Assessing Potential for Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting:An Option for Sustainable Rural Domestic Water Supply in Arid Region of Haryana

Abstract

Water supply to rural communities on a sustainable basis is an important development objective of India. Rainwater harvesting is one of the promising ways of supplementing the surface and underground scarce water resources in areas where existing water supply system is inadequate to meet the demand. The present study is an attempt to find out the rooftop rainwater harvesting potential at micro level. A primary survey of 763 households in an arid Dhani Mohabbatpur village of Hisar district in Haryana was conducted to assess the rooftop rainwater harvesting potential. Potential of rainwater supply from the rooftops of the village residents was estimated using the runoff coefficients for cemented and non-cemented built-up houses including public buildings namely, bus stand, panchayat ghar, child development centre, primary and high schools of the village. The study revealed that the potential of rooftop water harvesting in the village is encouraging and if harvested, it will supplement the water need of village residents. Moreover, it will also reduce the pressure on village public water supply as well as on surface and groundwater resources in the water scarce region.