Experience in rainwater harvesting in Tanzania

This paper discusses practical aspects of roof catchment systems for rainwater harvesting in Tanzania. Roofing materials and types of storage containers used in Tanzania are discussed. The prohibitive costs of roof catchment\AB systems limit their use for families with an average income. The bacteriological quality of rainwater was tested for 14 tanks in Dar es Salaam and 3 in the city of Chalinze. In contrast with Dar es Salaam, all samples taken in\AB Chalinze exceeded the Tanzanian standards for faecal coliforms and total coliforms. Contamination is probably caused by runoff entering the tank and by the use of buckets to collect the water. Despite this, users in Chalinze\AB neither boil rainwater from tanks nor from groundwater catchments as they believe rainwater is pure.