IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v18y2004i3p219-235.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Planning and Design of Cost-effective Water Harvesting Structures for Efficient Utilization of Scarce Water Resources in Semi-arid Regions of Rajasthan, India

Author

Listed:
  • Deepesh Machiwal
  • Madan Jha
  • P. Singh
  • S. Mahnot
  • A. Gupta

Abstract

Water-harvesting structures have the potential to increase the productivity of arable lands by enhancing crop yields and by reducingthe risk of crop failure in arid and semi-arid regions, where water shortages are common because of scanty rainfall and its uneven distribution. In semi-arid regions of Rajasthan, India, existing practice of harvesting rainwater is through anicut and earthen embankments. Because of higher costs and higher technical skills involved in the construction of these structures, these structures have not been accepted by the resource-poor local people. Therefore, in the present paper, the detailed design of some low-cost water-harvesting structures using locally available materials and adaptable to the socio-economic conditions of the beneficiaries is discussed. Two types of cost-effective water-harvesting structures, which include dry stone masonry and upstream-wall cement masonry of heights 1, 2, and 2.5 m for catchments of less than 10, 10 to 20, and 20 to 30 ha, respectively are proposed and designed. The analysis of costs involved in constructing dry stone masonry and upstream-wall cement masonry water-harvesting structures, emergency spillway, anicuts and earthen embankments revealed that the earthen embankments have the least cost of construction whereas the anicuts have the highest construction costs for all the selected heights. However, based on the past experiences, earthen embankments are not suitable for the semi-arid regions of Rajasthan. The economic evaluation of the proposed structures indicated that the dry stone masonry structures are very cost-effective for the region with a benefit-cost ratio of 3.5:1 and the net present worth value of Rs. 102978. Although the economic indicators ranked the upstream-wall cement masonry structures lower than the dry stone masonry structures, the former has greater stability and strength compared to the latter. In practice, both the cost-effective water-harvesting structures (i.e., dry stone masonry and upstream-wall cement masonry) are gaining wide acceptance and popularity in the region through some nongovernmental organizations, which have adopted the design presented in this paper. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004

Suggested Citation

  • Deepesh Machiwal & Madan Jha & P. Singh & S. Mahnot & A. Gupta, 2004. "Planning and Design of Cost-effective Water Harvesting Structures for Efficient Utilization of Scarce Water Resources in Semi-arid Regions of Rajasthan, India," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 18(3), pages 219-235, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:18:y:2004:i:3:p:219-235
    DOI: 10.1023/B:WARM.0000043152.86425.7b
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/B:WARM.0000043152.86425.7b
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/B:WARM.0000043152.86425.7b?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Prathapar, S. & Dhar, S. & Rao, G. Tamma & Maheshwari, B., 2015. "Performance and impacts of managed aquifer recharge interventions for agricultural water security: A framework for evaluation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 165-175.
    2. P. Tamuno & M. Smith & G. Howard, 2009. "“Good Dredging Practices”: The Place of Traditional Eco-livelihood Knowledge," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 23(7), pages 1367-1385, May.
    3. Glendenning, C.J. & van Ogtrop, F.F. & Mishra, A.K. & Vervoort, R.W., 2012. "Balancing watershed and local scale impacts of rain water harvesting in India—A review," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-13.
    4. Mokhtar Guizani, 2016. "Storm Water Harvesting in Saudi Arabia: a Multipurpose Water Management Alternative," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(5), pages 1819-1833, March.
    5. Chen Shiguang & Zeng Haoxin & Sun Hongwei & Liu Song & Yang Yongmin, 2024. "How to determine the cistern volume of rainwater harvesting system: an analytical solution based on roof areas and water demands," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 20413-20438, August.
    6. Yang Wu & Ya Tang & Chengmin Huang, 2009. "Harvesting of rainwater and brooklets water to increase mountain agricultural productivity: A case study from a dry valley of southwestern China," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(1), pages 39-48, February.
    7. Mokhtar Guizani, 2016. "Storm Water Harvesting in Saudi Arabia: a Multipurpose Water Management Alternative," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(5), pages 1819-1833, March.
    8. Stéphanie Aulong & Madjid Bouzit & Nathalie Dörfliger, 2009. "Cost–Effectiveness Analysis of Water Management Measures in Two River Basins of Jordan and Lebanon," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 23(4), pages 731-753, March.
    9. Kumar, Shalander & Ramilan, Thiagarajah & Ramarao, C.A. & Rao, Ch. Srinivasa & Whitbread, Anthony, 2016. "Farm level rainwater harvesting across different agro climatic regions of India: Assessing performance and its determinants," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 55-66.
    10. J. Pachpute & S. Tumbo & H. Sally & M. Mul, 2009. "Sustainability of Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Rural Catchment of Sub-Saharan Africa," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 23(13), pages 2815-2839, October.
    11. Su, Ming-Daw & Lin, Chun-Hung & Chang, Ling-Fang & Kang, Jui-Lin & Lin, Mei-Chun, 2009. "A probabilistic approach to rainwater harvesting systems design and evaluation," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 393-399.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:18:y:2004:i:3:p:219-235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.