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Rain Water Harvesting
 Since
1986, the College has focused on rain water harvesting and piped
water systems as the emphasis has moved beyond providing clean drinking
water to providing easy access to drinking water.
13 villages, 1200 connections and 15000 people now benefit from
community piped water supply systems, designed, planned and implemented
entirely by the village people. These communities pay Rs. 30/ month
for two hours of water per day.
Other water initiatives include:
- 29 million litres of rain water collected in 470 schools and
community centres. This water is the only safe option in areas
of brackish water with high iron and fluoride content.
- More than 1000 shallow/dried up community open dugwells in 70
villages have been channelised with surface water runoff, through
rainwater harvesting from its catchment area during monsoons,
as part of the College's groundwater recharging initiatives. This
has been a new initiative since 1996.
- Desiltation of more than 223 Village Ponds, for recharging groundwater
levels surrounding the villages and in its open dugwells has since
1996 been taken up by the College, as a drought poroofing inititative
with a long term perspective.
- 1,400 samples of drinking water covering 78 villages in 8 states
tested using mobile testing kits.
- 45 rural youth trained as barefoot chemists in 8 states.
- 1166 handpump mechanics trained to carry out all repairs for
the 45,250 handpumps in Rajasthan. 45 of these mechanics are women.
- 15 women have been trained as barefoot engineers, to fabricate
and construct overhead water tanks, having a capacity of holding
100,000 litres of water.
- 250 women trained to plan, supervise and implement a drought
proofing initiative of desiltation of village ponds.
The College's efforts have within recent years shifted focus from
the availability of drinking water to its control. It is now a social
problem because communities are losing control over the distribution
of water as the question of who owns the assets remains unresolved.
Guidelines for Construction of a Rainwater Harvesting System in a School
Summary of Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Systems - December 2007
"Rainwater
Harvesting," Virtual Exhibit, World Summit on Sustainable
Development, August, 2002
"Rainwater Harvesting" Video 1,
2
(Windows Media Player 7.0 Required), Virtual Exhibit, World Summit
on Sustainable Development, August
Social Work and Research
Centre
Tilonia, Rajasthan, India
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