POTENTIALS OF DOMESTIC RAINWATER HARVESTING IN AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA USING SUPPLY SIDE APPROACH
1Ubuoh A., 2Egbe C. A, 3 Ogbuji S. and Onifade, S.
1&3Department of Environmental Management Technology, Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Owerri.
2Department of and Geography and Environmental Study, Federal College of Education, Owerri
E-mail: attahubuoh@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the technique of capturing and storage of rainwater for the need of man. The capturing and storage of rainwater varied from place to place and depends mainly on climatic condition. Historical data of rainfall for 20 years acquired between 1989 -2008 was used in collaboration of Supply System Approach (SSA) for calculation of potential of RWH. The results indicated that mean monthly rainfall ranged between 18.39 – 378.63 mm and mean annual rainfall ranged between 145.6 – 440.7 mm, with rainfall throughout the months for 20 years events The maximum storage capacity needed to meet demand throughout the year at household level occurs in September as 98.3m3 (983,000 litres) with total demand line for rainwater consumption as 18,000 litres above 20 litres recommended by the United Nations. This indicates the potential of rainwater harvesting to meet human hygienic conditions. Despite this, the problem confronting RWH is the low pH of atmospheric rainwater originating from incessant gas flaring by Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) operating onshore and offshore oil exploitations in Quo Iboe. Hence the recommendation the environmental laws should be enforced for compliance to stop gas flaring by re-injection of gas as well as gas revolution should be given top priority for socio-economic development. Also public participation in rainwater harvesting should be encouraged.
KEYWORDS: Rainwater Harvesting, Low pH, Ambient Rainwater, Supply Side Approach