Kerala, our beautiful homeland, is well known for its nature’s blessings with backwaters, mountains and greenery. But due to human handling, we lost the major share of our natural greenery, water sources and the wonderful echo system that we were proud of. The availability of safe drinking water from domestic wells is a problem even in villages. The uncontrolled, unscientific constructions are continuing in the highly populous pieces of land. The only solution to preserve our natural source of water is to practice water harvesting at all basic family units such as houses and flats.
General information
The rain is the first known form of water in the hydrological cycle, and it forms the primary source of water for humans. Judicious collection, storage and use of rainwater are of prime importance in this era of water scarcity.
Water harvesting
Water harvesting is the activity of direct collection of rainwater. The collected rainwater can be stored for direct use or can be recharged into the groundwater. There are two ways of harvesting water:
1. Surface runoff harvesting – In urban areas rainwater flows away as surface runoff. This runoff can be caught and used for recharging aquifers by adopting appropriate methods.
2. Roof top rainwater harvesting – It is a system of catching rainwater where it falls. The roof becomes the catchment, and the rainwater is collected from the roof of the building. It can be stored in a tank or diverted to artificial recharge system. It is less expensive and very effective. If implemented properly it can help in augmenting the groundwater level of the area.
We promote the ways to preserve natural source of safe drinking water wherever possible. The protection of household wells, ponds, rivers from contamination is of prime importance.
Our effort is to deliver a sustained health guidance to the community by disseminating the essential basic information on safe drinking water and water harvesting to the reach of every household through information-education-communication (IEC) activities.