Silvester D'Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (MS)

Udupi, Jul 25: Various methods of rain water harvesting are in use. Governments are spending crores of rupees for establishing rain water harvesting units. However, Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Programme (SKDRDP) is silently making its unique impression in this direction. It is successfully carrying out the process of harvesting the rain water that collects on the roof of a house by getting it seeped into the nearby well at a cost of less than Rs 2,000. In this method, the rain water harvesting unit can be built within a day.

SKDRDP has already established rain water harvesting units in more than 50 houses of Kundapur taluk limits in the year 2019, till date. The organisation has put in a method to recharge the borewells also. This simple rain water harvesting method is becoming popular. There is no need to spend thousands of rupees for this project. In this system, within maximum cost of Rs 2,000, water collected from the roof of the house is purified in a natural manner and let into the well.

One barrel of 250 litre capacity, PVC pipe as required to make the water from the roof to flow, two baskets each of big and small size gravel, mesh to sieve the rain water, two baskets of charcoal and big grains of sand are required to install this system inside the barrel.

The water from the roof of the house is made to flow through the PVC pipe onto the purifying system that is installed near the well. As there is five stage purification process inside the barrel, the rain water gets completely purified and falls into the well in the form of fine droplets through the outgoing pipe that is fixed at the bottom of the barrel.

If this unit is installed, it works for many years. Only the mesh of the upper part of the barrel needs to be cleaned once in a month. The water from the first week of rain should be let out and only after that the pipe should be connected to the purifying unit. This system will be in place till the rainy season lasts.

In Kundapur taluk, more than 20 methods of rain water harvesting were implemented last year. All of them were great success. Due to the increase of ground water level in the well, the water problems in summer were reduced by 50%. This system is implemented in more than 50 houses this year. Most of this is installed in rural areas according to the information given by Chethan Kumar, agriculture officer of Kundapur taluk. Chethan is involved in the water awareness campaign with special emphasis on rain water harvesting.

Dharmasthala Rural Programme has given prime importance to rain water harvesting in the whole district of Udupi. In certain areas, it has given barrels to members of Jnanavikasa to encourage water awareness. Already 42 units in Byndoor taluk, 72 units in Udupi taluk and 42 units in Karkala taluk are established. More people are interested to install this simple system of SKDRDP.

Method of rain water harvesting

Chethan Kumar, agriculture officer of Kundapur, explained the whole method of installing this simple rain water harvesting system. He said, "Two inch PVC pipe needs to be fixed at the bottom of a plastic barrel of 250 litre capacity, so that the water falls into the well. At the bottom of the barrel, three medium sized rocks should be placed. Then one basket of medium sized gravel and one basket of small size (20 mm) gravel needs to be put on that. One basket of the residue that is available after sieving the sand needs to be put above this. A basket of charcoal needs to be poured on the small gravel and mesh needs to be installed. The water from the roof of the house should fall into the PVC barrel though two inch diameter PVC pipe. The rain water should get purified in six stages before falling into the well. If small
holes are made at the end of the outgoing pipe from the barrel, the water falls into the well in the form of droplets."