All World
Gayatri Pariwar

Let Us Learn to Conserve Every Drop of Water

All of us are aware of the water crisis we face today. When we have sufficient rainfall in monsoon, we might be temporarily unaware of water problems, but as soon as rains stop, the water table goes down and we can potentially start facing scarcity of water from winter months itself. By the time summer approaches, these problems become more prominent and lead to serious trouble.

The reason for this is quite simple. When we see water all around during four months of monsoons, we forget about the issues that we face during the other eight months. We do not take any steps to preserve the rain water. This leads to rain water flowing into drains, streams, rivers and eventually to the ocean. As we ensure safe-keeping of all other things required for the family, we need to pay the same kind of attention to preserving water. This requires us to install rain water harvesting system so that the precious water during monsoons can be efficiently handled.

This will help us in safekeeping of the precious resource that we require for our sustenance – water. Water management and distribution has become a very essential aspect in present times. Since people are dependent on government to handle this system, there is serious lack of initiative and responsibility from individuals and groups. This has gradually put an end to rain harvesting tradition and methods that have been prevalent in our country for ages. Earlier, there was abundance of water.

Today, water sources are drying up because of our irresponsible behavior. This has led to reduction in volume of water as well as its quality. We have now reached a state where each and every drop of water is precious. Preserving these drops of water that we receive from nature as rainfall is the best way of water management.

In our country, we have been using traditional methods of water conservation like step well, katta, sand bores, bawdi, johad, lake, tank etc. These water sources were maintained by people themselves. In earlier days, water seepage on the surface itself ensured a natural way of replenishing the water table. Today, most of those surfaces, being made of concrete, prevent this process. That is why rain water cannot naturally seep into the ground and reach the depths of earth. Through rainwater harvesting, we can artificially make water reach inside the ground. This will raise the level of ground water. Rain water 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) and utilizing it for domestic needs.

Any person can collect and store rainwater in tanks made of plastic or cement. This water can then be sent below the earth surface to recharge and replenish the ground table. The water is made to reach the natural reservoirs present in the form of subsurface aquifers. A surface of 100 sqm in an area that receives 600mm of rainfall can collect 50,000 liters of water. This can easily meet the water requirements of a family of four members for 100 days.

To harness this method, a simple structure needs to be designed for collecting water. This water is in fact quite pure and can be used for drinking and other domestic needs after simple filtering. For the purpose of recharging, the rainwater collected on the terrace is sent beneath the surface of land using pumps. Depending on the nature and shape of the catchment area, filters and desilting chambers are used. In this manner, wells, pits and pipes are prepared for the process of recharging the land. This entire system needs to be cleaned and made ready before and after the monsoons. This cleaning is a simple and inexpensive process.

There are multiple techniques for water conservation. In the first method, the water that flows on surface and gets wasted in cities is collected by various means and introduced inside the ground to recharge and improve the water table. In the other method, wherever rainwater falls, it gets collected there itself. This is either collected in tanks or sent into artificial recharge system. The first rainfall of the season is flushed out because it contains the pollutants in the atmosphere and on the terrace.

Subsequently, the water is cleaned using the filter system. In the water harvesting system, water is transferred to the storage tank through pipes. The entrance of all the pipes is fitted with thin mesh. Flush devices and filters are also part of the system. There should also be a mechanism to detect the water level in the storage tank so that when it becomes full, water can be directed towards water recharging system. is a mesh and a bore inside the ground through which the water gets filtered and pumped 100 feet deeper.

In addition to this soak pit, the college management also installed a rainwater harvesting system in 2015. Using this, the water collected on the terraces flows through the pipe system into a huge tank. A 60 feet reverse pipe in the tank sends the water inside the ground. In Sahu Ramesh Girls Inter College, the water from wash basins is also pumped inside the ground through reverse boring. Through this rainwater harvesting system, 6000 liters of water reaches the earth core every one hour. The second example is of Dr. Narender Singh Sandhu, a retired Assistant professor of Patiala’s State Institute of Rural Development. He started water harvesting in the year 2006-07 at his home. He took the project from his home to different districts of the state and educated people about rain water harvesting. As a result of his training and awareness camps, more than 1500 people in different districts of Punjab have installed rain water harvesting systems in their houses.

Another example of rain water harvesting is the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The area of Bhavan is 133 hectares (1.33 square kilometers). 7000 people living here require a significant amount of water for their daily needs. 3000 tourists visit this monument every day. As a result, 20 lakh liters of water is required in Rashtrapati Bhavan every day. Since 35% of the water requirements were met with ground water, the water table here has gone down from 2 meters to 7 meters in the last decade. Today, an underground tank of 10 lakh liter capacity has been built here using rainwater harvesting. The water that overflows from this tank is systematically routed into two wells for recharging. The water accumulated on the terraces of staff quarters is also diverted into dry wells. 15 meter deep recharge shafts have also been constructed here. This has not only met the water requirements of Rashtrapati Bhavan but has also improved the ground water level by 1 meter.

If we can conserve the rain drops using these methods and send them back into the womb of Mother Earth, then we can easily solve the water crisis being faced today.