from roof of 0.5mm on each rainfall event was adopted.
Percentage of Average Rainfall Consumed/Total Demand verusus Tank Size ( Diff. Roof Losses)
95.00

90.00

Percentage of Average Rainfall Consumed/Total Demand

85.00

80.00

75.00

70.00

65.00

60.00 0.0 0.5 1.0 Tank Storage Size, m3 0.0mm Losses 0.5mm Losses 1.0mm Losses 1.5mm Losses 1.5 2.0 2.5

Figure 10: Analysis on Value of Losses from Roof Compare to Rainwater Yield

CONCLUSIONS The rainwater harvesting assessment shows that the rainwater yield increases with the tank storage size. The annual rainwater yield at Lojing Highland was between 65.0 m3 to 81.5 m3 for a storage tank size of 0.5 m3 to 2.0 m3 respectively. The optimum ratio of storage tank size to roof area is important for the costbenefit analysis of implementing the rainwater harvesting system for Lojing Highland to supplement irrigation water supply. Rainwater harvesting assessment for tomato plantation under a rain-shelter system with a roof area 275 m2 and water demand 0.25 m3/day/rain-shelter shows that for a storage tank size 2.0 m3, the annual water yield is 81.5 m3/year, which is 89% of the annual water demand for tomato crops under a single rainshelter. A deficit of about 10% can be solved by providing piped water, tapped from the nearest headwater. The average number of days where the rainwater yield could fully meet the rainwater demand is as high as 324 days for the 2 m3 storage tank. Therefore, the storage tank of 2 m3 is strongly recommended for Lojing Highland. In conclusion, this study has provided very useful data for the technical design and financial evaluation of a rainfall harvesting system to satisfy irrigation water supply in Lojing Highland. The rainfall harvesting system is suitable for Lojing agricultural areas where most of the farms are using rain shelters with drip irrigation systems. It may become the major water source for crops under the rain-shelter farming for the farmers in Lojing Highland. Practicing rainfall harvesting in this area will not only relieve the water scarcity issues in the highland, it will also minimize soil erosion problems in the area. Therefore, the system should be advocated to farmers as part of their water and soil conservation measure.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors wish to thank the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia for the provision of hydrological data which were necessary for the analysis. REFERENCES 1. DID, 2010: Study of the Impact of Land Development Activities on Water Resources of Sg. Kelantan and the Development of a Conservation Plan. Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Malaysia. ECER, 2010. Integrated Environmental Management Plan for Lojing Highland Area (Interim Report). East Coast Economic Region Development Council. Chong S.F et al. 2010. Rainwater harvesting systems in Malaysia: How much can we harvest?

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