Characterization of Harvested Rainwater Quality from Seoul City – Korea

Rainwater harvesting is currently practiced widely in several countries worldwide on scales that vary according to rainwater availability as a mean of providing on-site supply of fresh water for isolated areas or those lacking proper water supply system. Different factors affect the quality of harvested rainwater mainly the multi-components of the collection system installed. In order to breakdown and assess the effects of different collection stages on collected water to be further supplied to served communities, wet deposition, bulk deposition, roof catchment area, and storage time were investigated on a currently installed system in Seoul National University in South Korea. Results showed that cations and anions accumulations resulted from both wet and bulk depositions while heavy metals were 3 to 7 times higher in bulk deposition, all being less than allowable limits for potable quality. Heterotrophic plate counts and coliforms were detected and increased with storage time, similarly were alkalinity and hardness, other parameters being relatively stable following storage. The study denotes the system capability of providing reliable source of water supply while recommending precautions to be considered.