Showing posts with label BIODIVERSITY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BIODIVERSITY. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Monday, 23 November 2015
ECOSYSTEM
Earth is perhaps the only planet in the solar system that
supports life. The portion of the earth which sustains life is called
biosphere. Biosphere is very huge and can not be studied as a single entity. It
is divided into many distinct functional units called ecosystem.
in nature several communities of organisms live together and
interact with each other as well as with their physical environment as an
ecological unit. We call it an ecosystem. The term ‘ecosystem’ was coined by
A.G. Tansley in 1935. An ecosystem is a functional unit of nature encompassing
complex interaction between its biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living)
components. For example- a pond is a good example of ecosystem.
Components of an
ecosystem
Components of ecosystem: They are broadly grouped into:
(a) Abiotic and (b) Biotic components
(a) Abiotic
components (Nonliving): The abiotic component can be grouped into following
three categories:
(i) Physical factors:
Sun light, temperature, rainfall, humidity and pressure. They sustain and limit
the growth of organisms in an ecosystem.
(ii) Inorganic substances: Carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen,
phosphorus, sulphur, water, rock, soil and other minerals.
(iii) Organic compounds: Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and
humic substances. They are the building blocks of living systems and therefore, make a link
between the biotic and abiotic components.
(b) Biotic components
(Living)
(i) Producers: The green plants manufacture food for the
entire ecosystem through the process of photosynthesis. Green plants are called
autotrophs, as they absorb water and nutrients from the soil, carbon dioxide
from the air, and capture solar energy for this process.
(ii) Consumers: They are called heterotrophs and they
consume food synthesized by the autotrophs. Based on food preferences they can
be grouped into three broad categories. Herbivores (e.g. cow, deer and rabbit
etc.) feed directly on plants, carnivores are animals which eat other animals
(eg. lion, cat, dog etc.) and omnivores organisms feeding upon both plants and
animals e.g. human, pigs and sparrow.
(iii) Decomposers:
Also called saprotrophs. These are mostly bacteria and fungi that feed on dead
decomposed and the dead organic matter of plants and animals by secreting
enzymes outside their body on the decaying matter. They play a very important
role in recycling of nutrients. They are also called detrivores or detritus
feeders.
Functions of
ecosystem
Ecosystems are complex dynamic system. They perform certain
functions. These are:
(i) Energy flow through food chain
(ii) Nutrient cycling (biogeochemical cycles)
(iii) Ecological succession or ecosystem development
(iv) Homeostasis (or cybernetic) or feedback control
mechanisms
Ponds, lakes, meadows, marshlands, grasslands, deserts and
forests are examples of natural ecosystem. Many of you have seen an aquarium; a
garden or a lawn etc. in your neighbourhood. These are man made ecosystem.
Types of ecosystems
Ecosystems are classified as follows:
(i) Natural ecosystems (ii) Man made ecosystems
(i) Natural ecosystems
(a) Totally dependent on solar radiation e.g. forests,
grasslands, oceans, lakes, rivers and deserts. They provide food, fuel, fodder
and medicines.
(b) Ecosystems dependent on solar radiation and energy
subsidies (alternative sources) such as wind, rain and tides. e.g tropical rain
forests, tidal estuaries and coral reefs.
(ii) Man made ecosystems
(a) Dependent on solar energy-e.g. Agricultural fields and
aquaculture ponds.
(b) Dependent on fossil fuel e.g. urban and industrial
ecosystems.
POND AS AN EXAMPLE OF AN ECOSYSTEM
A pond is an example of a complete, closed and an
independent ecosystem. It is convenient to study its basic structure and
functions. It works on solar energy and maintains its biotic community in
equilibrium. If you collect a glass full of pond water or a scoop full of pond
bottom mud, it consists of a mixture of plants, animals, inorganic and organic
materials. Following components are found in a pond ecosystem.
Pond ecosystem
(a) Abiotic
components
(i) Light: Solar radiation provides energy that controls the
entire system. Penetration of light depends on transparency of water, amount of
dissolved or suspended particles in water and the number of plankton. On the
basis of extent of penetration of light a pond can be divided into euphotic
(eu=true,photic=light), mesophotic and aphotic zones. Plenty of light is
available to plants and animals in euphotic zone. No light is available in the
aphotic zone.
(ii) Inorganic substances: These are water, carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and a few other elements like sulphur depending
on the location of the pond. The inorganic substances like O2 and CO2 are in
dissolved state in water. All plants and animals depend on water for their food
and exchange of gases- nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur and other inorganic salts
are held in reserve in bottom sediment and inside the living organisms. A very
small fraction may be in the dissolved state.
(iii) Organic compounds: The commonly found organic matter
in the pond are amino acids and humic acids and the breakdown products of dead
animals and plants. They are partly dissolved in water and partly suspended in
water.
(b) Biotic components
(i) Producers or autotrophs: synthesize food for all the
heterotrophs of the pond. They can be categorized into two groups:
(a) Floating microorganisms and plants
(b) Rooted plants
(a) Floating microorganisms (green) and plants are called
phytoplankton (“phyto”- plants, “plankton” –floating). They are microscopic
organisms. Sometimes they are so abundant in pond that they make it look green
in colour e.g. Spirogyra, Ulothrix, Cladophora, Diatoms, Volvox.
(b) Rooted plants: These are arranged in concentric zones
from periphery to the deeper layers. Three distinct zones of aquatic plants can
be seen with increasing deapth of water in the following order:
i) Zone of emergent vegetation: . eg. Typha, Bulrushes and
Sagittaria
ii) Zone of rooted vegetation with floating leaves . eg.
Nymphaea
iii) Zone of submergent vegetation: eg. All pond weeds like
Hydrilla , Rupia, musk grass etc.
(ii) Consumers/Heterotrophs are animals which feed directly
or indirectly on autotrophs eg. Tadpole, snails, sunfish, bass etc.
Pond animals can be classified into the following groups
(a) Zooplanktons are floating animals. Cyclops, Cypris
(b) Nektons are the animals that can swim and navigate at
will. Eg. fishes
(c) Benthic animals are the bottom dwellers: beetle, mites,
mollusks and some crustaceans.
(iii) Decomposers: They are distributed through out the
entire in the whole pond but in the sediment most abundant. There are bacteria
and fungi. (Rhizopus, Penicillium, Curvularia ,Cladosporium) found at the
bottom of the pond.
ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION–ENERGY FLOW THROUGH
ECOSYSTEM
Food chains and energy flow are the functional properties of
ecosystems which make them dynamic. The biotic and abiotic components of an
ecosystem are linked through them.
Food Chain
Transfer of food energy from green plants (producers)
through a series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten is called a
food chain.
e.g. Grasses → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Hawk/Eagle
Each step in the food chain is called trophic level. In the
above example grasses are 1st, and eagle represents the 5th trophic level.
During this process of transfer of energy some energy is
lost into the system as heat energy and is not available to the next trophic
level. Therefore, the number of steps are limited in a chain to 4 or 5.
Following trophic levels can be identified in a food chain.
(1) Autotrophs: They are the producers of food for all other
organisms of the ecosystem. They are largely green plants and convert inorganic
material in the presence of solar energy by the process of photosynthesis into
the chemical energy (food). The total rate at which the radiant energy is
stored by the process of photosynthesis in the green plants is called Gross
Primary Production (GPP). This is also known as total photosynthesis or total
assimilation. From the gross primary productivity a part is utilized by the
plants for its own metabolism. The remaining amount is stored by the plant as
Net Primary Production (NPP) which is available to consumers.
(2) Herbivores: The
animals which eat the plants directly are called primary consumers or
herbivores e.g. insects, birds, rodents and ruminants.
(3) Carnivores: They are secondary consumers if they feed on
herbivores and tertiary consumers if they use carnivores as their food. e.g.
frog, dog, cat and tiger.
(4) Omnivores: Animals that eat both plant and animals e.g.
pig, bear and man.
(5) Decomposers: They take care of the dead remains of
organisms at each trophic level and help in recycling of the nutrients e.g.
bacteria and fungi.
There are two types
of food chains:
(i) Grazing food
chains: which starts from the green plants that make food for herbivores
and herbivores in turn for the carnivores.
(ii) Detritus food
chains: start from the dead organic matter to the detrivore organisms which
in turn make food for protozoan to carnivores etc.
In an ecosystem the two chains are interconnected and make
y-shaped food chain. These two types of food chains are:(i) Producers →
Herbivores → Carnivores (ii) Producers → Detritus Feeders → Carnivores
Food web
Trophic levels in an ecosystem are not linear rather they
are interconnected and make a food web. Thus food web is a network
interconnected food chains existing in an ecosystem. One animal may be a member
of several different food chains. Food webs are more realistic models of energy
flow through an ecosystem.
In ecosystems flow of energy is linear but that of nutrients
is cyclical. This is because energy flows down hill i.e. it is utilized or lost
as heat as it flows forward The nutrients on the other hand cycle from dead
remains of organisms released back into the soil by detrivores which are
absorbed again i.e. nutrient absorbed from soil by the root of green plants are
passed on to herbivores and then carnivores.
The nutrients locked in the dead
remains of organisms and released back into the soil by detrivores and
decomposers. This recycling of the nutrients is called biogeochemical or
nutrient cycle (Bio = living, geo = rock chemical = element). There are more
than 40 elements required for the various life processes by plants and animals.
The entire earth or biosphere is a closed system i.e. nutrients are neither
imported nor exported from the biosphere.
There are two important components of a biogeochemical cycle
(1) Reservoir pool - atmosphere or rock, which stores large
amounts of nutrients.
(2) Cycling pool or compartments of cycle-They are
relatively short storages of carbon in the form of plants and animals.
Carbon cycle
The source of all carbon is carbon dioxide present in the
atmosphere. It is highly soluble in water; therefore, oceans also contain large
quantities of dissolved carbon dioxide.
The global carbon cycle consists of following steps
• Photosynthesis
Green plants in the presence of sunlight utilize CO2 in the
process of photosynthesis and convert the inorganic carbon into organic matter
(food) and release oxygen. A part of the food made through photosynthesis is
used by plants for their own metabolism and the rest is stored as their biomass
which is available to various herbivores, heterotrophs, including human beings
and microorganisms as food. Annually 4-9 x1013 kg of CO2 is fixed by green
plants of the entire biosphere. Forests acts as reservoirs of CO2 as carbon
fixed by
• Respiration
Respiration is carried out by all living organisms. It is a
metabolic process where food is oxidized to liberate energy, CO2 and water. The
energy released from respiration is used for carrying out life processes by
living organism (plants, animals, decomposers etc.). Thus CO2 is released into
of the atmosphere through this process.
• Decomposition
All the food assimilated by animals or synthesized by plant
is not metabolized by them completely. A major part is retained by them as
their own biomass which becomes available to decomposers on their death. The
dead organic matter is decomposed by microorganisms and CO2 is released into
the atmosphere by decomposers.
• Combustion
Burning of biomass releases carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere.
• Impact of human activities
The global carbon cycle has been increasingly disturbed by
human activities particularly since the beginning of industrial era. Large
scale deforestation and ever growing consumption of fossil fuels by growing
numbers of industries, power plants and automobiles are primarily responsible
for increasing emission of carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide has been continuously increasing in the
atmosphere due to human activities such as industrialization, urbanization and
increasing use and number of automobiles. This is leading to increase
concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere,
which is a major cause of global warming.
Nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen is an essential component of protein and required
by all living organisms including human beings.
Our atmosphere contains nearly 79% of nitrogen but it can
not be used directly by the majority of living organisms. Broadly like
corbondioxide, nitrogen also cycles from gaseous phase to solid phase then back
to gaseous phase through the activity of a wide variety of organisms. Cycling
of nitrogen is vitally important for all living organisms. There are five main
processes which essential for nitrogen cycle are elaborated below.
(a) Nitrogen fixation: This process involves conversion of
gaseous nitrogen into Ammonia, a form in which it can be used by plants.
Atmospheric nitrogen can be fixed by the following three methods:
(i) Atmospheric fixation: Lightening, combustion and
volcanic activity help in the fixation of nitrogen.
(ii) Industrial fixation: At high temperature (400oC) and
high pressure (200 atm.), molecular nitrogen is broken into atomic nitrogen
which then combines with hydrogen to form ammonia.
(iii) Bacterial fixation: There are two types of bacteria
(i) Symbiotic bacteria e.g. Rhizobium in the root nodules of
leguminous plants.
(ii) Freeliving or symbiotic e.g. 1. Nostoc 2. Azobacter 3.
Cyanobacteria can combine atmospheric or dissolved nitrogen with hydrogen to
form ammonia.
(b) Nitrification: It is a process by which ammonia is
converted into nitrates or nitrites by Nitrosomonas and Nitrococcus bacteria
respectively. Another soil bacteria Nitrobacter can covert nitrate into
nitrite.
(c) Assimilation: In this process nitrogen fixed by plants
is converted into organic molecules such as proteins, DNA, RNA etc. These
molecules make the plant and animal tissue.
(d) Ammonification : Living organisms produce nitrogenous
waste products such as urea and uric acid. These waste products as well as dead
remains of organisms are converted back into inorganic ammonia by the bacteria
This process is called ammonification. Ammonifying bacteria help in this
process.
(e) Denitrification: Conversion of nitrates back into
gaseous nitrogen is called denitrification. Denitrifying bacteria live deep in
soil near the water table as they like to live in oxygen free medium.
Denitrification is reverse of nitrogen fixation.
Water Cycle
Water is essential for life. No organism can survive without
water. Precipitation (rain, snow, slush dew etc.) is the only source of water
on the earth. Water received from the atmosphere on the earth returns back to
the atmosphere as water vapour resulting from direct evaporation and through
evapotranspiration the continuous movement of water in the biosphere is called
water cycle (hydrological cycle). You have already studied that earth is a watery
planet of the solar system, about 2/3rd of earth surface is covered with water.
However a very small fraction of this is available to animals and plants.
Water is not evenly distributed throughout the surface of
the earth. Almost 95 % of the total water on the earth is chemically bound to
rocks and does not cycle. Out of the remaining 5%, nearly 97.3% is in the
oceans and 2.1% exists as polar ice caps. Thus only 0.6% is present as fresh
water in the form of atmospheric water vapours, ground and soil water.
The driving forces for water cycle are 1) solar radiation 2)
gravity .
Evaporation and precipitation are two main processes
involved in water cycle.
These two processes alternate with each other
Water from oceans, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams evaporates
by sun’s heat energy. Plants also transpire huge amounts of water. Water
remains in the vapour state in air and forms clouds which drift with wind.
Clouds meet with the cold air in the mountainous regions above the forests and
condense to form rain precipitate which comes down due to gravity.
On an average 84% of the water is lost from the surface of
the through oceans by evaporation. While 77% is gained by it from
precipitation. Water run off from lands through rivers to oceans makes up 7%
which balances the evaporation deficit of the ocean. On land, evaporation is
16% and precipitation is 23%.
HOMEOSTASIS OF
ECOSYSTEM
Ecosystems are capable of maintaining their state of
equilibrium. They can regulate their own species structure and functional
processes. This capacity of ecosystem of self regulation is known as
homeostasis. In ecology the term applies to the tendency for a biological
systems to resist changes. For example, in a pond ecosystem if the population
of zooplankton increased, they would consume large number of the phytoplankton and
as a result soon zooplankton would be short supply of food for them. As the
number zooplankton is reduced because of starvation, phytoplankton population
start increasing. After some time the population size of zooplankton also
increases and this process continues at all the trophic levels of the food
chain.
Note that in a homeostatic system, negative feed back
mechanism is responsible for maintaining stability in a ecosystem.
However, homeostatic capacity of ecosystems is not unlimited
as well as not everything in an ecosystem is always well regulated. You will
learn about the scope and limitations homeostatic mechanisms when you gain more
knowledge about ecosystems. Humans are the greatest source of disturbance to
ecosystems.
Large number of phytoplankton ↓ Increase population of
zooplankton due to excess food available ↓ Reduction in phytoplankton ↓
Population of zooplanktons decrease due to starvation ↓ Population of
phytoplankton starts increasing due to less consumption
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
Waste management
Waste management is the collection,
transportation and disposal of waste materials.
Municipal Solid Waste
(Management and Handling) Rules 2000 regulate the management
and handling of the municipal solid wastes and are applicable to every
municipal authority responsible for collection, segregation, storage,
transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solid wastes
Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling)
Rules, 1998 regulate the management and handling of
bio-medical waste and are applicable to all persons who generate, collect,
receive, store, transport, treat, dispose, or handle bio medical waste in any
form.
E-Waste (Management
and Handling) Rules, 2010 regulate the management and
handling of electrical and electronic waste and is applicable to every
producer, consumer involved in manufacture, sale, purchase and processing of
these equipments or its components.
The commonly practiced technologies for
SWM can be grouped under three major categories, i.e., bio-processing, thermal
processing and sanitary landfill. The bio-processing method includes aerobic
and anaerobic composting. Thermal methods are incineration and pyrolysis.
Sanitary landfill is generally used to dispose off the final rejects coming out
of the biological and thermal waste processing units.
Aerobic composting is the creation of
fertilizing compost using bacteria that thrive in an oxygen-rich environment.
Aerobic composting is considered the fastest method of composting, but involves
more work interms of rotating the organic material periodically.
Anaerobic composting is the creation of
fertilising compost using bacteria that cannot thrive in the presence of
oxygen. Anaerobic composting is known to work slowly, but also requires lesser
work.
Incineration is a waste treatment
process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste
materials. Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue
gas, and heat. In some cases, the heat generated by incineration can be used to
generate electric power.
A sanitary landfill is a low-lying area
that is filled with waste rejects. It has a liner at the bottom to prevent the
groundwater from contaminating with the mix of the liquid that oozes from the
waste that is buried called the leachate. Waste is buried in-between layers of
soil and is compacted nicely to make it a hard surface. When the landfill is
completed, it is capped with a layer of clay or a synthetic liner in order to
prevent water from entering. A final topsoil cover is placed, compacted and
graded, and various forms of vegetation may be planted in order to reclaim the
otherwise useless land.
- Keep
separate containers for dry and wet waste in the kitchen.
- Keep
two bags for dry waste collection- paper and plastic, for the rest of the
household waste.
- Keep
plastic from the kitchen clean and dry and drop into the dry waste bin.
Keep glass /plastic containers rinsed of food matter.
- Keep
a paper bag for throwing sanitary waste.
- Form
a group with like-minded people.
- Explain
waste segregation to your family / neighbours in your apartment building.
- Get
the staff in the apartment building to also understand its importance.
- Get
separate storage drums for storing dry and wet waste.
- Have
the dry waste picked up by the dry waste collection centre or your local
scrap dealer.
Wet waste
Wet waste consists of kitchen waste -
including vegetable and fruit peels and pieces, tea leaves, coffee grounds,
eggshells, bones and entrails, fish scales, as well as cooked food (both veg
and non-veg).
Dry Waste
Paper, plastics, metal, glass, rubber,
thermocol, styrofoam, fabric, leather, rexine, wood – anything that can be kept
for an extended period without decomposing is classified as dry waste.
Hazardous waste
Household hazardous waste or HHW include
three sub-categories – E-waste; toxic substances such as paints, cleaning
agents, solvents, insecticides and their containers, other chemicals; and
biomedical waste.
E-waste
E-waste or electronic waste consists of
batteries, computer parts, wires, electrical equipment of any kind, electrical
and electronic toys, remotes, watches, cell phones, bulbs, tube lights and
CFLs.
Biomedical waste
This includes used menstrual cloth,
sanitary napkins, disposable diapers, bandages and any material that is
contaminated with blood or other body fluids.
Dry waste
Store it in a bag in the utility area
after cleaning and drying till it is picked up. No food residue must be left in
the bottles and packets. Clean them as you would to reuse them. If clothes are
totally unusable, or very damaged, they are categorized as dry waste. If
clothes are soiled with body fluids, they become sanitary waste. If they are
soiled with paint, or any chemicals, they are HHW (household hazardous waste).
E-waste
Store them in separate container which
is kept closed, away from moisture and in which nothing else is put.
Compost
your wet waste at home
Home composting can easily be done in
any aerated container. Get more details on
composting and begin
composting today!
Compost
your wet waste at the community level
If you live in a large apartment
building, a community composting system like tank composting could be set up
for all the wet waste from the residents. If not, the wet waste can be given
out every day to your Municipality collection system.
Biomedical waste has to be wrapped
separately in a newspaper and handed over to the municipality waste collection
system. Expired medicines and injections, used syringes also have to be
disposed in the same manner.
Paint and other hazardous waste like
cosmetics, mosquito repellents, tube lights etc have to be stored separately
and handed over to the Municipal collection system.
RAINWATER HARVESTING
Rainwater Harvesting (RWH)
RWH is the technique of collecting,
storing and distributing rainwater for multiple uses. The collected water can
be stored for direct use or diverted for borewell/groundwater recharge.
In simple terms it is a way to capture
the rainwater when it rains, for later use.
RWH
can be traced back to thousands of years in India. Our ancestors traditionally harvested
rainwater through
tankas, johads, madakas and many such local innovative
structures that can be seen even today, across the country.
Rainwater
is the ultimate source of all the fresh water that we use. In India, rainfall
occurs in short periods of high intensity, allowing the rain falling on the
surface to flow away fast. This leaves little scope for recharging the
groundwater, which results in water scarcity in most parts of the country.
Through RWH, this erratic rainfall can be conserved, stored & used as per
convenience, either directly or for recharging groundwater.
RWH can be done in homes, apartments,
societies, schools, institutions, commercial premises and any other space as
long as there is a catchment area in the form of a roof or open space to
capture the rain.
Domestic rainwater
harvesting is a
relatively simpler affair, where even a rain barrel can serve as a storage unit
for rooftop RWH. Individual homes have successfully implemented this
easy and eco-friendly method of augmenting household-level water availability.
Farmers also have implemented RWH to transform a barren piece of land into a self
sustainable, lush green farm.
The rainwater harvested depends upon the
catchment area, the rainfall pattern in the area and the drianage/ collection
system used.
To understand the potential for
rainwater harvesting, lets take the example of a house in Delhi with a terrace
area of 100 sqm. Taking the average annual rainfall in Delhi as 600 mm, and
assuming 70% harvesting efficiency (as some rainwater will be lost due to
evaporation, collection etc.), we can calculate the amount of water harvested
thus:
Volume of water harvested = 100 x 0.6 x
0.7
= 42,000 litres
This volume is more than twice the
annual drinking water requirement of a 5-member family, whose average daily
drinking water requirement is 10 lpcd.
Rainwater harvesting can broadly be
divided into 3 categories based on the types of usage, the area in which
harvesting is carried out and the people involved.
- Storage
or recharge: Based on the type of usage, structures can either be used to
store the collected water for direct use or to recharge groundwater.
- Urban-rural
difference: Urbanization has resulted in the shrinking of open spaces as
well as unpaved areas. This has resulted not only in flooding of cities
but has also caused water scarcity due to groundwater depletion in general
and saline water intrusion in coastal cities. While rural harvesting is
mostly traditional and is carried out in surface storage bodies like
rivers, tanks, ponds, lakes etc., urban harvesting, due to lack of open
space for capturing the runoff, is mostly in sub-soil storage as
groundwater recharge.
- Rooftop
& driveway harvesting: When we say rainwater harvesting, the first
thing that comes to our mind is the terrace. This greatly restricts the
scope of rainwater harvesting as a considerable amount of water that falls
around the built-up area is let out of the building as run-off. Driveway
run-off water should not be led into a sump for immediate use or to a
source well, but it can very well be directed into recharge wells.
The RWH system must ensure that not a
drop of rainwater falling within the premises is let into the sewerage or
wasted as runoff. This can be achieved only if the method adopted within the
premises satisfies the following criteria:
- Completeness:
Both rooftop and driveway runoff water must be harvested.
- Apportioning
of water: To avoid overload of any one system, leading to overflow and
loss.
- Proper
design: Volume of water likely to flow through and the nature of the soil
in the area should be considered.
- Maintainability:
Design should incorporate features allowing for periodic maintenance of
the structure.
It is a process by which the groundwater
is augmented at a rate exceeding that obtained under natural conditions of
replenishment. Any man made scheme or facility that adds water to an aquifer
may be considered to be an artificial recharge system.
Recharge structures are
constructed to allow rainwater to replenish groundwater. The various ways
in which recharge can be done is through:
- Abandoned
dugwell
- Handpump
- Recharge
pit
- Recharge
trench
- Gravity
head recharge tubewell
- Recharge
shaft
- Flood
mitigation: Appropriately designed recharge structures in open public
spaces, will help keep the roads from flooding. When water is not allowed
to leave the premises, the chances of it choking up the roads are minimal.
- Increasing
groundwater levels: Marked improvement of both the quantity as well as the
quality of the groundwater in areas which have implemented rainwater
harvesting
- Greater
water availablity: Rainwater collected in storage tanks is available as
and when needed
- Prevents
soil erosion and flooding especially in urban areas
In compliance to CGWA (Central Ground
Water Authority) directions, steps have been taken by
states/UTs to promote
and to make rainwater harvesting mandatory. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Ranchi
Regional Development Authority, Bombay Municipal Corporation and Pimpri –
Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana, Improvement
Trust, Jalandhar, Jaipur Municipal Corporation, Mussorie Dehradun Development
Authority, and Union Territories of Delhi, Daman & Diu and Puducherry have
made necessary provisions in their building bye-laws to make installation of
rain water harvesting systems mandatory.
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