Ropar schools to have rainwater harvesting system

To overcome the problem of depletion in the groundwater level in the area, the district administration has decided to set up water recharge systems in a large number of government schools of the district. Under the pilot project, the water recharge system has already been operationalised successfully at Chanauli village in the Nurpur Bedi block, which has been notified as an overexploited zone by the Central Ground Water Board.

The rooftop area of the school building was 1,580 square meter, and over 10 lake litre of water would be saved with this initiative.

 The over-exploitation of groundwater in the zone, it was necessary to take measures so that there was no more depletion in the groundwater level. It was planned that all government school buildings would be used to set up water harvesting projects. This would also percolate the habit of saving water into the minds of youth.

After covering all 58 schools in the Nurpur Bedi block, the project would also be started in Morinda and Chamkaur Sahib blocks, where the groundwater level had been depleting fast.

Rain Water Harvesting
Rainwater Harvesting is a process involving collection and storage of rain water (with the help of artificially designed system) that runs off natural or man-made catchment areas e.g. roof top, compounds, rock surface or hill slopes or artificially repaired impervious/semi-pervious land surface

Importance of implementing rain-water harvesting:

a) To reduce Runoff loss: More than 3/4th of the precipitation In India comes during 4 months (monsoon). A significant part of which is lost in runoff and evaporation, this can be controlled by rain water harvesting.

b) To meet Rising demand: Rapid urbanization and Industrial development demands huge water hence severe water crunch can be solved by water harvesting.

c) For Agriculture & food security: Modern hybrid crops & fertilizer depend on continuous supply of irrigation water. More than 60% of net sown area is unirrigated (rising cases of drought in the dry belt of India)

d) Women issues: In dry and hilly areas women face hardship in fetching water. Rain water harvesting can provide a decentralized source of water.

Advantages: 

i. The cost of recharge to sub-surface reservoir is lower than surface reservoirs.

ii. The aquifer serves as a distribution system also.

iii. No land is wasted for storage purpose and no population displacement is involved.

iv. Ground water is not directly exposed to evaporation and pollution.

v. Storing water under ground is environment friendly.