Case study: Rainwater utilization and water saving design of a village

As one efficient way to address water scarcity problem for some area in the world, the utilization of nontraditional water resources do both alleviate the ecological deterioration and exploit new water resources as well as meet rising water demand. A case was introduced in which rainwater was utilized in Maquanying village, which is far from urban of Beijing. Agricultural water use account for the majority of entire water consumption in Maquanying village, and most of them is derived from ground water wells. Therefore, excessive extract causes the problem of imbalance of water cycle and bad local ecological environment. The rainwater as the alternate could replace part of tap water used for agricultural irrigation and water landscape, with reducing the extraction from groundwater, moreover, this strategy maintains the stability of geological ecology and benefits village's socio-economic sustainable development. As well, the economic benefit is remarkable for Maquanying village residents. This project will play a positive role of demonstration for other villages in using rainwater, especially for villages where the water resources can not meet the mounting water demand. This paper also states other water saving planning and technological strategies for Maquanying village, such as using water efficient fixtures in kitchen and toilets of residents, using rooftop rainwater in courtyard for greening belt sprinkling etc. In sum, the rainwater amount used and collected from Cunbei wood area of Maquanying village approaches 6249m³/a, and 23221m³/a harvested from near village Hegezhuang but used in Maquanying. While rooftop rainwater collected reaches 1770m³/a that will practice in around 10 single-family households to reduce potable water consumption in yard greening. As a result, the total potable water saving amount for Maquanying village is up to 146434m³/a.