RAINWATER

HARVESTING FOR
LIVESTOCK
PRODUCTION
6.1 Surface Rainwater Harvesting
Systems

These do catch rapid runoff from natural or man made

surfaces, then concentrate and store it at strategic
locations. They harness water that would otherwise be
lost through infiltration and evaporation. The water thus
collected is often used for different purposes including
drinking, watering livestock and agriculture.
Surface harvesting systems can be built wherever the
landscape has characteristics which produce large
quantities of runoff from rain storms on a regular basis.
 6.1.1 Rock catchment dams
• Rock catchment systems can vary greatly in size with volumes
ranging from less than 20m3 to several thousand cubic metres or more.
• Rubble-stone masonry dams built with the assistance of self-help
labour can provide highly cost-effective water supplies. Dam walls
can range from 2m to 6m in height and from 10m to 60m in length.
• The walls can be straight or be built in sections as V-shaped or
trapezoidal structures.
• Dams should be constructed where natural depressions, gullies or
hollows are found on or below exposed rock outcrops where
depressions can provide free storage capacity after soil and vegetation
have been removed.
• The key to successful rock catchment system design is the selection of
an appropriate site.
Rubble-stone masonry
The main siting factors that need to be considered are:
1. Dams should be built at sites that produce a relatively
high depth to surface area ratio to minimize evaporation
losses.
2. Rock surfaces should not be fractured or cracked, so
causing leakage losses.
3. Dam foundations must be solid impermeable rock
with no soil pockets or fracture lines.
4. There should be no erosion in the catchment area.
5. Location must be convenient for the user group.
Rock catchment system using single wall
builtbuilt a small
across rock
a small valley
rock valley
V-shaped dam wall built in rock depression or basin
 Trapezoidal
Trapezoidal U-shaped
U-shaped dam
dam built on abuilt on a continuous
continuous slope slope
 6.1.2 Earth dams
Earth dams do not produce water that is generally suitable for
drinking without some form of treatment. Nevertheless, these
systems do provide an invaluable source of water in many arid
and semi-arid regions, where they provide water for livestock,
washing and, in the absence of any alternative, drinking and
cooking as well.
If a hand dug-well is constructed immediately downstream of
the dam wall, seepage from the dam will recharge the well,
and the water quality withdrawn from it will be far better than
that in the reservoir.
Typically, small earth dams may have volumes ranging from
500m3 to 10 000m3, with straight or curved walls up to 100m
long and 8m high.
Unlike larger earth dams, these can normally be designed by a
local technician, and constructed and maintained by the
community with very low capital and cash input.
The main problems associated with these systems are
sediment accumulation, erosion and evaporation. Small earth
dam sites should therefore be situated:
• where people and livestock are in need of water
• on public land with a public access road for the members
of the community and users of the dam
• in a natural depression or gully to enhance water storage
capacity
• where the type of soil limits seepage and is capable of
carrying the weight of the dam wall
• Where runoff from the rains on the catchment area can
fill the dam reservoirs at least once a year
• Where there are no anthills, pits, sewage outlets, saline
or calcareous soil.
The most suitable sites for a straight embankment dam are
normally found at points where small seasonal water courses
widen over flatter ground. Where a natural depression already
exists on sloping ground, a curved hill-side dam may be built.
An earth dam
6.2 Sub-surface Rainwater
Harvesting Systems

These exploit water already infiltrated and

concentrated through natural hydrological processes
into the sand rivers that fill valleys in arid and semi-
arid areas.
Riverbeds are traditional watering points. People use
the surface flow during rainy seasons and dig
shallow unprotected wells into the bed each dry
season once surface flow has dried up.
 6.2.1 Sub-surface dams
These are constructed of either soil or rubble-
stone masonry from a key trench excavated into
the floor of soil or murram under the sand to the
surface of the sand in riverbeds, with nothing
protruding above the sand level.
These dams can be built in almost any seasonal
water course with at least a metre of sand.
Sub-surface dam built of clay
 6.2.2 Sand dams (dry sand river dams)
• Are built of rubble-stone masonry or concrete from a key trench and
foundation dug into a river bed floor of soil, murram or bedrock
without fissures beneath the sand.
• Protrude above the sand level in riverbeds and, therefore, must have
a wide foundation and wing-walls built into the river banks to
withstand the force of flash-floods.
• Are built in stages of 30cm above the sand level for the purpose of
trapping coarse sand and water brought by flash-floods.
• May be built several metres high during rainy seasons, thus
enlarging the sand and water storage to many thousands of cubic
metres.
• Require high banks on each side of the sand-river because they
will raise the sand and water level.
The correct siting of both types of dams is important for
minimizing the construction work and maximizing the storage
capacity of sand rivers. Good potential dam sites include:
1. locations on ephemeral (seasonal) sand river (dry river
bed) which is periodically flooded during a
normal rainy season
2. river beds comprising coarse sand, as this has large voids
for maximum storage of water – the finer the sand the
less water it can store
3. Sites free of boulders, fractured or saline rocks.
4. Locations where existing water holes remain for at least
a month after the rains.
Stone-masonry sand dam
6.3 Selecting Appropriate Systems

• Topography
• Soil type
• How water is to be drawn from storage
• Climate (evaporation rate, rainfall
amount)
• Amount of water required