Prospect for rainwater harvest bright in Barind areas

RAJSHAHI, July 26 (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 Chapai-nawabganj 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 makes their family life easy, meeting their necessary water demand for household work 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 Manage-ment (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 Chapai-nawabganj districts supported by Switzerland since 2015.