Abstract
One of the major obstacles confronted in promoting the rainwater harvesting is the concerns of acid rain and heavy metals. Although there are many data concerning the quality of rainwater precipitation for the study of acid rain, the study on the quality of stored rainwater has been limited. In this study, we monitored the quality of stored rainwater at Galmoe middle school, where a rainwater harvesting system is installed and in use for more than two years. We measured water quality parameters such as pH, Electro Conductivity(EC), Dissolved Oxygen(DO), and some metals (aluminium (Al), chromium(Cr), manganese(Mn), zinc(Zn), copper(Cu), arsenic(As), cadmium(Cd), lead(Pb)). The monitoring period was during one year from September 9th 2003 to August 5th 2004. It was observed that the average pH of stored rainwater is neutral. DO is similar to tap water and EC is lower than tap water. Metal Concentrations are within the concentration specified in Drinking Water Quality Standard. Overall, the stored rainwater quality is good enough for sundry use and there's no threat of acid rain and air pollution, if the rainwater harvesting system is well designed and maintained.