When I was in 3^rd year diploma, I first heard the Term “Rain Water harvesting”.

It was one of the subjects for presentation competition. I searched it on internet and found it very important and interesting.

     Rain water harvesting means collecting and using the rain water instead of letting it run off.  The rain water can be collected from roofs, rivers, and many other places and stored to wells, containers etc. This collected water can be used for gardening, daily use, household purposes and for drinking too after proper processing. Some places in Maharashtra, even after average rain in rainy season, shortage of water occurs every year. These places are ideal for Rain water harvesting projects. With help of the collected water, we can even recharge the ground water sources and use these sources as per requirement. In societies or row houses it can be  more effectively installed and is useful. The cities like Mumbai, Pune where rain is in sufficient amount and have many housing societies. Nearly in every summer, many cities  face water shortage. If housing societies in these cities adopt Rain water harvesting and use it effectively , they will never face water shortage ever.

       

As shown in the picture, each building can install its own collecting system and it will help to solve water problem of each family living in that building.

Generally the system has following parts:

1] Catchment areas.

2] Collecting gutters.

3] Storage containers.

4] filtering units.

5] Final usage.

1] Catchment areas:

        These can be anything. Roofs, ground etc. generally rain water gets run off or gets sucked by earth. Here in these systems we don’t let water to run off. The water fallen on catchment areas is collected with the help of collection units. The following image shows the clear idea of catchment.

2] Collecting gutters are the units which help to collect the water fallen on the catchment areas. Above image gives idea about that also. 

    

 3] Storage of this collected water can be done in various ways. We can use big containers to store water, we can prepare special storage areas underground , leading up to that, we can even recharge our ground water sources with help of collected water. 

 

  4] Filtering is essential before directly using the stored water. Filtering can be done in traditional way.

with help of proper filtering , this water can be used for drinking. 

Advantages

1. During regional water shortage, provides independent water supply.
2.  In drought, it is useful
3.  Helps to save water.
4.  wastage of water can be avoided. 
5.  If large amount of water is collected then we can even use it for agricultural applications.
6.  In schools, companies, private as well as government institutes can install and use water efficiently.

Rain water harvesting in India:

1.        In Bangalore, it is compulsory to install it for new owners of buildings having dimensions of buildings more then certain limit.
2.   Also in Tamil nadu, this law is medatory
3.   In Rajasthana, it has been traditionally used by people.
4.  In pune and  Mumbai, new buildings are made compulsory to install these systems.