Water Harvesting

Water has been harvested in India since ancient time. Evidences of this tradition are available in ancient texts, inscriptions, local traditions and archaeological remains. There is some evidence of advanced water harvesting systems even from pre-historic times. Traditional rain water harvesting structures were meant for collecting runoff and utilizing harvested water for irrigation, drinking and domestic purpose.

Rainfall water harvesting is the management of rain runoff involving harvesting of excess rain falling on land surface by creating a storage facility either in a field or in a constructed structure.

Basic principle of rain water harvesting is to collect the rain water where it falls, use it, and let it seep into the ground. In other words the main purposes of rainwater harvesting are to:

Ø Storing water for direct use.

Ø Ground water recharging

Type of rainwater harvesting:

i. Water collected from roof tops, courtyards and similar compacted to treated surfaces is used for domestic purposes or garden crops, or for ground water recharge.

ii. Micro- catchment water harvesting is a method of collecting surfaces runoff from a small catchment area and storing it in the root zone of an adjacent infiltration basin. The basin is planted with trees, bushes or with annual crops.

iii. Macro- catchment water harvesting, also called harvesting from external catchments, is the case where runoff from hill – slopes catchment is conveyed to the cropping located at hill foot flat terrain.