Chapter 3

1. Criteria, Standards and Guidelines

1.1.

Criteria and Standards

Rainwater Catchment System is defined as a system that

utilizes the principal of collecting and using
precipitation from a rooftop or other manmade, above ground
collection surface.
Rainwater systems are capable of producing high quality
water, to levels meeting public utility standards, but only
if properly maintained by the system owner or operator
(ARCSA, 2009). The objectives of this Standard are to
provide guidance in how to provide and maintain a healthy
alternative to utility provided water, and to optimize
rainwater utilization.
1.1.1.

Conveyance System
a. Pipe sleeves shall be installed and properly
secured in place at all points where pipes passes
through masonry or concrete.
b. Gutter and down spout systems leading to the
cistern shall be fitted with debris excluder or
equivalent device.
c. All downspouts shall be unplasticized or any like
material, class DWV conforming to ASTM D2729 or
ASTM D1784 for sanitary pipes, Series 1000.
d. The contractor shall provide fittings and install
at least 100mm G.I. mesh wire strainer, each
strainer shall fit the size of the corresponding
downspout which is to be installed.

1.1.2.

Size of Storm Drain

The size of storm drain pipes is determined under the

following considerations:
a. Gouging the rainfall over a given period, whether
it is constant or exceeding heavy shower of short
duration.

b. Consider the varying roof areas, slope, and the

distance of water traveled.
c. Water drains faster on a high pitched roof, hence
requires a larger drain pipe.
d. The height of the building contributes to the
velocity of water falling inside a vertical pipe
conductor.

Table 1.
Size of Storm Drain

Dia. Of Pipe
Mm
75
100
125
150
200
250
300
350

In.
3
4
5
6
8
10
12
14

Maximum Drained Roof Area

2% slope
144
242
438
700
1463
2563
4100
5576

3% slope
142
315
566
903
1888
3309
5290
7203

4% slope
170
388
649
1105
2313
4055
6480
8830

Source: Plumbing Design and Estimates by George Salvan

This table shows the required diameter of drain pipe in inches or

in millimeter that is proportion to the area and slope of the
roof.
Table

2.

Size of Roof Gutter and Roof Leader

Area of Roof
Sq. m.
1to10
11 to 25
26 to 75
76 to 165
166 to 335
366 to 510
511 to 900

Gutter Top
Dimension(mm)
75
100
100
125
150
200
250

Roof Leader
Diameter(mm)
38
50
75
90
100
125
150

Source: Plumbing Design and Estimates by George Salvan

The table 2 shows the size of the roof gutter and roof
leader pipe in terms of the area of roof in square meters
the table also shows the range of 1 up to 900 sq. m. with
corresponding size of pipes.

The conservative estimate of maximum rainfall in the

Philippines is about 20mm in a 5 minute interval (Fajardo,
Plumbing Design and Estimates).

1.2.

Guidelines

1.2.1.

Components of Rainwater Harvest System

A rainwater harvesting system comprises components

of various stages - transporting rainwater through pipes

or drains, filtration, and storage in tanks for reuse or

recharge.
a. Catchment
The catchment of a water harvesting system is the
surface which directly receives the rainfall and
provides water to the system. It can be a paved
area like a terrace or courtyard of a building, or
an unpaved area like a lawn or open ground. A roof
made of reinforced cement concrete (RCC),
galvanized iron or corrugated sheets can also be
used for water harvesting.
b. Coarse mesh
Place at the roof to prevent the passage of debris
c. Gutter
Channels all around the edge of a sloping roof to
collect and transport rainwater to the storage
tank.
d. Conduits
Conduits are pipelines or drains that carry
rainwater from the catchment or rooftop area to the
harvesting system. Conduits can be of any material
like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or galvanized iron
(GI), materials that are commonly available.

Table 3.
Sizing of rainwater pipe for roof drainage
Diamete
r Of
pipe
(mm)
50
65

Average rate of rainfall in mm/h

50
13.4
24.1

75
8.9
16.0

100
6.6
12.0

125
5.3
9.6

150
4.4
8.0

200
3.3
6.0

75
100
125
150

40.8
85.4
-

27.0
57.0
-

20.4
42.7
80.5
-

16.3
34.2
64.3
-

13.6
28.5
53.5
83.6

10.2
21.3
40.0
62.7

mm/ h - millimeters per hour; m - meters

Source: rainwaterharveting.org

e. First-flushing
The first flush diverts routes the first flow of
water from the catchment surface away from the
tank. It is designed to fill with contaminated
water from a rain event and empty itself over 42
hour period so that it is ready for the next time
it rains, first flush diverts (FFDS) have shown
to remove up to 80% of the pollutants that collect
on the roof or in the gutters and become dissolved
or suspended in the water

Fig.1
Flow past first flush divert box with valved dripped

f. Filter

The filter is used to remove suspended pollutants

from rainwater collected over roof. A filter unit
is a chamber filled with filtering media such as
fiber, coarse sand and gravel layers to remove
debris and dirt from water before it enters the
storage tank or recharge structure. Charcoal can be
added for additional filtration.
i.

Charcoal water filter

A simple charcoal filter can be made in a drum
or an earthen pot. The filter is made of
gravel, sand and charcoal, all of which are
easily available.

ii.

Sand filters
Sand filters have commonly available sand as
filter media. Sand filters are easy and
inexpensive to construct. These filters can be
employed for treatment of water to effectively
remove turbidity (suspended particles like
silt and clay), color and microorganisms, the
top layer comprises coarse sand followed by a
5-10 mm layer of gravel followed by another 525 cm layer of gravel and boulders
Dewas filters
The filter consists of a polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) pipe 140 mm in diameter and 1.2m long.
There are three chambers. The first
purification chamber has pebbles varying
between 2-6 mm, the second chamber has
slightly larger pebbles, between 6 and 12 mm
and the third chamber has the largest - 12-20
mm pebbles. There is a mesh at the outflow
side through which clean water flows out after
passing through the three chambers.

iii.

g. Storage facility
Water storage is the heart of a rain water system,
storage cistern take many forms.
2. Conveying, Storage and contributing Materials
2.1.

Roofing

and conveying materials

2.1.1.

Effects of roofing materials on water quality for

rain water harvesting
Table 4.

Source: Peter J. Coombes, George Kuczera and Jetse D. Kalma;

http://www.wsud.org/downloads/Info%20Exchange%20&%20Lit/Coombes%
20RAINWATER%20QUALITY.pdf

Table 4 shows the result rainwater collected from a

structure with modern color coated, pitched, G.I.
roofing. Sample were collected after different amounts
of accumulated rainfall (rain depth is in millimeters)
the water quality looks good except for fecal coliform
(warm-blooded animals waste) which remained high even
after a long rain.

Table 5.

Table 5 shows that the ambient rainwater had an average

pH = 5.5. Error bars represent standard deviations from
triplicate analysis.