Rainwater Capture Solutions in Rural Morocco

This thesis investigates the implementation of an architectural rainwater harvest solution to implement water stability on a small scale in a rural town in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Water Stability here is defined as “stabilising water resources according to water needs within a given community on an annual basis”. The project aims to reconnect the community to water, promote water scarcity awareness, and provide a modular rainwater capture system for households and irrigation, filtering, storing and recirculating water with solar water pumps to residents.

It also offers a shaded, evaporatively cooled space for community relaxation. The design is easily expandable and suitable for areas with limited resources. The project is based around detailed research into water in Morocco, practically and culturally. Its importance is heightened by its scarcity. It accesses most of its water through surface resources, and its hot dry climate means it has variable water access throughout the year. The design is tailored to specific water needs of the cluster of houses, having considered the water need of 75l per day per person in this context.

Water is considered in the project as it is valued in Morocco, both culturally, providing an evaporatively cooled, shaded space and practically, designed to move water out of the sun as fast as possible and into shade where it won't evaporate. Parametric design was used to specify the placement and lime content of paving bricks that would move water into channels which then move water to the filtration system. A water flow analysis was developed using grasshopper, which allowed the placement of these channels along natural gravity lines, eliminating the need for mechanical pumping of water when flowing downhill. Grasshopper was further used to develop an area to cover which would shade a given area through the five hottest months of the year. Difficult access in a rural area drives a design that is built with local materials where possible and as modular as possible to respond to complicated physical geography.

The modularity of the design also allows for this pilot project to be easily expandable across the rest of the town and further to make a larger impact on the country as a whole. This impact improves resilience in communities and improves democratisation of safe and drinkable water resources in rural areas with low access to these project.