Rainwater harvesting potential in Nagaland, India

Abstract Nagaland, one of the north eastern hill states of India, receives over 1748 mm of annual average rainfall. Research articles have dichotomized findings on increasing and decreasing rainfall trends. But news media have been reporting about the recent water scarcity, especially in the urban areas and the blame has been on the faulty water management. This chapter endeavors to estimate the potentiality of roof top rainwater harvesting as a solution to the water scarcity. The roof top areas of 140 sampled houses in different district headquarters were calculated from high-resolution Google Earth images and verified through field investigation. The harvesting potentials of each roof top were calculated based on the basis of runoff coefficient of each roof material and then extrapolated at the district level. This chapter also investigates into the demand supply gap that can be satiated through roof top rainwater harvesting. It has been found that Peren and Longleng as well as Zunheboto has been the most benefitted in minimizing the gap in the water demand and supply as 24.14%, 15.63%, and 7.65% through rooftop rain water harvesting. It was evident that Dimapur, Kohima, and Mon were still the worst sufferers followed by Tuensang in spite of harvesting the rooftop rainwater, which demands special interventions. The intense pressure of increasing population, urbanization, and low rainfall are the reasons behind such adverse conditions.