- You can harvest rainwater in your house, factory or office. Read these case studies about families and companies who have successfully harvested rainwater in their premises, proving that rainwater harvesting is both feasible and beneficial. These case studies, written by Shree Padre, have been taken from Indiatogether.org Shree Padreis a journalist with many years of experience in agricultural reporting and the author of a book on rainwater harvesting published by Altermedia.
- Shri Anupam Mishra has done intense research and documentation on the rise and fall of traditional rainwater harvesting structures. Acknowledged as an authority on the subject, Shri Mishra has written two books; ‘Aaj Bhi Khare Hai Talaab’ in Hindi and ‘The Radiant Raindrops Of Rajasthan’ (English), or ‘Rajasthan Ka Rajat Boonde’ (Hindi) on rainwater harvesting in the harsh Thar desert of Rajasthan.
- ‘Bringing Home Rain’ is a must watch video for all. Produced by Arghyam and directed by the Rainwater Club, the video is about households who overcame hardships of water scarcity by rainwater harvesting. Prior to this, women drew water more than ten times a day for their personal chores and wasted almost four days of labour in a week to fetch water. By storing rainwater in a simple cement tank built adjacent to their house, the women were able to draw water for their domestic work in their premises itself. A must watch video for beginners.
- Independent houses: You can increase the water supply in your house in a cost efficient way by harvesting rainwater. With an one time investment of Rs.12000/-, Mysore based H Ramesh installed a rainwater harvesting system on his terrace. He is now able to meet demand for water for his five member family for a whole year. Read the complete case study at The Gift From The Sky
- Apartment blocks: Residents living in apartment blocks often purchase water from tankers to meet their needs. Rainwater harvesting will enable them to boost their water supply and reduce if not completely remove their dependency on water tankers. When the five open wells of the 140 flat Bayview Apartments in Chennai went dry in 1999, a resident's vision motivated the collective effort by all residents to harvest rainwater in the premises. The season’s bountiful rainfall led to a six to eight metres increase in the water table in the area. Read More about how the residents benefited by captive rainwater harvesting in Water Deposit Revives Open Wells.
- Coastal areas: When water in land based wells or aquifers is contaminated with sea water, then it becomes unsuitable for human consumption, and leads to shortage of drinking water. The Christian Educational Institution, a school near Mangalore, built a massive rainwater harvesting tank as a solution to the regular shortage of drinking water. Its successful efforts are inspiring nearby schools, industries and factories to harvest rainwater in their premises. Read more about it in Shedding the borewell dependency.
- Campus/corporates ‘IIM Kozhikode runs on rainwater’, is a case study on the B-school's 96-acre campus which had no independent source for water. Its average daily water consumption exceeds one lakh litres. Despite less rainfall, IIM-K was able to resolve much of its problem related to water supply.
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