Rainwater harvesting: The collection of rainfall and runoff in rural areas Arnold Pacey with Adrian Cullis, with illustrations by Phil Clark Intermediate Technology Publications, 1986, 216 pp.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230080111 |
| Date | 01 January 1988 |
| Author | Michael Hubbard |
| Published date | 01 January 1988 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT,
Vol.
8,
11%121
(1988)
Book
Reviews
RAINWATER HARVESTING: the collection of rainfall and runoff in rural areas
Arnold Pacey with Adrian Cullis, with illustrations by Phil Clark
Intermediate Technology Publications, 1986, 216 pp.
There has been a recent upsurge of interest in more effective control of rainwater. Greater
awareness
of
advancing desertification and the second colossal famine
in
Africa in a decade
have created a sense of urgency to hold back the advancing deserts. Control over rainwater,
both to use it for domestic and farming purposes and to reduce the destruction which
uncontrolled runoff causes to topsoil, is seen by many to be an essential weapon in the
fight against the desert.
The book is therefore opportune the more
so
since it has avoided a narrow technical
focus and measures up well to the task the authors set themselves of reviewing available
material on designing and implementing schemes which are ‘technically, economically and
environmentally appropriate for use
in
different patterns
of
livelihood and organization’.
It is excellently illustrated with diagrams of the numerous types
of
roof and ground collection
systems (from rainwater tanks of various materials, contour bunds and microcatchments to
percolation dams, designed to recharge groundwater by slowing runoff and increasing
seepage) and well documented on technical sources. It also provides case studies
of
planning, consultation, and implementation-illustrating well the extent to which planners’
and users’ purposes can conflict (e.g. over the use of captured runoff for tree plots
or
crops) and the importance of extension.
Since the book is intent on the social and economic aspects determining use of different
types of rain harvesting it enables some general conclusions to be drawn about likely
usefulness and adoption in the future.
Firstly, harvesting of rainwater from roofs and slopes has generally been a last resort as
a source
of
water for domestic
or
farm use. Thus the best-developed systems are where
there is practically no othep source (e.g. for domestic use in Gibraltar and the Caribbean
islands). In arid zones farming where terracing and bunding had traditionally been crucial
for cultivation (e.g. North Yemen) farming is quickly abandoned when a better-paying and
less onerous source of income is found (like working in the Gulf). In the case of domestic
water tanks the diseconomies of scale in small tanks, the doubts of householders (and local
authorities, in my experience) about the cleanliness of the water stored (an important area
for extension education), and the fears of spreading mosquitoes and disease, have often
put a brake on public and private investment in rainwater collection for domestic use.
Secondly, though rainfall collection is generally regarded as an inferior option both for
domestic supplies and farming (i.e. there is a switch to piped water when possible) there
are many areas-particularly remote arid and semi-arid areas-where existing alternatives
are less preferable: women spend much time in fetching water over long distances and crop
farming carries on despite low yields and soil
loss.
Further, many of these areas (e.g. much
of
the Sahel) have non-sandy soils with a high runoff and much erosion as a result. In
these areas water harvesting is essentiar to prevent desertification, for afforestation, and
it
also serves as an insurance for farmers. In very good and extremely bad rainfall years crop
yields on land where runoff farming is practised are no different from the surrounding
land; but in a medium-bad year they are often substantially better.
0.1988 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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