FABRICATION OF RAINWATER HARVESTING FILTER WITH FOG COLLECTOR FOR CLEAN WATER HARVESTING IN VILLAGES

Özet

Safe and clean water is essential for public health, whether it is used as drinking water, domestic usage, food production, irrigation, or for recreational purposes. Rainwater harvesting and fog collecting are integrated environment-friendly systems to produce renewable feedstock or water supply in the efforts to help reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Most of the villages in Kuching, Sarawak are supplied with water tanks to harvest the rainwater from the roof by collecting the rainwater in gutters. Therefore, the rainwater may be contaminated with residues such as dry leaves, rotting leaves, dead plants, twigs and others. Rainwater harvesting can be problematic, particularly within the dry season, although there might be a significant amount of fog in the mountainous areas of the country. Hence, this project aims to fabricate a rainwater filter integrated with a fog collector to obtain clean water. The system can channel up to 90% of rainwater into the storage tank. The system consists of a self-designed and 3D-printed body with a mesh filtration tube as the core to collect large residues before the rainwater drops into the storage tank. Meanwhile, the fog collector works to capture water from the ambient using the concept of a fog harp utilizing vertical parallel wires. In the post-testing, it is found that the system was able to channel up to 92.6% of water. Meanwhile, the fog collector was able to accumulate 485ml volume of water for 5 days period at Kampung Duyoh hilltop village. It is also noted that the system is relatively easy to operate, requires low maintenance, and has a reasonable cost. In the end, the objectives of fabricating a rainwater filter with a fog collector are successfully achieved and can be utilized by the villagers to obtain clean water and water supply.