A Sustainability Assessment of the Rainwater Harvesting System for Drinking Water Supply: A Case Study of Cukhe Village, Hanoi, Vietnam

In Cukhe, a village located in the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam, people suffer from a shortage of high-quality water due to an arsenic contaminated supply water resource. We installed catchments, filters and settled tanks in the existing rainwater harvesting facility to improve water quality, and ten portable rainwater tanks to provide good-quality drinking water to the poor households and kindergartens in the dry season. The triple bottom line considerations, as well as the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems are examined. RWH is a sustainable method to obtain good-quality drinking water at low cost and with little energy expenditure. Education of the system also encourages that continuation of the system and expansion can lead into economic prosperity, as the safe drinking water can be sold to the community. Hence, RWH is a unique proposal as sustainable drinking supply water for improving the lives and health of residents in Cukhe and other sites where water supply sources are contaminated. KCI Citation Count: 0