Water Conservation Projects And Methods Adopted In India: Tips to Conserve Water At Home
Introduction
One of the significant issues for nations all over the world is the lack of access to water. As the city ran out of water and all the reservoirs dried up in 2019, Chennai made news worldwide when the civic bodies declared “Day Zero.” According to a report by the government think tank NITI Aayog, 20 more Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi, and Hyderabad, would run out of groundwater over the next several years if water conservation techniques were not followed. Adopting universal water-saving methods that all households can use is the only way to escape this dire predicament. Here is a thorough explanation of water conservation and what you can do on a personal level.
India’s water conservation efforts and projects
The Jal Shakti Abhiyan was introduced in 2019 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti of the Indian government. It is an all-encompassing national initiative to promote water conservation at the local level by enlisting the help of citizens. From July 1 to September 30 and from October 1 to November 30 this year, the project on water conservation was launched.
The government introduced the “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” with the theme “Catch the rain, Where it Falls When it Falls” on March 22, 2021, World Water Day. Up to November 30, 2021, it covers all districts in India’s rural and urban areas during the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons.
The government’s effort focuses on the construction and maintenance of rainfall harvesting and water conservation structures, the rehabilitation of numerous conventional water storage tanks, the reuse and recharge of bore wells, developing watersheds, and extensive afforestation.
Jal Sanchay
The Jal Sanchay project was launched to conserve water in the Bihar district of Nalanda. The water conservation project’s main objectives were the irrigation system, Traditional water bodies, and check dam construction. It also included raising awareness of conventional water conservation practices and rainfall-gathering strategies to stabilise water table levels. Additionally, the project was carried out with the assistance of neighborhood farmers and via advertisements.
Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, the project was chosen in 2017 for a national award for excellence (MGNREGP).
Simple strategies to conserve water around the house:
How to save water in the kitchen:
Do not clean food items with running water:
Never wash vegetables under running water. Alternatively, soak the vegetables in a water basin before washing them. Frozen meals shouldn’t be thawed under running water. You can leave frozen items outside to defrost them overnight.
Use water-saving equipment at home and work:
Choose a dishwasher with a “light-wash” setting when buying one. Only use an electric dishwasher for shorter cycles and full loads.
Use wastewater recycling:
Use the wastewater from the RO water purifier to wash your plants or cars. Additionally, you can pre-rinse laundry with this water and mop floors with it. Don’t drain the water still in water bottles. Plants can be watered with it, or bird water bowls can be filled with it.
Turn the water off before washing the dishes:
Turn off the water while you are not rinsing if you need to wash a few containers by hand.
How to save water in the bathroom:
Shorten your showers:
Between 20 and 40 gallons of water are used in a four-minute shower. Spend less time in the shower. A tub that is partially filled uses less water.
When not in use, shut off the faucet:
Stop the water before shaving or brushing your teeth. You can fill a glass with water and rinse your mouth before brushing. Use short bursts of water while shaving to clean the razors.
Stop the water before shaving or brushing your teeth. You can fill a glass with water and rinse your mouth before brushing. Use short bursts of water while shaving to clean the razors.
Check the toilet for leaks:
After use, securely close the faucets. Up to 50 gallons or more of water can be wasted each day due to tap water dropping. Any tap leaks need to be repaired immediately.
Regularly examine the toilet flushing systems for leaks. If color emerges in the bowl after an hour, your toilet leaks. You can quickly check this by dropping food colouring or dye tablets into the tank.
Do not use the restrooms as an ashtray or trash can:
Five to seven litres of water are lost when a cigarette butt or toilet tissue is flushed. Do not flush tissues, cigarette ends, or other waste down the toilet.
Put a plastic bottle in the bathroom tank:
Keep an inch or two of sand or pebbles at the bottom to weigh down a one-litre bottle. In larger tanks, two bottles can be placed. Place the remaining water-filled bottle away from the flushing mechanism in the toilet tank. It often saves five gallons or more of water every day.
The most water possible for each load of laundry:
Laundry typically accounts for 15 to 40% of home water use. One can save water by adjusting the settings on the washing machine to the appropriate load size to ensure the optimal quantity of water.
Invest in low-flush toilets:
Install toilets with low flush rates to cut water usage by up to 50%.
Only use an automated washer when you have full loads:
An automated washer may use up to 35 gallons during a cycle.
Install water-saving fixtures in your bathrooms:
To save water, install water-efficient faucets and showerheads. Shower flow can be decreased from five to ten gallons per minute to about three gallons per minute using water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors.
Put in dual flush toilets in the house, which has two ways of controlling the water volume.
Fix any leaks in the hoses, faucets, couplings, or pipes:
Water leaks outside the home may go unnoticed, but they can waste much water compared to leaks inside the house, mainly if they occur on the main water line. Therefore, it’s crucial to find these leaks and fix them.
How to save water in the yard and outside:
Cultivate water-wise vegetation:
To use less water, choose drought-tolerant plants and trees for your backyard garden.
Deeply water the yard:
Allowing the water to remain long enough to reach the roots is an efficient technique for irrigating your lawn. But try to avoid leaving the sprinklers on all day. Water lightly sprinkled on the surface could evaporate, producing waste.
Avoid overwatering the soil because it is unable to store more water. For a brief period, refrain from watering the lawns daily. Instead, you could perform it every three to five days. Gardens and lawns only need 5 millimeters of water per day in warm weather.
While washing the automobile, conserve water:
Use a bucket instead of a continuous stream of water, and only rinse off the soapy water with a hose.
To prevent children from using the hose and sprinklers:
In the summer heat, kids typically prefer to use a hose or sprinkler to play in the garden. Water waste could happen as a result, though.
Techniques for conserving water
Projects to save water can be implemented anywhere and in any structure. Here are a few different water-saving strategies you can use to save a lot of money with little work:
Rainwater harvesting:
Harvesting rainwater is a highly efficient way to recharge the groundwater table and save natural water. This water-saving method involves collecting rainwater and letting it soak into a large trench or reservoir, where it will raise the groundwater level.
Farmers may help with water management by utilising the drip irrigation technique, which uses tiny tubes to water plants. Water is conserved because this water is sent straight to the plant’s base.
Water Metering
Installing water meters and keeping an eye on water usage in residential and commercial structures is another effective way to reduce water waste. According to the water price, the water used is calculated and charged. Always keep an eye out for unusually high water usage on the bills. It might help in locating leaks.
Grey Water Recycling
Greywater recycling is a technique for reusing used wastewater from showers, washing machines, and kitchen sinks for flushing toilets and watering plants. Greywater is surplus in volume compared to rainwater harvesting, which depends on precipitation. Environmentalists have shown that this recycling method has cut home water use by over 70%.
Pressure Reducing Valve
A pressure reduction valve controls how much pressure is present in a hydraulic system. These valves assure that the water level has been decided upon. By doing this, the water system’s downstream components survive longer and less water is consumed. This is a highly effective way to conserve water in commercial, institutional, residential, and industrial facilities.
India uses a variety of traditional methods for conserving water:
In many areas of India, rapid urbanization and water pollution have hurt the quantity and quality of surface and groundwater. The agricultural system of the nation is still largely reliant on rainfall. The government has been considering reviving conventional water conservation techniques in light of the shifting rainfall patterns.
Here is the list of some of them:
Talab or Bandhi:
Tabs or ponds are the names of reservoirs used to store water for domestic and drinking purposes. They might be artificial or natural ponds. A talab is a reservoir with fewer than five bighas surface area, whereas a band is a medium-sized lake.
Jhalaras
In the past, jhalaras were built to provide a consistent water supply for communal use, religious rites, and royal ceremonies. These step wells are rectangular and have tiers on three or four sides. These step wells collect underground seepage from a lake or an upstream reservoir.
Baoli
Baolis were constructed by the ruling class for civic, charitable, or political purposes. These facilities were open to all societal members. Stepwells called baolis were exquisitely crafted with motifs and arches. The main factor determining these bolish functions was where they were situated. For instance, baolis along trade routes were used as resting places, whereas that inside village was used for social gatherings and practical needs.
Kund
Kunds were built to conserve water and collect rainwater for drinking, primarily in Gujarat and Rajasthan. It is a saucer-shaped catchment area with a slope leading to a central, circular, underground well. Cement is used to build modern kinds. In the past, they were covered with ash and lime, both disinfectants.
Bawari
Bawaris, stepwells that created the earliest water storage networks in Rajasthan, illustrate conventional water conservation techniques in India. They were explicitly designed to use canals built on hilly terrain in the city’s outskirts to divert the minimum amount of rainfall the area would receive to artificial tanks.
Taanka
Taanka is one of the traditional rainwater harvesting techniques used in Rajasthan’s Thar desert region as a form of water conservation. Rainwater is collected in Taanka, a paved cylindrical underground pit, from courtyards, rooftops, and specially constructed catchments.
Nadis
Village ponds known as nadis are where rainwater from nearby natural catchment areas collects. These bodies of water receive their water from sporadic, torrential rainfall, and as a result, they frequently experience rapid siltation from the large amounts of sand deposited there.
Other areas of India conserve water.
An interconnected water drainage and storage system network exists in Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh. Every fort in the area has efficient water-saving storage facilities. During wars, these forts were used to store supplies, and access to the outside was restricted. As a result, these structures assisted in water storage.
An Indus Valley civilisation historical site is Dholavira in Gujarat. Several lake-shaped storage reservoirs have been constructed to hold surface water during the rainy season.
Conclusion
Water conservation is a technique for effectively using water and reducing unnecessary or wasteful use. Water conservation is crucial and essential now that fresh, clean water is recognised as a finite resource.
