RAIN WATER HARVESTING

– SUMIT SHARMA
B.C.A. – IInd Semester – 31208
Rainwater harvesting involves the collection and storage of rainwater into the natural
resources or artificial resources in order to prevent the surface water runoff.

Rain water harvesting is a technique used for collecting and storing rainwater by using
various means in different resources for the further use purpose (like cultivation, etc).Rain
water can be collected into the natural resources or artificial tanks. Another method of
collection is infiltration of surface water into the subsurface aquifers before getting lost by
surface overflow. Rooftop harvesting is also a method to collect rainwater. It is of big
importance to the people living in the less rainfall areas. They can continue seasonal crop
harvesting using collected rain water even in the lack of regular water supply. Whenever it
rains, rain water gets collected into the man made ponds or tanks.

Following are the benefits of rainwater harvesting at individual or city-wide level:

 It helps in reducing the water supply bills especially to the institutions.

 Rainwater recharged to the ground positively affects groundwater quality by diluting
fluorides, nitrates and its salinity.
 It contains almost neutral pH and zero hardness which makes it more able to be used
in homes, industries, institutions and other commercial establishment.
 It may reduce the stress of public water supply sources.
 Recharge of rainwater to the ground prevents sea-water immersion into the fresh
bodies in the coastal areas.
 It helps in controlling urban flooding if people do rainwater harvesting from
rooftops.
 It reduces water demands of people from the municipality thus lessens energy
consumption too in distributing water all through the city.
 It helps in reducing water supply loads and electricity bills of municipality, improve
free water supply, crop production in rural areas.
 Rain water harvesting system helps in reducing the insecurity of households or
individuals in the rural areas.
 It provides easy and low cost water supply in the lack of water supply in the lack of
water areas thus helps in food security and income generation.

Tamil Nadu is one of the states of India and now has been first Indian state where rainwater
harvesting has been mandatory. Tamil Nadu state government has declared on 30 th of May
2014 to establish around 50,000 rainwater harvesting structures at various places in the
Chennai. Till now, approximately 4,000 of the temples in the Tamil Nadu have rain water
tanks serving at various rituals in temples and help in recharging the groundwater.
Why Rain Water Harvesting is Necessary:

Rain water harvesting is very necessary to be practiced by the people in all regions. It is
good to reduce the fear of water scarcity in the future.

Following are the points proving the fact that why rain water harvesting is necessary:

 Surface water cannot fulfil the demand of water for various purposes.
 Everyone depend on the ground water for their every need.
 Rain water conservation maintains the level of water in natural water resources.
 It reduces the chance of flooding of water on the roads, reduces the risk of soil
erosion and improves the quality of water.

Following are main techniques of rain water harvesting:

 Collecting rainwater to the surface for future use.

 Recharging the ground water.

Collecting rain water to the surface is very effective and traditional techniques. It can be
done using small ponds, underground tanks, dams, weirs etc. However, ground water
recharging technique is a new concept of harvesting. It can be done using dug wells, pits,
trenches, hand pimps, recharge wells, recharge shafts, recharge lateral shafts with bore
wells, spreading technique (means spread of water to the stream, naala, etc).

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