Recharge Wells Innovation for Domestic Rainwater Harvesting

In the era of millennium, one of the global strategic issues in the world is represented by the ground water crisis, especially in the urban city. The main causes are the changes of land use from an agrarian region into an industrial area, climate change, economic growth, development of infrastructure on a large scale followed by an increase in population, land use, decreasing of catchment areas, the exploitation of natural resources including the water resources, and finally leads to the global groundwater crisis. Models of ground water conservation have been developed; however, the implementation should be adapted with the characteristics and type of the subsurface soil, nature of recharge water and the local wisdom. One of the simple water conservation programs is by the rainwater harvesting through recharge wells. Through ergonomics participatory approach, two types of domestic recharge wells have been designed based on the hydrological data in Denpasar City-Indonesia. Result of analyses showed that both types effective in rainwater harvesting and can meet the water demand of household in Denpasar City. Type 1 (concrete pipe) is much more effective than type 2 (HDPe pipe). Type 1 met about 362.648 m(2) of covered land, while type 2 was about 134.056 m(2) of covered land. However, people prefer to build type 2 because of the availability of land, technological and workforce readiness, and the flexibility.