posted on 2018-02-12, 15:08authored byNamrata Pathak, Han Heijnen
The World Health Organization is developing guidance on water safety and health aspects of rainwater harvesting
& storage. This will be a scientific contribution to the’ rolling’ revision of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water
Quality. WHO acknowledges the need for a thorough assessment of the health aspects of collected rainwater, as
increasing numbers of people and communities worldwide use rainwater for domestic purposes, including for drinking.
This paper presents a review of microbiological and chemical issues, relevant to rainwater and health risks. Several
concerns are raised that may need further consideration in design, maintenance and research in rainwater use.
Funding
The paper is an output of the collaborative programme on water quality management implemented
by the World Health Organization with support from the Australian Agency for International Development.
History
School
Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Research Unit
Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
Published in
WEDC Conference
Citation
PATHAK, N. and HEIJNEN, H., 2006. Health and hygiene aspects of rainwater for drinking. IN: Fisher, J. (ed). Sustainable development of water resources, water supply and environmental sanitation: Proceedings of the 32nd WEDC International Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 13-17 November 2006, pp. 393-396.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/