What is rainwater harvesting (RWH)?
Rainwater harvesting is a technique of collection and storage of rainwater into natural reservoirs or tanks or the infiltration of surface water into subsurface aquifers (before it is lost as surface runoff). RWH is a simple, easy and cost effective technique of aggregating water and delivering it to water resources like bore wells. RWH has the potential to overcome problems caused by drought and water scarcity.
Water and Rain
As much as 97% of the world’s total water is in oceans, 2% is locked in the polar caps and only the balance 1% is fresh water. Of this 1%, India’s share is 4% whereas our population share is 18% of the world’s population [1].
As much as 85% of drinking water schemes in rural areas of Maharashtra depend on groundwater. Due to the drought-like conditions over the last few years, groundwater extraction rate has exceeded the recharge rate. Desperate farmers are using tankers to irrigate pomegranate orchards in Solapur. Rains help to maintain the ground water table through natural percolation, besides maintaining surface water levels. RWH is expected to play a major role in bringing depleted water levels up.
Potential of rainwater harvesting
The average annual rainfall in India is about 1120 mm. Within Maharashtra, the average rainfall is about 1300 mm but varies between 400 mm and 6000 mm across the state. Using the state average of 1300 mm, the average annual RWH potential per acre would roughly be 4.4 million liters [2].
The total amount of water received in the form of rainfall over an area is called the rainwater endowment of that area. Out of this, the amount that can be effectively harvested is called the water harvesting potential.
NeeRain Rooftop Rain Water Filter
NeeRain rainwater filter is patent forwarded innovation that empowers common man to harvest fresh rainwater without human intervention, without electricity, without recurring expense at negligible labor cost and without maintenance headache.
NeeRain is India’s first No Water loss rainwater filter that is easy, economical, effective and efficient for harvesting fresh rainwater. Fix it yourself, plug and play design of NeeRain is ideal for common man to adopt and live water secure, healthy and happy life.
NeeRain fills the gap between fresh water availability and acute water crisis that our country is facing. Each premise can be equipped with NeeRain and can be easily transformed in water secure site. NeeRain saves the bore well without additional cost for years to gather.
Till date, NeeRain rainwater filters have helped save 30 crore liters of fresh water across India, Asia, Africa and America.
Vardhman Envirotech
India’s Passionate rainwater company
This article is published on: –
https://www.saveindianfarmers.org/rain-water-harvesting/
We would like to spread this for the benefit of fellow Indians.
The Author
Yashwantrao Yadav is a Doctoral Scholar from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai working on Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Farming. Inputs from Col. Shashi Kant Dalvi are acknowledged