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Case of Ishwariya Village on Roof top Water Harvesting

Ishwariya village is located at 8 km from Amreli. The area is hilly and sloppy. The village population is 1957. The literacy rate in the village is 80.7 per cent.  The ground water table was 80 ft. to 90ft.  The quality of ground water was also degraded. The village did not have any reliable source for drinking water. Government was supplying water by tankers before watershed project. There were quarrels for fetching water from tankers in community and problem of drinking water was severe before  the watershed project was implemented.

Considering this, drinking water was given priority in watershed development. The Watershed Development Committees, PIA and Gramsabha decided to build Roof top water harvesting structures to have permanent solution of this problem of drinking water. Initially 125 roof water harvesting structures were built at cost of 7.91 lakhs under the project. The structures were built at individual house hold level with the contribution from people living in the households. Afterwards most of the village house holds adapted this mechanism of rain water harvesting.

If the water is not exposed to sunlight, it can remain potable for many years. So an under ground tank was built in the house where sunlight could not reach. Minimum capacity of the tank was 10000 litres and minimum size of the tank was 7 ft in width by 7 ft in length and 8 ft in depth. However the village people have built the under ground tank as par their requirement. Gradually this rain water harvesting become a tradition in the village as all the new houses have the structure for rain water harvesting by design till today.

By Seema Dave
Develoment Suport Centre Ahemdabad