Rainwater harvesting involves the collection and storage of rainwater into the natural reservoirs or artificial reservoirs in order to prevent the surface water runoff.
Rainwater harvesting is a process of collecting and storing rain water for using it as a backup supply of fresh water to meet everyday domestic and agricultural requirements, especially when water becomes scarcely available. There are several methods by which we can collect rainwater flowing from our roof tops, ditches, gardens, fields, forests and other locations. These methods are discussed in detail in the following essays. Rainwater harvesting not only provides fresh water in difficult times but also prevent naturally occurring fresh water resources from drying up, by reducing the demand of water. Rainwater harvesting is the least we can do to maintain the supply of water and also to support life on earth.
Long and Short Essay on Rain Water Harvesting in English
We have provided variety of paragraph and essay on rain water harvesting under different words limit for the students. It is very important topic on which students may be assigned to write essay or paragraph on the rain water harvesting. You can select any rain water harvesting essay given below according to the need and requirement.
Rain Water Harvesting Essay 1 (100 words)
Rain water harvesting is a technique used for collecting and storing rainwater by using various means in different resources for the future use purpose (like cultivation, etc). Rain water can be collected into the natural reservoirs or artificial tanks. Another method of collection is infiltration of surface water into the subsurface aquifers before getting lost by surface overflow.
Rooftop harvesting is also a method to collect rainwater. It is of big importance to the people living in the less rainfall areas. They can continue seasonal crop harvesting using collected rain water even in the lack of regular water supply. Whenever it rains, rain water gets collected into the man made ponds or tanks.
Rain Water Harvesting Essay 2 (150 words)
Rain water harvesting is the collection of rainwater into the man made resources or any natural resource like pond, lake, etc at the same place where it falls from rooftops or ground. Two main techniques of rainwater harvesting are storage for future use and recharge into the ground. It can be used for crop harvesting, gardening, toilets, etc. Following are the benefits of rainwater harvesting at individual or city-wide level:
- It helps in reducing the water supply bills especially to the institutions.
- Rainwater recharged to the ground positively affects groundwater quality by diluting fluorides, nitrates and its salinity.
- It contains almost neutral pH and zero hardness which makes it more able to be used in homes, industries, institutions and other commercial establishments.
- It may reduce the stress of public water supply sources.
- Recharge of rainwater to the ground prevents sea-water immersion into the fresh water bodies in the coastal areas.
- It helps in controlling urban flooding if people do rainwater harvesting from rooftops.
- It reduces water demands of people from the municipality thus lessens energy consumption too in distributing water all through the city.
Rain Water Harvesting Essay 3 (200 words)
Rainwater harvesting means collecting the rain water into the natural reservoirs or man-made tanks. It is the technique to collect and store rainwater for various purposes in the future. The most common and easy method of rain water harvesting is the rooftop harvesting. Using this technique we can collect lots of clean rain water in the rainy season. It can be stored for long time for the household purposes like gardening, livestock, and irrigation, etc. Following are benefits of rain water harvesting:
- It helps in reducing water supply loads and electricity bills of municipality, improve free water supply, crop production in rural areas, and thus lead to food security.
- Rain water harvesting system helps in reducing the insecurity of households or individuals in the rural areas.
- It provides easy and low cost water supply in the lack of water areas thus helps in food security and income generation.
Tamil Nadu is one of the states of India and now has been first Indian state where rainwater harvesting has been mandatory. Tamil Nadu state government has declared on 30th of May 2014 to establish around 50,000 rainwater harvesting structures at various places in the Chennai. Till now, approximately 4,000 of the temples in the Tamilnadu have rain water tanks serving at various rituals in temples and help in recharging the groundwater.
Rain Water Harvesting Essay 4 (250 words)
Every drop of rain water is like blessings of God to the people on the earth. Fresh rain water falls on the ground like pearls, so everyone should understand the importance of rain water especially in developing regions and rural areas lack of natural water resources.
We should try to collect rain water without wasting through rooftops and along streets run off. We should bring our old traditional harvesting practices using new and effective technologies to make easy water supply in all the regions. As only hand pumps, wells, and other resources of groundwater levels cannot fulfill the potable water need of hundreds of thousands of people.
Rainwater harvesting is the most sustainable and effective way for many years to make water available in the areas lacking water. Rainwater harvesting is very low cost method along with lots of benefits. It helps in various purposes like household works, field irrigation, livestock, agriculture and animal husbandry.
It helps in rejuvenating the groundwater levels in both directly and indirectly manner. Groundwater level can be replenished by rain water harvesting methods of trenches, anicut, dug wells, contour, etc whereas other rain water harvesting methods like underground water tanks, ponds, etc help in reducing the use of groundwater for at least four to six months. It is very effective in the hilly regions and desert regions of the India and other countries. More and clean rain water can be collected in the rainy season by making large and clean water body.
Rain Water Harvesting Essay 5 (300 words)
Now-a-days, people have been depended on the government system of water supply for getting water for their every need. The present scenario of water management and distribution in the cities has been centralized by the government which has brought a big gap of community responsibility in water management. It has slowly but regularly finished the old traditional water harvesting system.
Rainwater harvesting is again a new but old and effective technique of collecting rain water during rainy season for future usage purpose. It is being frequently used in various places of India to overcome the problems of lack of water. Rain water harvesting is the good source of ground water recharge in natural way.
However, the ground water level is getting less day by day because of the rapid urbanization and cities development at huge level as well as reduction in percolation of the rainwater to the ground. Rainwater harvesting is the way to reduce the use of ground water as well as maintain its level forever in the future. It is of more importance to the drought regions of India and other countries to supply the demands of water for various purposes. Following are mentioned points proving the fact why to harvest rainwater:
- It plays great role in protecting the ground water decline and improving the ground water table.
- It helps in improving the water quality in aquifers.
- It is to conserve more water and prevent surface water runoff during the monsoon.
- It helps in reducing the soil erosion.
- It is to bring the old tradition of water conservation among people.
Rain water can be harvested in better way using following methods like surface runoff harvesting and roof top rainwater harvesting. Both are very effective methods help in enhancing the level of ground water and fulfill the need of water supply in easy and cost effective way.
Rain Water Harvesting Essay 6 (400 words)
Rainwater harvesting is the collection and storage of rain water in the natural resources or artificially designed resources to prevent water runoff and fulfill the lack of water in future. The quantity of water harvesting is affected by the number of factors like frequency of rainfall, quantity of rainfall, way of collecting rain water, and size of resources to collect water. The ground water level is getting depleted day by day due to various reasons like deforestation and ecological imbalance.
Increasing level of urbanization and industrialization constantly increases the demand of water supply especially in the urban areas. It results in the overuse of ground water and thus going low level. The risk of water scarcity in the future has been increased to a great extent and can be life threatening if some effective solutions are not followed.
Water harvesting is very helpful and fulfill various need like recharging the ground water level, reduces electricity bill spend in supplying water and provide easy water supply anytime when required. It is estimated that 1 meter rise in the water level saves around 0.4 KWH of electricity.
Why Rain Water Harvesting is Necessary:
Rain water harvesting is very necessary to be practiced by the people in all regions. It is good to reduce the fear of water scarcity in the future. Following are the points proving the fact that why rain water harvesting is necessary:
- Surface water cannot fulfill the demand of water for various purposes.
- Everyone depend on the ground water for their every need.
- Deforestation, rapid urbanization, rain water infiltration to the sub-soil, etc reasons are continuously decreasing the level of ground water.
- Rain water conservation maintains the level of water in natural water resources.
- It reduces the chance of flooding of water on the roads, reduces the risk of soil erosion and improves the quality of water.
Following are main techniques of rain water harvesting:
- Collecting rainwater to the surface for future use.
- Recharging the ground water.
Collecting rain water to the surface is very effective and traditional technique. It can be done using small ponds, underground tanks, dams, weirs etc. However, ground water recharging technique is a new concept of harvesting. It can be done using dug wells, pits, trenches, hand pumps, recharge wells, recharge shafts, recharge lateral shafts with bore wells, spreading technique (means spread of water to the stream, nala, etc).
Rain Water Harvesting Essay 7 (800 words)
Introduction
Rainwater Harvesting is a method of storing rainwater, to be used in several domestic and agricultural activities. The basic idea is to not let the rainwater runoff and get wasted, rather to collect it by simple mechanism so that it can be used during scarcity of water. In the following essay we will explore the importance of rainwater harvesting, its methods and systems and how it is traditionally done in rural India. Below is a complete Essay on Rainwater Harvesting with Subheadings/Subtitles and Conclusion.
Rainwater Harvesting Methods/Rainwater Harvesting System
Primarily there are two types of rainwater harvesting methods as classified below-
1) Surface Runoff Harvesting
Surface runoff is a term used for precipitation that falls on the surface of earth and is subsequently lost to the environment. If elaborate arrangements are made to collect surface runoff water by providing it a path into a pond or tank; gallons of water could be stored to be used for several activities.
If designed efficiently, a system to collect surface runoff water can collect huge quantities of runoff from roads, parks, and gardens etc enough to sustain a small community or even a city. However, runoff water contains impurities; therefore, it must be passed through filtration process before it could be reused.
2) Roof Top Rainwater Harvesting
In roof top rainwater harvesting, the roof of a house or building functions as a catchment area for collecting rainwater. The water falling on the roof is diverted through a network or pipes to the desired pit or tank. It is by far the most economical and easy method of rainwater harvesting.
Houses or buildings with sloping roof can install gutters on the edges to collect the falling rain and to carry it to the destination using pipes or artificially created ditch. Though, care must be taken to flush out the water collected from first rain as it contains soluble impurities.
Rainwater Harvesting in India
In some places in India, still very traditional and ancient methods of rainwater harvesting are followed. These methods have proved successful in past and are still used in rural as well as urban India. Some of the significant traditional methods of rainwater harvesting in India are listed below-
1) Madakas
This traditional method of rainwater harvesting is followed in tropical belt of southern states of Karnataka and Kerala. These regions are rich in laterite soil with naturally occurring depressions with three high sides. The three sides automatically function as the catchment area for collection of water in the depression. A small dam is constructed on the low lying fourth end of the depression to contain the runoff.
2) Surangaas
Surangas are traditional water harvesting system only used in Kasargod district of south Indian state of Kerala. The soil found in this region is hard laterite which is favorable for the construction of suranga (cave). Suranga is like a horizontal cave excavated in hilly terrain of the area, through which water oozes out and is thus collected in a pond. Though, this method is locally being used since centuries, it is sadly now gradually being replaced by bore wells.
3) Taankas
Taankas are part of a traditional rainwater harvesting method practiced in the western state of Gujarat. Taankas are basically underground reservoirs with a capacity of storing thousands of liters of rainwater. Presently there are around ten thousand household in Gujarat’s capital city of Ahmadabad those are using taankas to meet their everyday water requirements. Water stored in a taanka is sealed against sunlight and therefore remains fresh for years.
Importance of Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater harvesting provides an independent source of water supply during the scarcity of water. It becomes more valuable in context to the places where rain is scarce and uncertain. Also, in areas where fresh water is a costly commodity, preserving rain water is more economical option. Rain water thus preserved can be used to meet several household requirements like – washing and cleaning, gardening etc.
In case of unforeseen natural calamities like famine and droughts, rainwater harvesting might prove to be a blessing for the sufferers. Another significance of rain water harvesting is that it reduces the demand of water from other natural resources like wells, ponds and lakes, thus, preventing their depletion.
Conclusion
Water is most essential and precious resource, necessary for life on the planet. It can’t be wasted and every drop of it must be preserved to be reused in need. Rains on the other hand are vital source of fresh water, only if we have elaborate arrangements to collect it. Here, begins the concept of “Rainwater Harvesting”. Every year we lose thousands of liters of rainwater due to the lack of awareness about rainwater harvesting. It’s high time that we realize its usefulness to the nature and to the society as well and start implementing it in our house, buildings, parks, for a safe and water abundant future.
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