How to Save Rain Water ?

How to do RWH ( Rain Water Harvesting ) :

In Cities : If you live in a single dwelling house or a multi-tenant apartment complex, you already have 80% of the RWH system. We just need re-orient the plumbing design.The present design of the house will take all the rainwater from the roof and all the ground level areas surrounding the house and flow the water towards the street. (where it floods the street,clogs the storm drains and sewer lines for a few days, before flowingaway as sewage water) .From the roof tops, bring the rainwter down using closed PVC pipes and direct it to a sump. Include a simple 3-part filteration unit consisting of sand, brick jelly and broken mud bricksIf you do not have sump, use a well. In many parts of the country, old wells when they go dry, is used as garbage dumps. Please clean the well and put the rain water into it.

If you do not have a well, construct a baby well (about 2ft in diameter and about 16 feet deep based on soil structure)

Other types of RWH - collect the ground water and stop their flow at the gate. Put a concrete slab with holes in it, build a 2 feet deep pit, across the full width of the gate. Collect and connect a pipe and flow the water to a well or a baby well.

In Rural Areas : Build community wells in a few places in the village. Within 10-20 feet from the well, construct a bore-well using a hand-operated pump. Educate the villagers to keep the area around the well and the bore well clean - no washing (human, cattle, motor cycles, clothing), no defecation.

If there are existing water tanks in the village, desilt and dredge them every 3 years. If there are any small rivers or streams, build check-dams across them to hold the rain water for usage after the rains have stopped.

What is Water Harvesting ?

It means capturing rain where it falls or capturing the run off in your own village or town. And taking measures to keep that water clean by not allowing polluting activities to take place in the catchment.
Therefore, water harvesting can be undertaken through a variety of ways

• Capturing runoff from rooftop
• Capturing runoff from local catchments
• Capturing seasonal floodwaters from local streams
• Conserving water through watershed management

These techniques can serve the following the following purposes:

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

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.