Rainwater Harvesting

             Rainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing, of rainwater. It has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock, water for irrigation or to refill aquifers in a process called groundwater recharge. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses, tents and local institutions, can make an important contribution to the availability of drinking water. Water collected from the ground, sometimes from areas which are especially prepared for this purpose, is called Stormwater harvesting. In some cases, rainwater may be the only available, or economical, water source.

     Rainwater harvesting systems can be simple to construct from inexpensive local materials, and are potentially successful in most habitable locations. Roof rainwater can be of good quality and may not require treatment before consumption. Although some rooftop materials may produce rainwater that is harmful to human health, it can be useful in flushing toilets, washing clothes, watering the garden and washing cars; these uses alone halve the amount of water used by a typical home.

              There are a number of types of systems to harvest rainwater ranging from very simple to the complex industrial systems. The rate at which water can be collected from either system is dependent on the plan area of the system, its efficiency, and the intensity of rainfall (i.e. annual precipitation (mm per annum) x square meter of catchment area = litres per annum yield) … a 200 square meter roof catchment catching 1,000mm PA yields 200 kLPA.

              Make Rain water harvesting a must for all houses and offices in urban cities. Urban cities in India are facing dual problems. Firstly they face acute shortage of water during first half of year and then there is flooding of streets during rainy seasons due to improper and inadequate drainage system. Some cities in India like New Delhi, Bangalore have incorporated rain harvesting policies in their state policies. However what remains a fact is that rain water harvesting is not widely acknowledged across most other major cities. The ill-organized drainage systems do not trap surface water and most of the surface water flows into drains and therefore there is not much recharging of the under-ground water.

Rain water harvesting comes with many benefits

1.    Provides ideal solution in places where the ground water level is low or there is inadequate surface resources to trap the ground water.

2.    Reduces urban flooding

3.    Improves quality of ground water

4.    Prevents water stagnation

5.    Prevents wastage of water

6.    Improves plant growth

Mentioned below are few low-cost measures which would cost just a few thousand rupees which is quite affordable for urban citizens-

1.    Bore wells

2.    Pits

3.    Trenches

4.    Dug wells

5.    Water Tanks