RHELGAN · WATER SYSTEM SELECTION GUIDE
Select the pathway from the project, source and operating conditions.
This guide is for early project routing. It helps identify the right starting architecture before exact storage, treatment or pumps are selected.
Route by application
Choose the operating context first.
A school, clinic, emergency camp and permanent community can have the same population but very different demand patterns, continuity requirements and maintenance expectations.
Housing
Household and cluster systems built around source reliability, storage autonomy and maintainable pressure supply.
Education
Drinking, WASH, cleaning, kitchens, boarding and campus peaks considered together.
Healthcare
Water quality, critical uses, reserve volume, redundancy and monitoring take priority.
Community
Source, treatment, storage and distribution planned as one network with future growth visible.
Emergency
Rapid deployment, flexible storage, treatment, tap points, repair kits and simple operation.
Remote / off-grid
Solar pumping, source yield, storage resilience, spares and local operating skill drive the architecture.
Route by source
The source controls the treatment conversation.
These are investigation pathways, not automatic treatment recipes. Representative water analysis and the required finished-water use control final process selection.
| Source | First questions | Treatment position | Starting pathway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainwater | Catchment area, rainfall pattern, roof quality, first flush, storage autonomy | Screening / sediment / disinfection as required | Rainwater harvesting |
| Bore / groundwater | Yield, static + dynamic level, iron, manganese, hardness, salinity, microbiology | Source-specific; may include oxidation, filtration, softening, membrane or disinfection | Solar bore / community water |
| Surface water | Seasonality, turbidity, microbiology, organics and intake condition | Usually stronger pretreatment and disinfection; process depends on analysis | Community / engineered water |
| Municipal / delivered | Supply reliability, residual quality, refill interval and storage hygiene | Often storage / disinfection / pressure focus rather than full treatment | Housing / school / clinic / community |
| Brackish water | Salinity / TDS, scaling, pretreatment, reject route | Membrane process only after source analysis and pretreatment review | Engineered community / facility |
| Seawater | Intake, salinity, pretreatment, energy, remineralisation and reject route | Dedicated desalination pathway | Engineered project |
Route by storage
Use a class, then engineer the tank.
The storage classes help early procurement and space planning without turning a planning band into a fixed tank specification.
Compact Modular Storage
Up to approximately 20 m³
Small facilities, housing clusters and local storage
Facility Modular Storage
Approximately 20-50 m³
Schools, clinics, housing and small communities
Community Modular Storage
Approximately 50-100 m³
Community and institutional water systems
Large Community Storage
Approximately 100-200 m³
Larger community and development projects
Infrastructure Modular Storage
Approximately 200-500+ m³
Large developments and infrastructure programmes
Engineered Water Storage
Project-specific
Major storage requirements outside standard planning classes
Three selection rules
Avoid the shortcuts that create weak water systems.
Do not size from population alone.
Demand pattern, institutions, source reliability, autonomy and peak use matter.
Do not specify RO by habit.
Treatment should address measured source-water risks and the required finished-water standard.
Do not select a pump without a duty point.
Flow, total dynamic head, distribution geometry and operating mode control the pump.
RHELGAN · WATER SYSTEM SELECTION