Rain water harvesting in houses of Udaipur city: A measure of conserve natural resource

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Date
2006
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Publisher
MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
Water is the most precious gift of nature. The increasing number of human population is posing a serious threat to its availability and sustainability for the future generations. The quality and quantity of under ground water are also decreasing. Thus, the study on rain water harvesting was undertaken with the objectives: 1) To find out the existing status of water resources in household and various water management practices adopted by homemakers. 2) To popularize and commission rain water harvesting system in households. 3) To assess the quality and quantity of existing and harvested rain water in households. 4) To find out the rooftop rainwater harvesting potential of selected houses. In order to find out various water management practices adopted by home makers and popularizing the rainwater harvesting technique, 100 households were selected. Out of 100 samples, 30 houses were selected purposively for commissioning of the rooftop rainwater harvesting system and estimation of rooftop rainwater harvesting potential. To achieve the planned objectives the present study was divided into three phases: Phase I: Household survey Phase II: Laboratory and Household experiments Phase III: Estimation of rooftop rainwater harvesting potential. During the first phase household survey was conducted to collect the required information regarding the existing status of water resources and various water management practices adopted by homemakers. Second phase included laboratory and household experiments to assess the chemical and microbiological status and quantity of water available in borewell before and after commissioning of rainwater harvesting system. Experiments were conducted to identify the presence of pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, chloride, hardness, total coliform and faecal coliform bacteria in existing and harvesting rainwater available in borewells for the purpose of potable and non-potable uses. Samples of water were collected in sterilized bottles from thirty purposively selected houses. The data were analyzed using frequency and percentage distribution and the quality of harvesting rainwater was compared with the standards as suggested by World Health Organization (WHO, 1991) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS, 1997). The results of the study indicated that majority of the respondents faced the problems related to the hardness and color of water and they were partially satisfied from the source of water with regards to quality and quantity of water available to them. This was due to the municipal supply of water with low pressure, resulting into scarcity of water and during summers the water table goes down to a great extent and quantity of water available in borewell for household activities is scarce. Rainwater harvesting technique was popularized among 100 homemakers and rainwater harvesting system was commissioned in 30 selected houses. It also revealed from the results that harvested water was within the permissible limits as suggested by WHO and BIS for the chemical quality. The results of total coliform bacteria was much higher with the value 102.4 MPN/100 ml as compared to permissible limits 10 MPN/100 ml prescribed by WHO and BIS. The sources of the contamination were mainly the method of water withdrawal. The water table of borewells increased and the availability of water per day per family was found to be higher due to higher rain water harvesting potential. Hence, on the bases of results it is advised that each family should commission rainwater harvesting system in their houses.
Description
Rain water harvesting in houses of Udaipur city: A measure of conserve natural resource
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Citation
Yadav and Singhvi, 2006
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