Conservation of Water: Artificial Recharge to Groundwater

Rainwater harvesting dates back to many centuries but has recorded history since 300 BC which shows that innovative structures have been constructed all over the world including India. But India has the distinction of inventing two innovative water conservation structures, i.e., Tanka in the fourth century and Baolis (stepwell) in the eleventh century, which entails development of groundwater and conservation of rainwater. The dependence on groundwater resource has increased over the years to provide food security and for meeting drinking water requirements of more than 85% of rural India. The estimation of dynamic resources shows that there are 1071 over-exploited blocks, i.e., 16% of the area, which makes it imperative to use part of the available water resources of about 865 BCM for recharging the depleted aquifers and to create more surface storages. The implementation of pilot projects has showcased the different technologies for water conservation and groundwater recharge. There have been continuous efforts from the central government and from few state governments to promote rainwater harvesting, but the similar efforts are not forthcoming either from the other state governments or the industrial and corporate sectors. There are still many gaps in technology intervention in case of preventing saline ingress in coastal areas and groundwater management in urban and the hilly regions. So there is a need to implement more pilot projects to enhance the technical knowledge to deal with the ensuing problems including the use of treated waste water. Since, it is a compulsion for India to promote rainwater harvesting to make use of the surplus monsoon runoff and to meet the stipulated water requirements, it is important to create a web-based information on rainwater harvesting structures for easy access and to create an exclusive Centre for Excellence for providing training and guidelines on different aspects of rainwater harvesting as well as other sources of water.