Effectiveness of tamarind seed powder and ceramic filters as a cost effective way of rainwater purification

Abstract

Water shortage is a big challenge in most of the developing countries. Water scarcity problems are mainly faced by Arid and semi-arid regions. Based on precipitation intensity data of many places across the globe, it is evident that rainwater is a potential solution to water scarcity. On the other hand, the quality rainwater is reduced due to anthropologic activities and natural processes such as industrialization, agriculture, runoff, leaching, corrosion etc., and yet most people don’t attend to its quality before using it for consumption. This study was meant to assess the effectiveness of tamarind seed powder as a natural coagulant used with ceramic filters in rain water purification as an attempt to find a cost-effective way of rainwater treatment. Rainwater samples were collected from different environments i.e., roof runoff, courtyard harvest and rock harvest and were characterized by doing selected physical, chemical, and biological analysis from the laboratory. The characterized rainwater was first passed through a ceramic filter only without any form of treatment and then passed through the filter after coagulation with tamarind seed powder. Laboratory analysis after treatment showed that the pollutant reduction efficiency of ceramic filter with coagulation was more effective than that without coagulation. However, a reversal removal efficiency was registered when it came to zinc where its constituent increased instead of reducing. The quality of rain water was found to reduce as it moves from rooftop to rock harvest then finally to courtyard harvest. This calls for top-down approach of rain water utilization and more comprehensive research should be done over a long period of time so as to best characterize the rain water harvested from the different catchment environments