Rainwater harvesting can be one of the best options to conserve water and maintain environment and ecosystem in a mountainous country like Nepal. Nepal receives about 1500 mm rainfall throughout the year and more than 80 percent of it takes place during monsoon for four months beginning June to September. However, we have not been able to tap the monsoon rains which can be used for drinking and irrigation purposes during dry season.
With the access to piped drinking water even in rural and hilly areas over the years people have forgotten a traditional method of collecting water for drinking and irrigation by making small ponds at convenient locations of all villages. Such ponds would serve the basic needs of the communities when there was no provision of piped water supported by the government and other agencies. Making ponds above villages was the best practice of collecting rainwater for its use in the future.
However the people in Tinpiple and Dapcha, the two remote villages of Kavre district, had been suffering from acute shortage of water even for drinking purposes. All the springs located around the villages had dried up due to overuse of the scarce resource. The locals had to climb down a long distance to collect a bucket of water. Now, the locals with support from Nepal Water Conservation Foundation (NWCF) have built a number of ‘recharge ponds’ to revive the springs lost long ago.
EDITORIAL: The Himalayan Times
December 20, 2016