Storm water is produced during precipitation. It can also be gathered and processed for reuse, just like rainwater. But unlike rainwater, it is not collected from the roofs of buildings. It is gathered from surface waterways. Stormwater is also less preferred for reuse because it is exposed to much more pollutants and contaminants than rainwater. It accumulates contaminants as it flows along surfaces until it is discharged somewhere.
Stormwater is somewhat considered a resource, even though this is debatable owing to the fact that it is a major carrier of water pollutants. Perhaps it is considered a resource because of the quantity of water it supplies. There is a high demand for pure water across the world, and seeing that stormwater supplies in large quantity, there is a need to use adequate storm water harvesting system to extract pure usable water from stormwater. A system that is adequate enough to provide water in volumes sufficient to make a community self-sustaining.
Ground catchment system is perhaps the most preferred method of harvesting stormwater. It channels stormwater that has been trapped into a storage. From the storage, the water can be subjected to as many purification processes as is necessary or available. It is suitable for small communities, but not for individual family units unlike rainwater. Ground catchment system is quite easy to set-up, requiring little or no complex process.
Apart from stormwater being a souce of water supply, it is also a major source of worry to the environment. When the catchment system set up to trap stormwater is overwhelmed by the volume of water present, it can no longer hold any more water. The runoff is allowed to flow freely along surfaces. If the volume is so much, it can cause damages to surfaces, and in severe cases even lead to flooding.
Because stormwater accumulates so much pollutants as it flows along, it now becomes in itself a source of pollutant. It gathers materials deposited on roads and farmfileds and other such places. When the stormwater is eventually deposited in another water system, it infects that system or water body with whatever pollutant it has accumulated along its way.
