Water Insurance - Need of the Hour PDF Print E-mail
Ecology
Written by Dr. P. C. Jain & Vartika Jain   
DR. P.C. JAIN
Rain water harvesting motivator,
3, Arivind Nagar, Manohar Vatika,
Sunderwas, Udaipur 313003
Rajasthan, INDIA
And
Founder Fellow,
Society for Microvita Research and Integrated Medicine
Email: drpcjain250@hotmail.com

VARTIKA JAIN
Senior research fellow
Department of Botany,
Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur
And
Secretary,
Society for Microvita Research and Integrated Medicine.
Email: vartikajain31@gmail.com






The Problem

“India on the brink of water crisis panel”, “Water turns poisonous in rural Punjab”, “Women dies of ‘thirst’ in Bihar villages”, “Number of dark zones increasing in the country”. “4573 state schools have no drinking water”.

Newspapers with such headlines are very common nowadays and this will go on increasing if we don’t conserve and insure water (Pa’ni Beema’/ Water Insurance) or else we’ll have limited water (Pan’i Seema’/ Limited water) to survive. We all invest our wealth to insure our lives, but hardly we, the educated mass think about conserving our natural resources.

Water is the most important element for origin of life on the earth so; it should be among the top priority for conservation. As we all know, there is no other planet in our solar system which has shown signs of presence of water and still we’ve to live on earth. There is no other option that when all the water will be exhausted, we’ll shift to other planets. Everybody is aware of water crisis in near future yet few of them really implement the water conserving techniques in their daily life.

What can be done?

1.    Judicious use of water.
2.    Recycle the water.
3.    Rain water harvesting.

Judicious use of water depends on the habit of using the water and has to be taught to the generations showing them the importance of water in future.

Recycle is a procedure which requires a lot of financial assistance, so becomes quite difficult for common man.

Left with us is the simple, cheapest and maintenance free; harvesting of roof top rain water fall by using Dewas Water Filter technique or by making water storage tanks.

Why Rain water harvesting?

There are 20 million dug well in the country meant for irrigation and there is 50-80 % use of ground water which means fall of one meter ground water per year. Number of dark zones have increased and are increasing. Hardness of water is also increasing. Water quarrels and water deaths due to polluted water are increasing. Fluorosis is damaging body organs. Cooking with hard water has become difficult. In Punjab, fall in underground water has lead to reduced food production. Vacuum and imbalance created by borewells may cause more earthquakes in future. All these conditions can be improved by adding pure rain water back to the mother earth.

How Rain water harvesting?

Our ancestors have been doing rain water harvesting since ages in all the forts and cities by both roof top and surface water harvesting methods, but we’ve left everything to the Government. Now, it has to come back to every household because every 20th house is extracting aquifer without recharging it. In this case, we’ve to develop a philosophy of ‘Give and take’ in the minds of people who exploit groundwater without any thought of giving back to it.

Devas Roof Top Rain Water Harvesting

This technique was developed in Dewas, MadhyaPradesh, India by then collector Mr. M. MohanRao and the team. In this technique, rain water falling on the roof top is collected from all the outlets of the building to one P.V.C. pipe and through a filter; it is brought near to the tubewell, handpump or dugwell. Though the rainwater is the purest form, yet it is filtered first before it enters into the tubewell casing. A drain valve is also placed; through which dirt and dust coming from the roof is washed out, before it enters into the filter (Figures 1 and 3). This drained water can be used for watering of plants or in other household works.



Figure 1 - Photograph of Dewas roof top rain water harvesting system installed at author’s home.

When the clear water starts appearing from the drain valve, it is closed and filter valve is opened, so that water passes through the filter and through casing of tubewell; it falls back to the aquifer (Figure 2).



Figure 2 - Diagrammatic representation of Dewas roof top rain water harvesting system

Benefits

One centimeter Rainfall on a roof top of 1000 square feet provides 1000 liters of water; which can be passed to aquifer easily. Both quality and quantity of water improves after harvesting the purest rain water. It helps in controlling water logging in the streets and colonies during rainy season. It also reduces hardness of water to a considerable extent and proves beneficial for women in their kitchens and patients of kidney diseases.

Results in Udaipur

In the dry state of Rajasthan, Udaipur city is considered as city of lakes. But due to progressive urbanization and deforestation, lakes were devoid of water and ground water was depleting few years ago. Looking to this condition we’ve adopted the Rainwater harvesting technique from the district Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, where it was a success and after our eight years of rain water harvesting awareness campaigns all over the Udaipur district, encouraging results have been observed.

This roof top rain water harvesting system has been installed at more than 400 government as well as private buildings. In this way, more than 7 million liters of rain water has been put back into the underground water. The awareness campaign is continuing, till every building having tubewells or handpumps installs it.



Figure 3 - Connection of the water filter to tubewell casing

The Urge

If all who extract and exploit the groundwater; put the purest form of water i.e. rain water back to the mother earth through the roof top rain water harvesting, they can help the society and their children by securing the precious water for future. Moreover, habit of judiciously using the water should be inculcated in the children since their childhood so that they can realize the importance of water in their lives and progressively help in conserving the water resources.

One has to adopt this water insurance technique immediately or else they will have very limited or no water to use in future. This water insurance policy should be done even before our life insurance policies.