Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Harvesting Rooftop Runoff from RDP Housing in South Africa: A Pragmatic Approach to Supplement Water Supply While Reducing Flooding, Soil Erosion, and Disease
EPA Grant Number: SU833508Title: Harvesting Rooftop Runoff from RDP Housing in South Africa: A Pragmatic Approach to Supplement Water Supply While Reducing Flooding, Soil Erosion, and Disease
Investigators: Christy, Ann , Ward, Andy , Miller, Mathew , Kallio, Rebecca , Kallio, Sara , Childs, Steve
Institution: The Ohio State University
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: I
Project Period: June 9, 2006 through July 10, 2008
Project Amount: $9,998
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2007) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Challenge Area - Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
In South Africa, millions of people live in poverty and reside in shanty towns. To address this issue, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was established to provide housing for impoverished citizens. The RDP has built more than 1.7 million homes, but there remains a serious housing shortage. Many of the RDP houses have corrugated metal roofs with no gutters and are built in areas with steep slopes, poor drainage, or high water tables. Soil erosions, flooding, and water borne diseases are problems in these new housing communities. Most residents are poor, unemployed and/or underemployed, and they quickly use their small free monthly water supply allotment. The goal of the project is to design a rain water collection unit that will collect runoff from rooftops and then distribute this water for use in flushing toilets, thus preserving scarce potable water for drinking and cooking.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
The team was able to design a shuttle valve and full scale rainwater collection system that, in times of enough rainfall, provided an extra free source of water to flush toilets. Based of the dimensions of the RDP house and the tank size, the system should be able to collect roughly 19,900 liters of water per year for flushing toilets. The team will create the full scale design in Ohio this month and perform tests on the efficiency and effectiveness of the rainwater collection system.
Conclusions:
The design team will be traveling to South Africa this summer to pilot their final tested design on an experimental RDP house in cooperation with the University of KwaZulu Natal. The team will also meet with government officials in KwaZulu-Natal province to discuss the potential of installing rainwater collection systems on all new RDP homes.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 1 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Technology for sustainable environment, hydrology, capstone design course,Relevant Websites:
http://africanetwork.osu.edu/resources/index.cfm Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.