Traditional Water Harvesting Methods

Since ancient times, water has been harvested in India, with our ancestors playing an important role in perfecting the art of water management many water harvesting techniques as well as water conveyance systems specific to the region have been developed, like:

1. Harvesting of raindrops in a direct manner. From rooftops, water is collected and stored in the tanks built in courtyards.
2. Harvesting of the monsoonal rain runoffs from swollen streams during monsoons and storing for various forms of water bodies.
3. Water harvested from flooded rivers.

Traditional Water Harvesting Methods

Traditional Water Harvesting Methods

India supported civilization in the old world. A fascinating component of all old development was that its occupants understood the huge worth of water in human existence. Every one of these civic establishments was situated on the banks of a waterway or inside a helpful separation from the ocean. This was to guarantee a perpetual inventory of water for everyday exercises. It is for sure shocking to understand that at the beginning of civilization, people figured out the importance and significance of water. Aside from cooking, individual tidiness, and cleanliness, water was indispensable for the development and water system of yields. At that early age, water was a significant method of transport; with additional advancement and improvement water again turned into an important wellspring of food as well as exchange and trade.

Strategies for Traditional Water Harvesting

It is cheering to see the restoration of conventional water-reaping frameworks in different biological zones of India. Networks notwithstanding misfortune have resuscitated or made new water-collecting frameworks. They have made check-dams, johads, and different designs to reap each drop of the channel. Some of them have even gathered housetop spillovers. In many spots, these endeavors have endured the impact of repeating the dry season.

Strategies for Traditional Water Harvesting

Paar framework

Paar is a typical water-reaping practice in the western Rajasthan district. It is a typical spot where the water streams from the agar (catchment) and in the process permeates into the sandy soil. To get to the Rajani pani (permeated water) kuis or beris are dived into the agor (stockpiling region). Kuis or beris are regularly 5 meters (m) to 12 m profound. The design was developed through customary masonry innovation. Ordinarily, six to ten of them are developed in a paar. Anyway relying on the size of the paar the quantities of kuis or beris are chosen. Bhatti makes reference to that there are paars in the Jaisalmer region where there are in excess of 20 kuis in activity. This is the most transcendent type of water reaping in the area. Water gathered through the PAAR method is known as Patali paani.

Talab/Bandhis

Talabs a resupplies. They might be regular, like the lakes (pokhariyan) at Tikamgarh in the Bundelkhand area. They can be human-made, such as the lakes in Udaipur. A supply area of under-five bighas is known as a talai; a medium-measured lake is known as a bandhi or talab; greater lakes are called Sagar or samand. The pokhariyan fills the water system and drinking needs. At the point when the water in these reservoirs evaporates only a couple of days after the storm, the lake beds are developed with rice.

Saza Kuva

An open well with various proprietors ( saza = accomplice), saza kuva is the main wellspring of the water system in the Aravalli slopes in Mewar, eastern Rajasthan. The dirt recovered to make the good pit is utilized to build an enormous roundabout establishment or a raised stage inclining away from the well. The first is worked to accommodate the rehat, a conventional water-lifting gadget; the slanting stage is for the Chada, in which bison are utilized to lift water. Saza kuva development is by and large taken up by a gathering of ranchers with contiguous landholdings; a harva, a man with extraordinary abilities in groundwater identification, helps fix the site.

Johad

Johads are a little earthen really take a look at dams that catch and preserve water, further developing permeation and groundwater re-energize. Beginning in 1984, the most recent sixteen years have seen the recovery of around 3000 johads spread across in excess of 650 towns in Alwar locale, Rajasthan. This has brought about a general ascent of the groundwater level by very nearly 6 meters and a 33 percent increment in the woods cover nearby. Five waterways that used to go dry quickly following the rainstorm have now become lasting, like the River Arvari, which has woken up.

Pat

Bhitada town, Jhabua area of Madhya Pradesh fostered the interesting pat framework. This framework was formulated by the characteristics of the territory to redirect water from quick streaming slope streams into water system channels called taps.

Naada/Bandha

Naada/bandha is found in the Mewar district of the Thar desert. It is a stone really look at the dam, developed across a stream or ravine, to catch rainstorm spillover on a stretch of land. Lowered in water, the land becomes fruitful as the residue is stored on it and the dirt holds significant measures of water.

Rapat

A rapat is a permeation tank, with a bund to seize water coursing through a watershed and a waste weir to discard the excess stream. On the off chance that the level of the design is little, the bund might be worked of masonry, in any case, the earth is utilized. Rajasthan rapats, being little, are all stonework structures. Rapats and permeation tanks don’t straightforwardly water land, yet re-energize well inside a distance of 3-5 km downstream. Silting is a difficult issue with little rapats and the assessed life of a rapat changes from 5 to 20 years

Baoris/Bers

Baoris or bers are local area wells, found in Rajasthan, that are utilized predominantly for drinking. The majority of them are extremely old and were worked by banjaras (portable exchanging networks) for their drinking water needs. They can hold water for quite a while in light of practically irrelevant water vanishing.

Jhalaras

Jhalaras were human-made tanks, found in Rajasthan and Gujarat, basically implied for local area use and for strict customs. Frequently rectangular in plan, jhalaras have stepped on three or four sides. Jhalaras are groundwater bodies that are worked to guarantee simple and customary stock of water to the encompassing regions. The jhalaras are rectangular in shape with steps on three or even on every one of the four sides of the tank. the means are based on a progression of levels. The jhalaras gather underground drainage of a talab or a lake found upstream.

Tobas

Tobas is the neighborhood name given to a ground gloom with a characteristic catchment region. A hard plot of land with low porosity, comprising of a downturn and a characteristic catchment region was chosen for the development of tobas.

Related Links

1. Rainwater harvesting
2. Agricultural practices

FAQs on Traditional Water Harvesting Methods

Q 1. What are traditional methods of water harvesting?

Answer-

From housetops, they gathered water and put away it in tanks, and worked on their patios. From open local area lands, they gathered the downpour and put away it in counterfeit wells. They gathered storm overflow by catching water from enlarged streams during the rainstorm season and put away it different types of water bodies. It includes methods like paar, jhalaras and so forth.

Q 2. What are the 5 traditional water harvesting systems?

Answer-

5 traditional water harvesting systems include qanats, contour-bench terracing, spate irrigation, rooftop harvesting and khushkaba system.

Q 3. What are the two traditional methods of rainwater harvesting?

Answer-

The two rainwater harvesting systems include surface runoff and rooftop rainwater harvesting.