Sallomy Matare Municipal Reporter
IN an era where climate change is taking its toll on many countries, it has become imperative for nations across the globe to undertake some mitigatory initiatives.

One such initiative is rainwater harvesting.

Rainwater harvesting is the process of collecting water from suitable surfaces on which rain falls and preserving it for future use.

Although the rainwater harvesting concept is fairly new in Zimbabwe, it has been around for a long time and has also been rapidly growing in other parts of Africa.

While there are some who have received relief through different rainwater harvesting techniques, it is being done at too small a scale to mean anything substantial to the country.

There has been an effort across the country over the years for the Government to prioritise and promote rainwater harvesting projects on a national scale.

Ray Nyoni (22), chairperson of Solar Pro Industries Incorporation, with the help of his brother and aircraft engineer, Ronald Nyoni modernised the traditional water harvesting technique done in most households for domestic purposes to make it more efficient.

“We do not usually harness this water, we believe we will have it back the next rainy season from the rivers and streams, we do not realise that we can never receive that same amount of water because some of it flows to underground streams and is never recovered,” said Ray.

“We have initiated a system whereby we would be saying that water we haven’t been utilising or saving, can now be harvested for future use.”

Rain water harvesting and purification in one process is conducive for every household and can also be done at a national level.

To implement the innovation at household level- a roof, tank, filters, pipes and a main reservoir are needed.

“This system works with a roof, a normal roof is 6 metres by 4 metres. In a space of an hour we can harvest about 200 litres of water or more,” said Ray.

“First the roof has to be cleared of all leaves and surrounding trees, we then design a gutter that directs the water to the second tank.

“The first tank will be trapping tree leaves, sediments and other impurities. It is designed in such a manner that there is sedimentation, if it happens to be any dust, it settles at the bottom of the tank.”

“The water then flows down to the second tank that is attached to the ground where the main filtering process happens, removing remaining impurities. The water is purified and comes out crystal clear,” said Ray.

He said the second tank is connected to a pipe that deposits the water into a main reservoir while the filters in the tanks are custom made for this particular system.

Ray and Ronald implemented the innovation in Harare’s Msasa Park at businessman Vincent Munyeza’s  garage.

“For this project we have worked with Mr Vincent Munyeza, he has been with us since the beginning and we did the project at his workshop and he has been giving us all the financial support,” said Ray.

He said they used an eight metres by four metres roof and harnessed 3 000 litres in a space of 10 hours.

Ray said to implement the innovation on a national scale, man-made enclosed dams or other reservoirs should be constructed.

“There should be a dam or something similar that is enclosed to prevent evaporation.

“This reservoir will be serving households in that area in critical dry seasons,” he said.

“The water will be deposited into this reservoir through pipes that run from a number of households in the vicinity.”

Ray, who claimed his ideas come from God, said he had more ideas that addresed problems being faced globally.

“These ideas come to me as revelations, each idea is conducive to the place and context,” he said.

The workers at the workshop are excited  with this technique.

One of the workers, Munyaradzi Nyombe said they were saved from a hard hunt for water.

“Due to constant cut of water supplies, we were facing difficulties in getting water. We do not have to worry about that anymore, we are now using water directly from mother nature,” he said.