June IREF: On Rain Water Harvesting:

t is a common misperception that open soil conserves water.

Actually, rain soaks only top couple of meters of soil - like a sponge - and then evaporates it out into the air after rain stops.

So soil is the enemy of rain water harvesting and recharging aquefiers.

What is needed is complete concretisation - so rain water runs off without absorption - into rain water channels - which feed aquefiers.

However, these systems wont work in India - our sewage is so poor, rain water channels will turn into sewers. Also people defecate and piss in open.

Recharging such contaminated water into aquefiers will poison it.

First people and our poor quality of civil engineering needs to change. India gets enough rain for 10000 litres of water "per person PER DAY" - all of which goes into sea mixed with sewage.

God has given everything in abundance to India except people.
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without proper recharge, water percolating enough to reach water table is very low.

Even then, our monsoons are so heavy that it does recharge water table.

Once the top 2 meters of soil get soaked, fresh rain tends to run off into the drainage system (otherwise called nullah - or nala - a natural arroyo which is used for sewage outside monsoons - and reaches the sea.

Everything worked in the past because rain gods blessed India so abundantly and we had 3 months of continuous rain

North India is also blessed - not only with rain and perennial rivers, but also a water table at 10-15 feet - basically UP and Bihar are sitting on a giant lake which God has provided (knowing that on their own, people wouldnt do anything?) - just dig and you get water.

No other country is so blessed.

But now look at the over-extraction of water in Gurgaon region - the satellite photos are really alarming - a permanent destruction of the water table - we cannot even use what God has already given us sensibly