Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

National Seminar on Rainwater Harvesting and Water Management 11-12 Nov. 2006, Nagpur
79. Rain water harvesting –Public awareness
* Pradeep S. Bhalge
Abstract
Indian ancestors realized that water is very ephemeral resource for them. They
began to love the monsoon season. They realized that human society couldn’t grow without
extending the bounties of monsoon water from the wet months to the dry months. They
slowly grew the extraordinary traditions of rainwater harvesting in myriad form in different
parts of India. Ancestors have given holistic approach to the water. India is the only
country in the world where water is called as “Tirth”. “Tirth” means the holy water. Due
to this concept in mind no body was wasting the available water and dared to add impurities
to the water resources. Unfortunately today, peoples are forgetting the water heritage,
water culture, and the sustainable technology. This results in to impure and scare water.
In the past days the peoples/ community always had an important role in constructing and
managing the traditional water harvesting systems. This was the reason of the prosperity
in the olden days. This paper deals with the public awareness about the traditional rainwater
harvesting techniques, and importance of people’s participation for efficient use of available
water resources.
Introduction
Once upon a time India was known for surplus
production in the field of agriculture. The prosperity
at that time was depends upon the Agricultural
production and the agriculture was depends upon
the wise full management of available water
resources. Indian agriculture is a monsoon feed
agriculture. The monsoon is known for its vagaries.
One cannot predict anything about its quantity,
extent, intensity, and period of stress. Some times
it rains so heavily, at others it does not rain at all.
To overcome these uncertainties the fore fathers
invented various devices of water conservation.
Some of them are still functioning in different parts
of the country, while the others are waiting for
getting restored. Water is prerequisite of life and
there is no substitute for water. Hence the by gone
scientist realized the essence of water. They made
entire society aware of it. They made conservation
and preservation of water the concern of every-body
and hold every body responsible for its misuse. The
wrong done were severely punished. Ancient stories
description and the narrations written by the foreign
visitors describe the prosperity of our nation at that
time. The prosperity was depending upon the wise
full management of water resources. Prosperity was
attended in the period of dynasty like Gupta’s,
Satwahana’s, Morvay’s,Yadava’s, Hinu dynast of
Vijaynagram, and others. In that period we were
far ahead of other nations in agriculture science.
Information about the few glimpses of Traditional
wisdom in water management is given below.
Water as Tirth
India is the only country where water is
honored as ‘Lok Mata’ i.e. folk mother. They are
hence worshiped as goddesses. Water of rivers and
scared hydraulic bodies was given the status of
‘tirtha” i.e. holistic drink. Tirtha has great respect
in the society. On every religious occasion water is
worshiped at the beginning of the ceremony. On
the third day of Vaishkh a ritual of Akshaya Tritiya
is observed though out the country. Rivers like
Ganga, Yamuna, Sindhu, Sarswati, etc. and
hydraulic bodies like lakes and reservoirs, step
wells, and hot water springs were honored
* Assistant Engineer Gr .II, Jayakwadi Project Circle, Aurangabad.
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