Rain Water Harvesting

Water was not a problem in the old days. At those times the Earth was covered with dense forest areas and was free from pollution. So there was no problem in rainfall. Today the situation is totally different. Man has removed almost half of the forest area in the world. It has resulted in failure of monsoon in many areas and turned them into dry lands which were once a fertile land.

When the agricultural land turn into dry land with out water then the entire food production becomes paralyzed leaving the people to starve died of hunger. Water is the basic element required for human to live a life. When he runs out of water, things become crucial. In order solve this issue a technique called rain water harvesting is used.

Rain water harvesting is a technique which is used to effectively utilize the rain water and store it in the well and near by water storing sources. This will result in raising the ground water table to a great extent and solve the problem of quest for water.

Rain water technique is not a newly developed technique. It was practically implement nearly 1200 years ago by South Indian King named Raja Raja Chola in the temple which he built. The temple is still standing majestically after facing many natural disasters and invasions. The temple is located in a town called Thanjavur in Southern India.

The rain water falling within the temple drains out in to the deep section which is cut around the temple. The excessive water was taken through pipes and was served to the public. If the water from the drenches was more, the water was diverted to the nearby channel which drains out the water into the nearby river.

Raja Raja Cholan was the first in the history to build a dam to utilize water and promote food production. He built Kal Annai (Stone Dam) in his reign. The dams still stands in the place serving the purpose for which it was built. The history says that food production was very high during the period of Raja Raja in South India.

Many developed and developing countries have made rain water harvesting mandatory in resolving the quest for the water. It has made people self efficient in meeting their daily water requirements. In olden days a single person consumed 750 liters of water per day. Today he only uses about 150 liters of water per day.

Awareness must be created among people to efficiently use the available water resources by protecting it from pollution. Water storing sources must be cleaned every year before the monsoon such that the water storing capacity can be increased to a great extent.

'Let's utilize today's rain to create a better tomorrow'.

Learn more about rain water harvesting by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainwater_harvesting