Rainwater Harvesting | It’s

Importance | Different
techniques
by | Posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2017

INTRODUCTION
Nature has endowed India with huge water resources. We have perennial rivers like Ganga,
Brahmaputra, Yamuna, Beas and others along with their tributaries and distributaries besides in
North and Eastern India. However, we also have spring fed and rain fed rivers in central and
peninsular India, the major among these being- Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Tapti and Kaveri. These
huge potential water resources not withstanding, we are facing a water crisis across the country. Over
the years, rising population, growing industrialisation and expanding agriculture have pushed up the
demand for water. Monsoon is still the main hope of our agriculture.

Nowadays, people have been depended on the government system of water supply for getting water
for their every need. The present scenario of water management and distribution in the cities has been
centralized by the government. This has brought a big gap of community responsibility in water
management. It has slowly but regularly finished the old traditional water harvesting system.

WHAT IS RAINWATER HARVESTING?

Rainwater harvesting is the collection and storage of rain water in the natural resources or artificially
designed resources to prevent water runoff. It also means fulfilling the lack of water in future. The
quantity of water harvesting is affected by the number of factors like frequency of rainfall, the quantity
of rainfall, the way of collecting rain water, and size of resources to collect water. The ground water
level is getting depleted day by day due to various reasons like deforestation and ecological imbalance.
Increasing level of urbanization and industrialization constantly increases the demand for water
supply, especially in the urban areas. It results in the overuse of ground water and thus going low
level. The risk of water scarcity in the future has been increased to a great extent. This can be life
threatening if some effective solutions are not followed.
Rain water harvesting is very necessary to be practised by the people in all regions. It is good to reduce
the fear of water scarcity in the future. Some of the reasons why rain water harvesting is important
are:

 Surface water alone cannot fulfil the demand for water

 It maintains the level of natural water resources
 Reduces the chance of flooding of water on the roads
 Also, reduces the salinity of water by avoiding it getting mixed with sewage
 This further reduces the risk of soil erosion.

TECHNIQUES
The two techniques incorporated for rain water harvesting are:

 Collecting rainwater to the surface for future use: Collecting rain water to the surface is very
effective and traditional technique. It can be done using small ponds, underground tanks, dams,
weirs etc.
 Recharging ground water: However, ground water recharging technique is a new concept of
harvesting. It can be done using dug wells, pits, hand pumps, recharge wells, recharge shafts,
recharge lateral shafts with bore wells, spreading technique. Spreading technique broadly means
spread of water to the stream, nala, etc.
Rainwater harvesting systems can range in complexity, from systems that can be installed with
minimal skills, to automated systems that require advanced setup and installation. The basic
rainwater harvesting system is more of a plumbing job than a technical job, as all the outlets from the
building terrace are connected through a pipe to an underground tank that stores water. Systems are
ideally sized to meet the water demand throughout the dry season since it must be big enough to
support daily water consumption. Specifically, the rainfall capturing area such as a building roof must
be large enough to maintain an adequate flow of water. The water storage tank size should be large
enough to contain the captured water.
IMPORTANCE OF RAINWATER HARVESTING
Humans need to water to survive. Our body is approximately 60 percent water, the brain is 70
percent water, and our lungs are nearly 90 percent water. It is literally impossible for us to survive
without it.

Hence it becomes extremely important to conserve water. These days Government is striving hard to
promote rainwater harvesting. But it is our responsibility to follow that. Water is almost on the verge
of extinction. Adverse climatic conditions, global warming are all affecting the water cycle. It is said
that harvesting the rainwater can provide around 50 per cent of a family’s water needs. Therefore
conservation of water is a must and rainwater harvesting is an efficient method.

FACTS
Tamil Nadu is one of the states of India which practises this. But now it has been first Indian state
where rainwater harvesting has been mandatory. Tamil Nadu state government has declared on
30th of May 2014 to establish around 50,000 rainwater harvesting structures at various places in the
Chennai. In Bangalore, adoption of rainwater harvesting is mandatory for every owner or the occupier
of a building having the site area measuring 60 ft (18.3 m) X 40 ft (12.2 m) and above and for newly
constructed building measuring 30 ft (9.1 m) X 40 ft (12.2 m) and above dimensions.

Availability of sufficient water in an area does not mean that water supply will be there forever. If the
favourable conditions disappear because of natural causes or human activities, there can be a
shortage. Cherrapunji was famous for receiving the largest volume of rainfall in the world, and it still
is but experiences acute water shortage. This is the result of extensive deforestation and due to the
reason, that water conservation method is not used. Similarly, if there is an acute water shortage in
some region, it does not mean that it will continue to experience such shortage forever. This actually
happened in a part of Rajasthan state. It does not receive even one-fourth for rainfall received in
Cherrapunji but has more water available. Therefore, proper water conservation methods are adopted,
the shortage can be reversed or at least reduced
CONCLUSION
Gradually conditions are improving as proper methods of conserving and harvesting rainwater is
followed. But this has to be practised nationwide to protect our country from the brink of
desertification. The revival of the river has transformed the ecology of the place and consequently, of
the people living there. If such efforts by the people are supplemented by proper plans and
implementation by the government, water shortage in India can be sorted out.