Water conservation: why & how
Rainwater harvesting is technical term for conserving rainwater either for storage or for recharging ground water.
India with Its tropical monsoonal climate receives bountiful rainfall between June and September, enough to sustain people, forests and rivers for the rest of the year. Even when we have plenty of rainfall most of the regions face water crisis or water stress on varied levels, except for monsoon season. Each year during monsoon India relaxes and relishes freshwater when rivers start flowing and ground water level comes up. We tend to forget our droughts and water stress we faced only a month or two back. If only we harvest this freshwater during monsoon, we do not have to worry about water for the rest of the year.
Urban and semi urbanized areas are used to piped supply of water. This disconnect with natural sources of water made people apathetic and careless about rainwater harvesting. Water shortage directly affects drinking water availability, agriculture and food production, industrial production, daily activities of common people and economy. Disappearing natural water resources, tapping of every water resource for human consumption and usage, damming of rivers is severely affecting forests, river ecosystems and people who are dependent on natural sources of water.
The effectiveness of rainwater harvesting techniques are certain if applied appropriately as per terrain, topography, geology, and rainfall of the area. Some of the effective techniques which can be implemented for harvesting rainwater, on individual level or community level can be-
- Borewell Recharging or well recharging
- Rainwater harvesting structures
- Rain Water Harvesting (RWH ) from paved or unpaved areas
- Rejuvenation of local water bodies