SUSTAINABLE WATER SUPPLY BY REJUVENATING DRY WELLS THROUGH CLUSTER APPROACH IN ROOF TOP RAIN WATER HARVESTING IN RURAL DISTRICT BANDA, INDIA- SDG GOAL 6.1
Keywords:
ural roof top rain water harvesting, Drought, Bundhelkhand, Banda District , Ground Water Recharge , Community action, Water Security, SDG 6.1 , Safe WaterAbstract
Bundhelkhand region within India, spread across 2 states and 14 districts, is amongst most backward region
in country with 1/3rd of population living below poverty line. Banda district within Bundhelkhand region is mostly
rural, depends on farming for their livelihood but have poor rainfall (average annual rainfall of 902 mm) leading to
widespread poverty. This results into rapidly drying hand pumps due to ground water depletion in backdrop of almost
absent culture of rain water harvesting. Women’s can be observed fetching water from long distances particularly in
summer season in many villages of Banda district.
Akhil Bhartiya Samaj Seva Sansthan (ABSSS), a local civil society organization with financial support from
WaterAid India started a learning project on low cost method of rapid recharge of ground water in rural areas
through roof top rain water harvesting. The project worked on using a cluster of houses for installation of roof top
rain water harvesting system and collecting the rain water from these cluster of houses to direct recharge through
abandoned dried up dug wells in the villages after installation of a filter in between. The objective of the project was to
quickly recharge the first strata of ground water so that the dried up wells are again recharged and can be used up as
safe source of water when deep bore hand pumps for drinking water supply goes dry in summer season thereby reduce
drudgery of women.
The key learnings of the project is that clustering the small roof tops in rural areas and direct recharge of dried up
and abandoned wells , we can recharge the wells in short term and develop them as sanitary well for safe source of
water supply particularly in summer months when deep bore hand pumps goes dry. The learnings from the project
help to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 in context of Banda and Bundhelkhand in rural and urban areas.
