Natural Resources, 2020, 11, 156-167 https://www.scirp.org/journal/nr ISSN Online: 2158-7086 ISSN Print: 2158-706X DOI: 10.4236/nr.2020.114010 Apr. 23, 2020 156 Natural Resources Assessment of Rainwater Harvesting Reticulation Systems to Reduce High Management Costs in Household Buildings James Shikuku 1* , Gerryshom Munala 1 , Bernard Mugwima 1 , Teckla Muhoro 2 , Andrew Gremley 3 , Victor Nyakundi 1 , Muhammad Ali 1 1 Centre for Urban Studies, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya 2 Department of Construction Management, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultureand Technology, Nairobi, Kenya 3 Pharos Architects Ltd., Nairobi, Kenya Abstract Rainwater harvesting provides an important alternative source of water in household buildings which increases water security in urban areas. However, high energy cost consumption by the rainwater harvesting systems results in higher management costs which may derail the investment viability of these systems in households. This prompted this study to establish ways through which the management cost of rainwater harvesting systems can be mini- mized in household buildings. A survey of 200 households from Greenspan, Komarock, Utawala, Kileleshwa and Runda in Nairobi County was underta- ken as well as data on the type of rainwater harvesting systems, their opera- tion and maintenance cost collected using observation checklists and ques- tionnaires. The findings indicated that rainwater harvesting typologies 1, 2, 4 and 5 had their water pumped from first-level storage to the second-level storage then supplied to usage points by gravity. Whereas, typologies 3 and 6 had their water moved manually and by gravity respectively. On annual oper- ation cost, 100% of households with typology 3 and 6 spent no money whe- reas, 100%, 75% and 70.6% with typology 4 and 5, 1 and 2 respectively spent Ksh. 1 - 5000. On annual maintenance cost, 100%, 93.7% and 77.8% of households with typology 5 and 6, 3 and 4 respectively spent Ksh. 1 - 5000 while 25% and 22.2% of households with typology 1 and 2 respectively spent Ksh. 5000 - 10,000. Advanced typology 6 with one-level storage point supplies rainwater to all parts of the household by gravity. This eliminates operation costs spent on energy consumption due to pumping of water, thus mini- mizing overall management cost spent on rainwater harvesting systems in household buildings. How to cite this paper: Shikuku, J., Mu- nala, G., Mugwima, B., Muhoro, T., Grem- ley, A., Nyakundi, V. and Ali, M. (2020) Assessment of Rainwater Harvesting Reti- culation Systems to Reduce High Manage- ment Costs in Household Buildings. Natu- ral Resources, 11, 156-167. https://doi.org/10.4236/nr.2020.114010 Received: February 26, 2020 Accepted: April 20, 2020 Published: April 23, 2020 Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access