By Md Aynal Haque

  RAJSHAHI, July 26, 2022 (BSS)- Prospects of rainwater harvesting and use are very bright in terms of easing the life of people, particularly the marginalized and other less-incoming ones, in the water-stress barind area .

  In all aspects, rainwater harvesting can be the best way of mitigating water crises that would also be easing living and livelihood conditions of people in the area comprising Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts.

  There is a need to extend necessary knowledge and technological devices to the communities to make them capable to seize the opportunities of rainwater harvesting technologies. Sharing experience about using rainwater for her household purposes, housewife Hazera Begum, 37, a resident of Parbatipur village under Gomostapur upazila in Chapainawabganj district, said her six-member family is now dependent on harvested water during monsoon.

  She said they collect rainwater from the rooftop through a pipe and conserve it in a concrete reserved tank, adding rainwater is very much suitable and effective for cooking rice and pulses and other household works. Mikhail Saren, 42, another resident of Sundarpur Kakonhat village under Godagari upazila in Rajshahi district, has been using rainwater for his household purposes over the last couple of years. He stores rainwater and uses it.

  Referring to the process of collecting and conserving rainwater he said rainwater is abundantly available in the rainy season which is the best time to collect it. During the rainy season, he installs containers for storing water. Rainwater water makes their family life easy, meeting their necessary water demand for household works and also for five cattle heads.

  Like Hazera Begum and Mikhail Saren, around 20,000 villagers have become happy after using rainwater for their household purposes. Lutfor Haider Rashid, chairman of Tanore Upazila, said the villagers got financial support from the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Project for installing the infrastructures to collect and conserve rainwater.

  In the drought-prone Barind area, rainwater accumulation and conservation methods are very effective during monsoon, he said. Ataur Rahman, Chairman of Badhair Union Parishad, said household-level rainwater harvesting ventures has become a boon for many of the households in the area, adding that his area is the worst-affected by rainless condition every year. DASCOH Foundation and Swiss Red Cross are jointly implementing the IWRM project in drought affected 42 union Parishads and three Pourasabhas under eight upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts supported by Switzerland since 2015.

  Jahangir Alam Khan, coordinator of the IWRM Project, said the beneficiary villagers collect and use more than 6.12 crore litres of rainwater through the 1,260 households level installations every year. The villagers in water scarce areas like High Barind Tract (HBT) can use rainwater in their daily activities, he said. Jahangir Khan opined that the amount of rainfall in HBT is less, just around 1000-1200 mm per year compared to the national figure of 2,500 mm. This area is characterised by delayed arrival of seasonal rain and early withdrawal.

   The Barind area is drought prone and it also experiences less rainfall. So people use groundwater in an extensive way, putting a huge pressure on it. In this regard, rainwater can be the best alternative source of water. Professor Niamul Bari, Dean of Civil Engineering Faculty in Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), said rainwater harvesting might be a potential alternative way of mitigating the households' level water crises, particularly during the dry season.

  He added that there are scopes of storing rainwater during the monsoon if the community people were equipped with infrastructures necessary for the purpose. In the high Barind tract, many people, especially the ethnic minority and other marginalized ones, face water crises that pose a serious threat to their livelihood when the water sources become ineffective during the dry season due to gradual falling off the groundwater level. Prof Bari said some of the households have started getting benefits from their rainwater harvesting venture in the water-stressed area for a couple of years.