Rain Water Harvesting
Every day for the three driest months of the year, for as long as Sanjeev can remember, his mother and older sisters have walked four km down the hill to get water from the river. His grandmother used to fetch the water too until her health deteriorated and she became too frail to carry the water up the hill.

Sanjeev lives in Hirvepada, a small village in the upper middle ridge of the Tansa hills in India's Maharashtra state about 80 km northeast of Mumbai. Although there is a well in the village, during the months of March, April, and May, the well is dry. For the eight families living there, they have to carry the water up the hill in intense heat.

Only one crop is grown
Little has changed for the eight families living here; they live much in the same way their grandparents and their great-grandparents had lived. The families have 12 acres of land between them on which they grow one crop of rice during the rainy season. The rest of the year the land is left fallow as there is no water to irrigate the land. When there is no work in the fields, the villagers work at the brick kilns earning meager wages.

Today Sanjeev is tired, but happy. He has spent the day with Prasad Chikitsa, the PRASAD entity in India, digging channels and moving heavy rocks in what is known as gully plugging which is a method of water harvesting designed to reduce the speed of rain water run-off during the monsoons. This will allow water to percolate down into the earth and help to fill the wells.

Villagers' income will be greatly improved
Ten villagers of Hirvepada participated in gully plugging today. And for Sanjeev, he is happy that he is able to help in a project that would soon provide sufficient water in the village well all year round. The next step for the village is to construct small check dams to hold the rain water. They then can grow one or two crop of vegetables a year in addition to the customary crop of rice, greatly improving their income. Prasad Chikitsa and the villagers started the water harvesting work well in advance of this year's monsoon rains; they will be ready to catch and store the great downpour when it comes in June.

What is Water Harvesting

Water harvesting literally means harvesting the rain; this entails catching the rain, holding it and storing it.

The rain water can be stored in tanks and dams, and held in ponds; water harvesting can also mean the recharging of ground water.

How is the rain water caught?
Rain water harvesting is an ancient technology practiced in Palestine and Greece 4,000 years ago. In ancient Rome, houses were built with tanks and paved courtyards to capture rain water to augment water from the city's aqueducts. Today sophisticated technology such as satellite mapping can be used to develop water harvesting. There are different ways of catching and storing water to suit the different environments and needs of a community.

Rain water can be collected directly from rooftops, using guttering and drainage systems. In some areas, bamboo drips are used to collect rain water to feed to ponds for irrigation.

Monsoon run-off in the hillsides can be diverted by gully plugging to check dams (which hold water in small basins naturally-formed in the landscape often with one wall built to stop the water from flowing downhill). Run-off from swollen streams can be diverted and stored in tanks, ponds and check dams. The monsoon rain's rapid flow can be slowed down for
percolation through the earth thereby recharging the ground water.

How much water can be harvested?
In the Tansa Valley, the monsoon is a deluge; dried rivers, lakes and ponds are filled to the brim, and wells are recharged. This heavy downpour in June, July, and August can be caught, stored, and used for the rest of the year. Right now most of the rainfall runs off to the sea, and little stays in ponds and wells.

What problems are caused by the lack of water in the dry season ?
First there's the financial hardship. Farmers grow only one crop of rice as there is no water to irrigate the fields during the dry season. What they earn from one crop is not enough to sustain the families' food or income requirements for the whole year.

Then there's the long term financial and ecological implications. In the dry months, many farmers lease their land to brick kiln operators. They sell the topsoil on their land to the brick factories as it is rich in clay and suitable for making bricks. Although this provides the family with money in the immediate term, it creates long term financial problems as the land becomes more difficult to cultivate without the fertile topsoil. The brick kilns also create an ecological problem for the area as trees from the forest are cut down to fire the kilns causing
erosion. In addition, the fires of the kilns cause air pollution as well as contaminating the groundwater.

There's also the spread of HIV/AIDS. When there is no work on the land, many villagers go to Mumbai to look for work. Itinerant workers have been a major factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS in India.

What are the benefits of rain water harvesting?
To begin with, it provides improved and stable income. One crop of rice and two crops of vegetables can be grown if there is sufficient water to irrigate the fields. The additional income from selling the vegetables can be 5 to 6 times that from selling the topsoil. This provides a stable income for the villagers.

It also slows the ecological damage and reduces the spread of HIV/AIDS. Having sufficient irrigation water means long term viability for their agricultural livelihood. This results in fewer farmers leasing their land to brick kilns, fewer trees being cut down, higher agricultural yields, the reduction of poverty and of the migration to find work.

Prasad Chikitsa's 2 Part Water Harvesting Program
Rain water harvesting and sustainable agriculture
Prasad Chikitsa, the PRASAD entity in India, recently began its rain water harvesting program (RWH) in the Tansa Valley. Prasad Chikitsa first identified villages that were suitable for this program by studying the topography of the area. Then working with the villagers, the program was initiated and is being rolled out step by step.

The RWH program began in two villages, Hirvepada and Bamanshet. There will be
more villages identified for this program as it is developed.

There are many components in a RWH program. What measures are taken depend on the topography of the area as well as the living conditions of the villages. Here are some of the elements of Prasad Chikitsa's program:

• Maintenance of existing wells
• Building wells and ponds
• Recharging ground water
• Tree planting to curb soil erosion
• Building tanks and check dams to
   store rain water
• Gully plugging to direct the flow    and speed of rain water run-off

For sustainable agriculture, Prasad Chikitsa is providing villagers with fruit trees as well as technical guidance and incentives on how to take care of the trees. Information and training on the use of seeds and organic farming methods is also made available to hundreds of villagers.

The RWH program is known to be successful when villagers actively participate in the development by providing their time and labor. Prasad Chikitsa is helping the village men to form self-help groups to further support their cooperative participation in the program.