See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/260034837

Rainwater Harvesting: An Effective Tool for Water Crises & its Management in
India Scenario

Article · February 2014

CITATIONS READS

0 2,530

4 authors, including:

Santosh Shukla Abhishek Mishra

20 PUBLICATIONS   46 CITATIONS   
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
200 PUBLICATIONS   1,369 CITATIONS   
SEE PROFILE
SEE PROFILE

Dr Prakash Chandra Tewari

Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences, Sultanpur, India
12 PUBLICATIONS   15 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Academic excellence View project

Give me suggestions for Double gate tunnel for mechanical charateristics View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Dr Prakash Chandra Tewari on 05 February 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

On line Journal International Journal of Advanced Research and Technology (2013), Volume 1, Issue 1, 10-13
Journal homepage: http://www.ijartjournal.com

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Rainwater Harvesting: An Effective Tool for Water Crises & its Management in India Scenario
Abhishek Mishra1, Satyavrat Shukla2, Santosh Shukla3 and Prakash Chandra Tewari*4
(*Corresponding author) Dr. Prakash Chandra Tewari, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Kamla Nehru Institute of
Physical and Social Sciences, Sultanpur (U.P.) India: Phone: +91-8004134133: Email:Prakash_envscholar@gmail.com
1
Department of Environmental Sciences, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences, Sultanpur (U.P.) India: Phone: +91-7897500621:
Email:
2
amishra.924@gmail.com
Department of Environmental Sciences, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences, Sultanpur (U.P.) India: Phone: +91-8005391041:
Email: satyavrat1189@gmail.com
3
Department of Environmental Sciences, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences, Sultanpur (U.P.) India: Phone: +91-8543831617:
Email: santoshshuklaenviro@gmail.com

Manuscript Info Abstract

Manuscript History:
Received: Aug, 10 2013
Final Accepted: Aug 28, 2013
Published Online: September Issue
Key words:
Rain water harvesting, water crisis,
agro-climatic regions, sub-surface
recharge
In coming era, the human civilization is now going to face the serious problem related to their
next basic necessity ‚the water crises‛. The rate of exploitation is far greater as compare to the
rate of recharge and preservation. The data of various International Organization were at
warning stages more than 100 million people on the globe were suffering from water crises, this
is just a simple data for drinking water scarcity but when we consider the other daily as well as
industrial requirements such as bathing, washing clothes, cooking, manufacturing operations
etc., then context is very jeopardize for the estimation of water foot prints of entire civilization
of this planet. Clean drinking water supplies is one among the major identified inhibitors to
progress and economic development is the lack of access to adequate, even the severity of this
problem indirectly related to the third world war. The data source of National Data Centre, India
Meteorological Department, Pune shows the values of 25-year average for a period of
approximately between early eighties and early two thousands which is rapidly seasonal decline
even due to climate change but it is still enough for recharging of ground water sources in India
which are the major source of our domestic and agricultural need in present scenario. There
were several methods of conservation among which some of them are effectively and efficiently
working but the present need is to enhance these methodologies at ground level by introducing
sound technologies at local approaches, which would be enable poor households in the
community to supplement their water supply needs as well as engage in small scale backyard
gardening even for monoculture practices that extend their cropping seasons through improved
security of water resources, ultimately enhancing food security and contributing to ground water
recharge.

Copy Right, IJART, 2013, All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION
1. Distribution and Chemical Composition:
The present population of our county is now 1,24,14,91960 and in
every second increasing drastically and is expected to reach 2
billion by the year 2050. Due to rapid growth in population,
urbanization and industrialization and agricultural practices rate of
exploitation of ground water is drastic. In India, about 90% of
annual rainfall occurs during the summer monsoon which starts
from July to September where rest of the month country gets rarely
a drop of water. According to a survey, South Delhi tubes well were
dug at depth of more than 200 meters similarly in Chennai water
level has gone up to 3 to 6 meters every year. Slowly or gradually
now, this is becoming story of each and every city and state in India
every year. An estimation of demand suggests that the drinking
water requirement of rural habitation alone would be 29 billion
cubic meters in 2050 against the present requirements of 10 billion
cubic meters. Meeting this demand of water for all is a challenging
task because of heterogeneous distribution of land areas. There were
several methods of conservation among which some of them are 10
effectively and efficiently working but the present need is to
enhance these methodologies at ground level by introducing sound
technologies at local approaches, which would be enable poor
households in the community to supplement their water supply
needs as well as engage in small scale backyard gardening even for
monoculture practices that extend their cropping seasons through
improved security of water resources, ultimately enhancing food
security and contributing to ground water recharge[1]. In present
investigation, the factors responsible for the water crises and onsite

Mishra, et al., 2013

10
On line Journal International Journal of Advanced Research and Technology (2013), Volume 1, Issue 1, 10-13
Journal homepage: http://www.ijartjournal.com
rainwater harvesting program was studied for recharging ground
water via rain water harvesting in different agro-climatic zones of
India.
Factors responsible for water crisis in India
The overexploitation of ground water in the country has led to
warning decline in ground water level and consequent stress on
ground water resources [2]resulting in a great threat to ground water
sources sustainability . Several factors responsible for this
depletion are as
1. Rough use of precious water treating it as an open and
endless commodity.
2. Lack of awareness among societies about the need and
deed of ground water.
3. Excessive drawls of ground water without having
appropriate mechanism for recharge.
4. Meeting demand for irrigation, industrial and other
purposes.
5. Lack of scientific input and management protocols.
6. Less or no electricity tariff for agricultural and industrial
operation.
7. Over exploitation without considering recharge [3].
Harvesting techniques
In India, rain water harvesting was first introduced by the Andhra
Pradesh ex- Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. On the basis of
techniques involved the rainwater harvesting is categorized into two
main types
a) Rainwater storage on surface
b) Recharge to sub surface
The storage of rainwater on surface is traditional technique and
structures used such as weirs, underground tanks, check dams, etc.
whereas recharge to ground water is an advance concept of
rainwater harvesting and the structure basically used are rainwater
recharge bore well technique, trench cum filter bore well technique,
ditch and furrow, aquifer modification, stream augmentation,
village tanks, pits and shafts, trench, hand pumps, recharge bore
holes and wells, lateral shafts with bore wells, spreading techniques,
nalla bunding, contour bunding, contour trench, gully plugging,
check dams, basin or percolation tanks, Gabian structure, inter
water shed transfer, roof top harvesting, de-silting of tanks, dug well
recharge, connected wells, injection wells, ground water dams etc[2].
Mishra, et al., 2013
Suggested water harvesting techniques for different agro-climatic
zones of India:
Indian economic is directly depending upon agriculture and its
practices were depending on rainwater directly or indirectly. The
country on the basis of availability of rain water for agricultural
ground is classified into sixteen different agro-climatic zones in
Table-1and moreover, as agro-climatic conditions, hydrogeology of
the regions, local traditions and customs vary and it is difficult task
to prescribe a single type of rainwater harvesting structure for
sustainability of sources [3]
Selection and implementation of rainwater harvesting deigns
1. The following factors should be taken into protocols
while deigning a rainwater harvesting structures
a) Availability of water and rainfall pattern of the
zone
b) Topography and hydrogeology
c) Percolation and vadose zone properties
d) Hydrologic characteristic of the aquifers
e) Techno-economic feasibility
2. Implementation of rainwater structures should follow the
following protocols
a) General survey including contour, hydro-
geological, soil, land and hydrological survey.
b) Remote sensing, monitoring using satellite
imagery.
c) Specific design analysis by scientific involvement
and technological development.
Calculation for Rain water Harvesting potential
Here’s how to estimate annual water supply for a
rainwater harvesting structure [4]
Collection area (sq.ft) x rainfall (in/yr.) / 12(in/ft) =
Cubic feet of water/year
Cubic feet/Year x 7.43 (gallons/cubic foot) =
Gallons / year
11
On line Journal International Journal of Advanced Research and Technology (2013), Volume 1, Issue 1, 10-13
Journal homepage: http://www.ijartjournal.com

S.No. Agro-climatic zones Suggested rainwater harvesting

1. Humid north western Himalayas Water storage structure , Village pond/tanks, Roof water harvesting
2. Himalayas foot hills Contour trenching, Collection from hill slopes, Village ponds
3. Humid high rainfall north eastern zone Storage tanks, Roof top harvesting
4. Humid Assam- Bengal Plains Gully plugging, Contour bunding, Tanks, check dams
5. Sub- humid and humid Sutlej-Ganga Alluvial Ponds, Contour bunding, Check dams, Gully plugging
zone
6. North-Western semi arid and arid zone Gully bunding, Nadi/ talab, Khadin, Tanka , Contour bunding,
Percolation tank
7. Central semi-arid vindhyan Check dams, Ponds, Gully bunding, Sub-surface dykes,
Contour bunding
8. High rainfall high runoff choota Nagpur Check dams, Tanks/ponds, Contour bunding, Gully plugging
plateau
9. Malwa plateau and Narmada basin Check dams, Sub-surface dams, Ponds
10. South central Deccan plateau zone Bandhra, Check dams, Sub-surface dams, Contour bunding, Ponds,
Percolation tanks, Gully plugging
11. Chhattisgarh plateau zone Ponds, Contour bunding, Gully plugging, Check dams, Bandhra,
Percolation tanks, Sub-surface dams
12. South eastern brown/ red soil Sub-surface dam, Traditional pond/tank/percolation tank
13. Southern variable rainfall, mixed soil zone Gully plugging, Nadi, Percolation tank, Ponds/tanks, Sub-surface
dams, Check dam
14. Southern modal rain fall zone Check dams, Gully plugging, Contour plugging, Percolation tanks
15. Eastern Coromandal Nadi, Gully plugging, Sub-surface dams, Percolation tanks,
Ponds/tanks, Check dams
16. Western Malabar K.T. weirs, Check dams, Contour bunding , Bandhra, Percolation
tanks, Sub-surface dams

the year. Many NGO’s are also working in order to spread

Likely benefits of rainwater harvesting
There were tremendous benefits for both public and private sector
some major one are
Benefits to Public: Rainwater harvesting recharge the ground
water table, rebuilt the dried aquifers and enables our dug wells
and bore wells to yield, reduce water supply infrastructure costs,
reduce requirements for new dams, improve asset protection,
reduce storm water volume, reduce storm water quality and peak
storm water discharges which control flooding low lying areas and
roads to a large extent and improve performance of water sensitive
urban design measures.
Benefits to Private: Reduce the crack formation in walls and
structures, improve ground water qualities, improve water supply
security, reduce
main consumption and maintain sustainable equilibrium [5].
Implementation: In states like Tamilnadu, Gujrat, Rajasthan,
Karnataka,Kerala, New Delhi, the respective state Governments
have taken decisive measures to start and implement rainwater
harvesting programs to ensure adequate water supply throughout
awareness about necessity of rainwater
harvesting besides providing necessary information regarding
various harvesting methods and their [6]implementation. Some of the
names of the NGO’s are listed below :
 Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi
 Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) in Alwar, Rajasthan.
 DHAN Foundation – Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
 BAIF – Pune, Maharashtra.
 RS - Ralegaon Siddhi - Ahmednagar district –
Maharashtra.
 SMSF - S.M.Sehgal Foundation- Gurgaon, Haryana.
 MF - Morarka Foundation – Jaipur, Rajasthan
 DA - Development alternatives – Delhi.
 KRG Rainwater Harvesting Foundation and Akash
Ganga Trust – Chennai.

Mishra, et al., 2013

12
 On line Journal International Journal of Advanced Research and Technology (2013), Volume 1, Issue 1, 10-13
Journal homepage: http://www.ijartjournal.com
Conclusion
Where there is water on earth, virtually no matter what the
physical conditions, there is life. Water has been important for the
development of cultural complexity in human society andrdto their
benefit. Before, the water becomes the direct reason of III World
War and is necessary to preserve and safe-conservation when and
where it falls. The involvements of scientific and enhanced
technological procedure such as Shuttle Radar Topographic
Mission (SRTM) and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) would aid
in quantifying how much rainwater could also be collected on the
different land area for the recharge. The investigation verified the
extent to which adaptation of the adapted technologies in 12
conserving water resources in heterogeneous land patterns. The
methodology opted for rainwater harvesting after appropriate
information of land and topography give fficient, effective and
significant results. The approaches
References
[1] D. Chand, ‚Water harvesting for drinking water security,‛
Kurukshetra, vol.54, pp.4-12, Aug.2006.
has to be sustainability and affordability as
under pinning tenets.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to Shri Vinod Singh (Manager) and Dr.
Poonam Pandey, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental
Sciences, Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences,
Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh for their valuable support in conducting
this investigation.
Mishra, et al., 2013
View publication stats
[2] A.K.Misra and A.Misra, ‚Save water by re-use of waste water
for today’s need and future demand,‛ Environment & People,
vol.7, pp.6-8, May 2001.
[3] A. Kabo-Bah, R. Andoh, S.N.Odai and K.Osei, ‚Affordable
Rainwater harvesting systems: A collaborative research effort,‛ in
Proc.11th International Conference on Urban Drainage, Edinburgh,
Scotland, U.K. 2008, paper 01, p. 1-10.
[4] J.S. Pachpute, D. Tumbo Siza, H. Sally and M.L. Mul,
‚Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Rural
Catchment of Sub-Saharan Africa,‛ Water Resources
Management, 2009, vol. 23, 13.
[5] S. Yadav, A.K.Singh and A. H. Khan, ‚Rain water harvesting:
Response to climate change over views,‛ in Proc. National
Conference on Science of climate change and earth sustainability:
Issues and Challenges, ‘A scientist people partnership’2011, paper
105, p.105.
[6] G. Singh, A. U. Khan, Ashok Kumar, N. Bala and U.K. Tomar,
‚Effect of rainwater harvesting and afforestation on soil, properties
and growth of Emblica officinalis while restoring degraded hill in
western India,‛ African Journal of Science and Technology, vol. 6,
pp.300-311,Aug.2012.
13