Abstract
Water supply to rural communities on a sustainable basis is an important development objective of India. Rainwater harvesting is one of the promising ways of supplementing the surface and underground scarce water resources in areas where existing water supply system is inadequate to meet the demand. The present study is an attempt to find out the rooftop rainwater harvesting potential at micro level. A primary survey of 763 households in an arid Dhani Mohabbatpur village of Hisar district in Haryana was conducted to assess the rooftop rainwater harvesting potential. Potential of rainwater supply from the rooftops of the village residents was estimated using the runoff coefficients for cemented and non-cemented built-up houses including public buildings namely, bus stand, panchayat ghar, child development centre, primary and high schools of the village. The study revealed that the potential of rooftop water harvesting in the village is encouraging and if harvested, it will supplement the water need of village residents. Moreover, it will also reduce the pressure on village public water supply as well as on surface and groundwater resources in the water scarce region.
Highlights
Access to clean and affordable water is one of the fundamental human rights and its round-the-clock supply is essential to life, health and various socio-economic activities
It was revealed from the analysis that about 261.2 mm mean annual rainfall is available for rainwater harvesting
Variability in rainfall totals and distribution while resulting in uncertainties should not preclude the introduction of rainfall harvesting.,areas with low rainfall totals that are concentrated within a few months could still institute rainwater harvesting schemes to obtain as much water as they could for their use
Summary
Access to clean and affordable water is one of the fundamental human rights and its round-the-clock supply is essential to life, health and various socio-economic activities. It works as a foundation stone for social and economic development of any country in the world. Despite its critical role as a resource, projections by different agencies indicate that due to deteriorating global water supply, an estimated two billion people will lack access to safe drinking water by the middle of 21st century. Environmental degradation in many countries of the world is reducing human access to safe potable water. Innovative approaches towards water supply are needed to meet this huge challenge
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