Product Development. Rainwater Harvesting Water in Namibia

1. Product Specifications

The basic idea is to collect rainwater and transform it either in drinkable water or “greywater” for its later distribution to a village in the southeast of Namibia called Aroab.

Our idea is to use a large funnel which will collect the rainwater of the most rainy months and conduct it to a huge underground storage tank. Once there, it will be filtered and disinfected to make it drinkable. Hence it will be pumped through a pipeline system that will transport it into a public fountain located in a centric point of the village where their habitants could provide themselves.

Namibia’s annual rainfall data is 285mm/year on average, but this data could lead to confusion. That's because there is a big difference between the raining period in the north part of the country (October - April) and the south one (January - April). Northern city's average precipitation is around 500-600 mm/year, whereas in southern cities is only 150 mm/year.

We made the decision to build our funnel in the southeastern part because of the higher need of water.

About the features of our funnel, it will be square-shaped (100mx100m = 10000m2) and it will be made of aluminum because its lighter and cheaper than other materials such as stainless steel. To fight the rust and corrosion problem to which aluminum is exposed, we decided to cover the material with a corrosion-resistant layer which will protect it.

This funnel will conduct the rainwater into an underground tank, as mentioned, and there three processes will take place:

- The water will be stored.

- The water will be treated. That means filtered and disinfected with chemical products that will turn it drinkable.

- The water will be pumped (clean) through a pipeline system into a much smaller underground tank, just under the fountain system.

The tank will be a regular container (the ones used for big shipments). It’s a decision based on the idea of cost reduction.

It will also be a disinfection...