Water is the foundation of life on earth, from nourishing all living organisms to supporting the cultivation of food, water is crucial for our survival. Agricultural production consumes almost 70 percent of the world’s fresh water supply. As the world’s population increases and the demand for food goes up, it is bound to create water scarcity. The monsoon showers usually inundate the fields. The rainwater is allowed to stand in the fields and sometimes being useful it usually causes harm to fields until the sowing time.

Water conservation and storage is an important key element of any strategy that aims to alleviate the water scarcity crisis in India. With rainfall patterns changing and getting influenced almost every year, the Indian government and organizations have started looking at means to revive, store and conserve the traditional systems of water harvesting in the country. 

PAST PRACTICES

In India, there have been water conservation practices from the ancestral period. Some of them are like

• The TANK system is traditionally the backbone of agricultural production in arid and semi-arid areas collecting rainwater and are constructed either by bunding or by excavating the ground.

• These Khadin for places like West Rajasthan, which are large bunds, created like a reservoir which can be emptied at the end of the monsoon season to cultivate, a similar system called “Ahar” developed in the state of Bihar.

Johads one of the oldest systems used to conserve and recharge groundwater, are small earthen check dams that capture and store rainwater.

• Kund is a saucer-shaped catchment area that gently slopes towards the central circular underground well. Its main purpose is to harvest rainwater for drinking.

CURRENT PRACTICES

• Jalkund: – Rainwater can be stored directly in the jalkunds during the rainy season which can be utilized to provide protective irrigation to the crops for successful cultivation. Otherwise, it may cause soil erosion and nutrient loss through runoff.

• Storage facility: – There are various options available for the construction of these tanks concerning the shape, size, and material of construction.

• Mini roof rainwater harvesting system: – Mini roof rainwater harvesting for vegetable production: Mini roof water harvesting is suited to areas where the periods of water scarcity for the crop last on average less than eight weeks and where precipitation rates are high. This system is most suitable to small and micro-farms operated long distances from the home, where rainwater harvesting is the only alternative to access supplementary water for irrigation. 

• Soakaways / Percolation pit:- Percolation pits, one of the easiest and most effective means of harvesting rainwater, are generally not more than 60 x 60 x 60 cm pits, (designed based on expected runoff as described for settlement tanks), filled with pebbles or brick jelly and river sand, covered with perforated concrete slabs wherever necessary.

• Collapsible Pillow Tanks: – The collapsible pillow tank is perfect for temporary liquid storage as it is quick and easy to deploy and fill. Once used the collapsible pillow tank can be emptied, cleaned, folded, and stored, or moved to a new location.

• Warka Water towers: – Warka water, a bamboo structure designed to collect/harvest potable water from the air.

• Rain water collector : – RAIN WATER is a portable and combination device used to collect water from the rain. Once the RAIN WATER COLLECTOR is op-ered, when the rain water touch its direction switch and the water flows into the sink, then the water is collected.

• Prototype 2 (Rain water storage system) :- Our own organization have come up with a solution/prototype which will not only be collecting but also storing the Rainwater in a very simple procedure.