{"id":49902,"date":"2019-07-15T15:31:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T10:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=49902"},"modified":"2019-07-16T15:32:22","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T10:02:22","slug":"7-pm-tradition-for-water-revolution-15th-july-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-tradition-for-water-revolution-15th-july-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Tradition for water revolution | 15th July, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong>:\ntraditional water harvesting in India and its potential<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In India, rainwater harvesting has been\nin practice for more than 4000 years. It is basically a simple process of\naccumulating and storing of rainwater. Rainwater harvesting systems, since\nancient times, has been applied as a supply for drinking water, water for\nirrigation, and water for livestock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\nis the need for traditional water harvesting in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Deep roots:<\/strong> Archaeological&nbsp;evidence shows that the practice\nof water conservation is deep rooted in the science of ancient India.\nExcavations show that the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization had excellent\nsystems of water harvesting and drainage. The settlement of Dholavira, laid out\non a slope between two storm water channels, is a great example of water\nengineering. Chanakya\u2019s Arthasashtra mentions irrigation using water harvesting\nsystems. Drawing upon centuries of experience, Indians continued to build\nstructures to catch, hold and store monsoon rainwater for the dry seasons to\ncome.<\/li><li><strong>Rising\nwater demand:<\/strong> India has 16% of the total population of the world. But the\ncountry has only 4% of the water resources present on the earth. The population\nof India is expected to stabilize around 1640 million by 2050. As a result the\ngross per capita water availability will decline from 1820 cubic meter per\nannum in the year 2001, to as low as 1140 cubic meter in 2050.<\/li><li><strong>Rain fed\nagriculture in India:<\/strong>\nRain fed agriculture occupies 67 percent net sown area, contributing 44 percent\nof food grains and supporting 40 percent of the population. Out of these 44%\nfood grains, predominantly nutrient crops like pulses and oil seeds. In rain\nfed areas rainfall is very abnormal and scanty so traditional methods of water\nharvesting provide a good solution.<\/li><li><strong>Less expensive:<\/strong> The systems are easy to construct from locally sourced\ninexpensive materials, and it has proved to be a success in most areas. The\nprime advantage of rainwater is that the quality of water is usually good, and\nit does not necessitate any treatment before consumption. Household rainfall\ncatchments can significantly contribute where the source of drinking water is\ncontaminated and scarce.<\/li><li><strong>Urban water\ncrisis:<\/strong>\nAccording to the Composite Water\nManagement&nbsp;Index (CWMI)&nbsp;report&nbsp;released by the NITI Aayog in\n2018, 21 major cities (Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and others) are\nracing to reach zero groundwater levels by 2020, affecting access for 100\nmillion people. If we look at present Chennai, Chennai has been a water\ndeficient city. The household water supply in the city was 55 litres per capita\nper day (lpcpd), much less than the Ministry of Urban Development Benchmark of\n135 lpcpd, according to the 2011 census.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Some\nprominent Traditional water harvesting practices in India:<\/strong> below given is\na brief account of the unique&nbsp;water\nconservation systems prevalent in India and the communities who have practiced\nthem for decades before the debate on climate change even existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>JHALARA:<\/strong> Jhalaras are typically rectangular-shaped stepwells\nthat have tiered steps on three or four sides. These stepwells&nbsp;collect the\nsubterranean seepage of an upstream reservoir or a lake. Jhalaras were built to\nensure easy and regular supply of water for religious rites, royal ceremonies\nand community use. The city of Jodhpur has eight jhalaras,&nbsp;the oldest\nbeing the Mahamandir Jhalara that dates back to 1660 AD.<\/li><li><strong>BAWARI:<\/strong>\nBawaris are unique stepwells that were once a part of the ancient networks of\nwater storage in the cities of Rajasthan. The little rain that the region\nreceived would be diverted to man-made tanks through canals built on the hilly\noutskirts of cities. The water would then percolate into the ground, raising\nthe water table and recharging a deep and &nbsp;intricate network of aquifers.\nTo minimise water loss through evaporation, a series of layered steps were\nbuilt around the reservoirs to narrow and deepen the wells.<\/li><li><strong>AHAR\nPYNES:<\/strong> Ahar Pynes are traditional floodwater harvesting systems indigenous\nto South Bihar.&nbsp;Ahars are reservoirs with embankments on three sides that\nare built at the end of diversion channels like pynes.&nbsp;Pynes are\nartificial rivulets led off from rivers to collect water in the ahars&nbsp;for\nirrigation in the dry months.&nbsp; Paddy cultivation in this relatively low\nrainfall area&nbsp;depends mostly on ahar pynes.<\/li><li><strong>JOHADS<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong> Johads,\none of the oldest systems used to conserve and recharge ground water, are small\nearthen check dams that capture and store rainwater. Constructed in an area with\nnaturally high elevation on three sides, a storage pit is made by excavating\nthe area, and excavated soil is used to create a wall on the&nbsp;fourth\nside.&nbsp;Sometimes, several johads are interconnected through deep channels,\nwith a single outlet opening into a river or stream nearby. This prevents\nstructural damage to the water pits that are also called madakas in Karnataka\nand pemghara in Odisha.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Issues related to traditional water harvesting:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Fragile\ncreations:<\/strong>\nWater harvesting systems are fragile creations.\nThey have to be continuously monitored, maintained and repaired. Regular\ninspection, cleaning, and occasional repairs are essential for the success of a\nsystem. But in India no clear guidelines and no importance was given by the\ngovernment towards traditional harvesting methods<\/li><li><strong>Less\npriority:<\/strong> the state took control from the local community or the\nhouseholds as the provider or supplier. This meant that harvesting rain was no\nlonger a priority.<\/li><li><strong>Changing\nwater supply:<\/strong> local ground water, which was recharged using rain-water,\nwas replaced by surface water, brought often from long distance canals.<\/li><li><strong>Government\npolicies:<\/strong> central governments and state governments both focus on\nlarge scale irrigation projects (kaleshwaram project which costs almost\n85000crore) and less importance was given to traditional water harvesting\ntechniques either by providing proper coverage or finance.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Measures related to traditional water harvesting in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Awareness\ncampaign:<\/strong>\n<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Conducting mass awareness\nprogrammes on Rain Water Harvesting and Artificial Recharge of ground water\nthroughout the country involving Central\/State\/ NGO&#8217;s, VO&#8217;s, resident welfare\norganizations, educational institutions, industries and individuals. Conducting\nTraining programmes to generate resource persons as a measure of capacity\nbuilding for designing Rain Water Harvesting structures to augment ground water\nin different terrains and diverse hydrogeological conditions.<\/li><li><strong>Policy\nframework:<\/strong>\npolicy should involve local communities and measures to be taken to provide\nneeded financial resources for the development of traditional methods.\nEmpowering the local panchayats with financial autonomy.<\/li><li><strong>Spread:<\/strong> Action for\nSocial Advancement (ASA), nongovernmental organization based in Madhya Pradesh,\nworked with 42 tribal villages (nearly 25,000 people) with a land area of\nnearly 20,000 hectares in Jobat, one of the sub-districts of Jhabua district in\nMadhya Pradesh, and carried out watershed work at the small river basin level.\nThey focused on Land development, Water resources development, Agriculture\nintensification and diversification, as well as tried building and promoting\npeople\u2019s institutions around the natural resource interventions. As a result,\nthe subsurface flow of water has improved significantly, indicated by the\nincreased flows in the streams and rivers in the entire basin. So the both\ngovernments (central and state) should work together to spread the same success\nstory of Jobat throughout India.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Way\nforward:<\/strong>\nIt is high time now to fall for surface water usage instead of going for ground\nwater resources to meet human demand on needs. Considered the main source of\nsurface water, rainwater is deemed more or less as fresh; the cost of\ncollecting rainwater too is very low. Rivers and canals, lakes and wetlands,\nponds and drywells \u2013 all are potential catchments to hold direct rainwater and\nits indirect source, the run-off storm water. The closed tanks also doubly work\nas settlement tanks to innately clearing the contaminated water to some extent.\nPebbles, gravels, sand and charcoal \u2013 all available in abundance \u2013 work great\nas natural filter for cleaning the rainwater before usage. Hence keeping an eye\non the rapidly increasing day-to-day demand for water among fast growing human\npopulation, there lies a great opportunity to harvest rainwater to meet a\npotential scarcity and avoid destruction of the normal groundwater table level.\nThe boon of rainwater harvesting is \u2013 the unused or extra water which remains\nafter using by the human settlements \u2013 it can be send down the aquifer to\ncharge the groundwater level too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/article\/opinion\/tradition-for-water-revolution-119071500011_1.html\">https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/article\/opinion\/tradition-for-water-revolution-119071500011_1.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: traditional water harvesting in India and its potential In India, rainwater harvesting has been in practice for more than 4000 years. It is basically a simple process of accumulating and storing of rainwater. Rainwater harvesting systems, since ancient times, has been applied as a supply for drinking water, water for irrigation, and water for&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-tradition-for-water-revolution-15th-july-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Tradition for water revolution | 15th July, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}