Using rain water for daily use was the habit of Vietnamese people in the past. However, nowadays, due to the environment pollution, the penetration of impurities during the collection and preservation, the rain water--especially in urban areas is now not clean enough for use.

The Institute of Science and Environmental Engineering under the University of Civil Engineering has successfully invented a technology which allows to turn rain water into safe clean water and the water for daily use and production, thus allowing to reduce flooding and save resources. With the technology, Hanoians have clean water to use, while the rare and precious water resource is not wasted.

The cheap resource

The learners at the Institute of Science and Environmental Engineering now have the habit of turning on the contact piece, then turning on the tap, getting water from the tap to drink. Especially, visitors are usually given the special gifts – the 20 liter tanks of clean water. This is the processed rain water, i.e. the water cleaned with a simple technology.

The rain water is the product got from the system on testing, collecting, processing and recycling rain water for urban water supply – the project of the cooperation between the Hanoi University of Civil Engineering and the Seoul National University SNU. With the technology using microfiltration membrane, the processing can churn out the high quality water which can satisfy the Ministry of Healthcare’s standards, serving people’s daily life well.

The staff here said that they have been using the rain water for the last two months instead of buying bottled water. Especially, rain water is the ideal material to make tea. If not boiling the water, it is still can be used as safe drinking water.

According to the institute’s experts, rain water is collected from the roof of the buildings in the campus of the school, about 500 square meters. The rain water runs along the pipes to the water container. After that, the water is processed with the MF technology and then goes through the pipeline system to the water tap.

The test, which was carried out within four months, showed that the processed water can meet the standards by the Ministry of Health in terms of pH, turbidity, organic matter content, heavy metals, pathogenic microorganisms. The processed water sample has been recognized by the Ministry of Health, and other relevant ministries as meeting the Vietnamese standards.

The solution for every family

Using rain water has become the habit of many people in the world. In South Korea, collecting and using rain water has become popular in 50 cities. In many localities, building rain water cisterns is a compulsory item for all construction works.

Scientists have pointed out that using rain water in urban areas would help a lot in reducing the flooding which may occur when an overly big volume of rain water running to the sewage pits at the same time. Meanwhile, this would supply a considerable volume of water to people, while the supply resources are getting depleted and polluted due to the waste, which has harmed people’s health.

Rain water cisterns can be built at public construction works, office buildings or apartment blocs and high rise buildings. Rain water can be used for different water, from cooking to watering, washing and other purposes.

As for families, using rain water is really a good solution to save money. Experts have estimated that a family can spend one million dong only to process rain water for daily life and drinking.

Chau Giang

(MONRE)