Techniques used in villages for Rain Water Harvesting

Source – www.cybernoon.com

Techniques used in villages for Rain Water Harvesting

Bund: It is a wall to retain run-off water. It is used to make ponds. In Raigad district it is built out of stone masonry because the soil is too pervious as it allows water to seep through.

Gabions: Gabions are bunds in which chain links are used to hold the rocks together. This way the strength of the bunds is more than loose boulder structure. In traditional water shed management, these structures are used on large streams, while in Konkan, however the Gabions are needed even on smaller streams as the boulder bunds give way in heavy rainfall.

Re-charged Pond: Also known as percolation pond, it holds rain water and make it to percolate underground thereby strengthening the springs of the wells and borewells downstream.

Cordoning of springs: This is done to extend life of the springs. Many springs yield water till December while others till March. After this they all dry up. In this technique, a wall is built in front of the spring mouth so that the water coming out of the spring is collected in the small enclosure created by teh wall. Depending on the yield of the spring and the height of the wall, the accumulated water exerts back pressure on the spring. Thus the water in the spring remains in the hill for longer time. Due to this the spring may yield, higher quantity of water, later on.

Sub-surface wall: It is a wall built from the base of a stream upto sand layer. It may not be visible from the surface. This wall helps in bunding under the sand flow which happens after winter. The walls are located in such a manner as to benefit a well or borewells downstream.

Check dam: It is a bund on a stream. The site for this structure has a more or less flat stream bed so that by building a small wall, accumulated water can reach considerable length, thereby recharging teh soil with fresh water. There is no submergence of land.