WATER HARVESTING

WATER HARVESTING

Rain Water Harvesting is a way to capture the

rain water when it rains, store that water above
ground or charge the underground and use it
later. This happens naturally in open rural
areas.
• It is a method which has been used since
ancient times and is increasingly being
accepted as a practical method of providing
potable water in development projects
throughout the world. It has wide application
also in urban and peri-urban areas where the
reliability and quality of piped water is
increasingly being questioned
• Traditionally, rainwater harvesting has been
practised in arid and semi-arid areas, and has
provided drinking water, domestic water, water
for livestock, water for small irrigation and a
way to replenish ground water levels. This
method may have been used extensively by the
Indus Valley Civilization.
Currently in China and Brazil, rooftop
rainwater harvesting is being practised for
use for all the above purposes
.
 Uses Of Water Harvested
• Rainwater harvesting in urban areas can have
manifold reasons. To provide supplemental water for
the city's requirement, to increase soil moisture levels
for urban greenery, to increase the ground water table
through artificial recharge, to mitigate urban flooding
and to improve the quality of groundwater are some of
the reasons why rainwater harvesting can be adopted
in cities. In urban areas of the developed world, at a
household level, harvested rainwater can be used for
flushing toilets and washing laundry. Indeed in hard
water areas it is superior to mains water for this. It can
also be used for showering or bathing. It may require
treatment prior to use for drinking.
 Ways To Harvest Water

• Capturing runoff from rooftops

• Capturing runoff from local catchments
• Capturing seasonal floodwaters from local

streams
• Conserving water through watershed
management
• In general, water harvesting is the activity of
direct collection of rainwater. The rainwater
collected can be stored for direct use or can be
recharged into the groundwater. Rain is the first
form of water that we know in the hydrological
cycle, hence is a primary source of water for us.
Rivers, lakes and groundwater are all.
• secondary sources of water. In present
times, we depend entirely on such
secondary sources of water. In the
process, it is forgotten that rain is the
ultimate source that feeds all these
secondary sources and remain ignorant of
its value. Water harvesting means to
understand the value of rain, and to make
optimum use of the rainwater at the place
where it falls
 BENEFITS

• Provide drinking water

• Provide irrigation water
• Increase groundwater recharge
• Reduce stormwater discharges, urban floods
and overloading of sewage treatment plants
• Reduce seawater ingress in coastal areas