RAINWATER HARVESTING

ENGLISH Group: CK18A TEACHER:

BOGOT, AUGUST 2012

Rainwater harvesting

When people talk about the planet and which the importance the water has in it is, arise issues like the composition of the planet, the water contamination, and what could be the methods to give solutions to that kind of situations The earth is composed by three physical elements: first the solid, lithosphere, other the liquid, hydrosphere and the last is the gaseous, atmosphere. Water is found in many places on Earth including on the surface of the planet, within rocks below the surface, and in the atmosphere. Water travels between different areas of the Earth through the water cycle. About 70% of the Earth surface is covered with water, and most of that is the ocean. Only a small portion of the Earth's water is freshwater, which is found in rivers, lakes, and groundwater. Freshwater is needed for drinking, farming, and washing. In addition to liquid water, water is also present on Earth in the form of ice. Without water, life as we know it would not exist. As the water cycle is the means by which water travels around the world is important have it clear:

The water cycle is a continuous or hydrologic cycle where water evaporates travels into the air and Becomes Part of a cloud, falls down to earth as precipitation, and then evaporates again. This repeats again and again in a never-ending cycle. Water keeps moving and changing from a solid to a liquid to a gas, over and over again. Precipitation creates runoff that travels over the ground surface and helps to fill lakes and rivers. It also percolates or moves downward through openings in the soil to replenish aquifers under the ground. Some places receive more precipitation than others do. These areas are usually close to oceans or large bodies of water that allow more water to evaporate and form clouds. Other areas receive less precipitation. Often these areas are far from water or near

mountains. As clouds move up and over mountains, the water vapor condenses to form precipitation and freezes. Snow falls on the peaks. Global warming: Global warming is when the earth heats up (the temperature rises). It

happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earths atmosphere, which increases the temperature. This hurts many people, animals, and plants. Many cannot take the change, so they die.

The greenhouse effect is when the temperature rises because the suns heat and light is trapped in the earths atmosphere. This is like when heat is trapped in a car. On a very hot day, the car gets hotter when it is out in parking lot. This is because the heat and light from the sun can get into the car, by going through the windows, but it cant get back out. This is what the greenhouse effect does to the earth. The heat and light can get through the atmosphere, but it cant get out. As a result, the temperature rises. This change in temperature cause sea level grows up while drinking water sources evaporate decreasing. Events like those, are affecting the natural sources of production of liquid, that makes really necessary to implement systems of prevention to avoid that drinking water runs out.

Rain water harvesting system:

Rainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing of rainwater for reuse before it reaches the aquifer. It has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock, water for irrigation, as well as other typical uses. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses and local institutions can make an important contribution to the availability of drinking water.

1. Cover collected. 2. Gutter. 3. Filter (important). 4. Storage tank of filtered water. 5. Water pump.

6. Management system. Rainwater/ mains water. 7. Drainage system. The first element is the collection, which will be the roof, sloping on flat. The second element will be gutters that collect water that provides the roof and taken to a storage tank. It is important that contains some type of filter to which the stored water is. The third element is the storage tank; this can be buried, but should be accessible for cleaning, if necessary. Requires an outside lid to prevent spillage and to extract water for cleaning. For no reason the filter must be removed. It is not advisable to discharge rainwater the cistern without a good filter. Whenever the filtering is performed before the water reaches the collecting container, so that dirt does no enter therein. It is very important that the tank is not located exposed to sunlight, that harm the water quality so the best option is to place it in a basement or buried.