Abstract:
A sufficient, clean drinking water supply is essential to life but
millions of people throughout the world do not have access to this basic
necessity. Even after the intensive efforts of engineers, planners, builders,
governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to bring potable
water to the poorer people of the world, the situation is still a challenge. The
problem becomes exacerbated especially in developing countries with an
increasing population growth trend. This study sought to assess the potential
of rainwater harvesting as a means of augmenting conventional sources of
water supply for both portable and non-potable use in the Adentan
Municipality. The study involved both adopters and non-adopters of Rain
Water Harvesting Technology and adopted the mix method research approach.
The study found that more than half of households harvest rainwater on
regular basis with rooftop rainwater harvesting as the main technology used. A
storage capacity of about 96.2 m3 or 96200 litres is required to store rainwater.
Generally rainwater was assessed to be of good quality, despite some few
coliform detected in water samples. Rooftop rainwater harvesting has a great
potential of supplementing conventional water supply. The use of a binary
logistic regression model revealed that age, sex, marital status, income, and
household ownership were statistically significant at 5 percent in explaining
households’ adoption of RWHT in the Adentan Municipality. It is therefore
recommended that all stakeholders in the water sector should ensure that
RWHT is incorporated into the design of new and existing buildings, while
ensuring that households adopt best management practices that will make
rainwater clean and safe to use.
