Question

Compare the traditional water harvesting system with a portable system in hilly/mountain areas or plains or plateau regions.

Answer 1

Hint: water harvesting is the collection of rainwater and stored or preserved, instead of making them runoff, where the rain is collected from the roof surfaces and stored in reservoirs, deep pits, etc.

Complete answer:
> Traditional systems
- When coming to the technology of the water harvesting system.
- Usually, rainwater is runoff and also sometimes there are chances of floods so all this water is important to harvest for future use.
- As we know that rainwater is to capture wherever and whenever it falls. So it is important to know the path of the stream, in order to catch the rainwater and also beside the river in case of floods and at the same time, the design and structure of each system were decided by the terrain and as well as the rainfall pattern of the region.
- Hence each eco-zone of India had unique techniques for harvesting water.

> Hills or mountainous regions
- Where there are plenty of streams, though very simple engineering structures were used in order to divert the water into channels that fed the fields.
- The structures became more sophisticated and much bigger when the streams turned to rivers.
- Here the system of canal irrigation called Kuhl is used for the water harvesting.

> Plain or plateau regions
- In the case of plains, the water harvesting system is a crescent shaped and earthen embankment.
- These embankments are low straight and they are also made of concrete.

Note: The rainwater which is collected from the harvesting system is utilized everywhere by transferring them into potable water and their filtration of water is done at every step before its use.