Rainwater Harvesting works as a significant contributor to battle the water availability issues. When there are problems, there are solutions tangible to the problems as well. One needs to find an appropriate solution that is accessible in the practical field. One such solution is Open Wells.

           I don’t agree with the perception that traditional methods are any less reliable for rainwater harvesting. A vast opportunity with favorable options is lying out there. Tradition and modernity can be blended. The workforce serves as a significant game changer in a situation of the water crisis.

           Culture plays a pertinent role but has to be modified to meet the modern requirements of the position.  For instance, a traditional workforce who has experienced in the practical field will have better reliable solutions to solve the water problem. The only aspect where one needs to work on is in skilling the workforce on the right path, owing to the context and the modern situation that one needs to deal.

Open Wells, a Traditional Approach

            People don’t believe that open wells are of any use. However, in reality, open wells are still a valid source. For example, a well which was traditionally used as a source to receive water can be used as a base to supply water back. Open wells pave compelling advantages by installing good quality filters to filter the catchment water that the open well receives. This water will serve as a valid source of water. This way, the open well serves a dual purpose of saving rainwater within it and also can be consumed as a source of groundwater.

             Cleansing and maintenance of open wells are much more relaxed than bore wells. Open wells also hold the advantage of easier maintenance than a bore well. Since the traditionally skilled workforce has dealt with the cleaning processes of the wells since the inception of agriculture, cleansing won’t propose any hassle. Some specific people clean the wells annually. In older days, coconut trees were maintained by skilled workforce by trimming all the branches and adding salt by the roots annually. It’s like a ritual. Even today, in places like Malleshwaram in Bengaluru, well diggers go from home to home to clean the wells.

              There have been quite a few successful experiments in matters regarding water as well. A successful witness to this is the peripheral parts of Bengaluru. One-third of the city meets its water requirements without the intervention of the BWSSB but has still managed to develop with right entrepreneurship. There is 4 lakh borewells in Bengaluru that can be recharged, thereby building numerous wells. Bengaluru also has an invariable number of tools required to make this mission possible. There are more than 1000 well diggers in Bengaluru who are skilled and are capable enough to work towards the problem.     

A Hope in Entrepreneurs

               The gap of unawareness among the cycle of active members is what entrepreneurship can bridge together. Entrepreneurship directed along with right experts who can deliver the well experimented and successful process and design to the workforce can make a huge difference. Development can happen with stressing on the proper model to push it further.

                 Entrepreneurs invariably face quite a few problems in the accomplishment of implementing rainwater harvesting in the practical field. One of them is of the way an entrepreneurship company positions itself in the capitalistic stage while dealing with a crisis like water. A prominent reason for this is the financial capital for Rainwater Harvesting being low. To solve this challenge, the entrepreneurship company has to ‘brand’ itself strong enough in the world of entrepreneurship to deliver a solution well qualified to convince and make people believe in their ideas and thereby motivate to act ahead.

              There is considerably another element where I feel academicians and professionals in the field of water are failing in their vision of saving water or recharging ground water. Lack of communication and comprehension between the workforce and the experts stands out as a failure element. Usually, academicians and professionals miss out on working in the field, and learning difficulties while monitoring an experiment on water crisis resolve. The ignorance by some of the people among both experts and workforce generate a significant pitfall in the process.  Ignorance stands as an intellectual challenge in the field because of cracked knowledge and sometimes miscommunication.

Cultural Shift, a Major Challenge…

               One of the significant concerns that I think rainwater harvesting faces is the ‘cultural shift’ that builds a wall between various parts of the country. For example, Rajasthan and Gujarat have worked exceptionally well with Rainwater Harvesting because it was traditionally rooted in their cultures to depend on this method for serving their water requirements. In contrast, southern regions of India have critically less experience concerning engaging rainwater harvesting as their means to help their water purposes. The drawback is due to one of the reasons that people are unaware of a method of rainwater harvesting. Southern states and other regions always tended to depend on wells to receive water. Different rainfall patterns across India cause the difference in the water management practices. Lack of communication between cultures owes a responsibility to this.