Rainwater harvesting can broadly be divided into 3 CATEGORIES based on the types of usage, the area in which harvesting is carried out and the people involved.

STORAGE or recharge: Based on the type of usage, structures can either be used to store the collected water for direct use or to recharge groundwater.

Urban-rural difference: Urbanization has resulted in the shrinking of open spaces as well as UNPAVED areas. This has resulted not only in flooding of cities but has also caused water scarcity due to groundwater depletion in general and saline water intrusion in coastal cities. While rural harvesting is mostly traditional and is carried out in surface storage bodies like rivers, tanks, ponds, lakes etc., urban harvesting, due to lack of open SPACE for capturing the runoff, is mostly in sub-soil storage as groundwater recharge.

Rooftop & driveway harvesting: When we say rainwater harvesting, the first thing that comes to our mind is the terrace. This greatly restricts the scope of rainwater harvesting as a considerable amount of water that falls around the built-up area is let out of the building as run-off. Driveway run-off water should not be LED into a sump for immediate use or to a source well, but it can very well be directed into recharge wells.

Rainwater harvesting can broadly be divided into 3 categories based on the types of usage, the area in which harvesting is carried out and the people involved.

Storage or recharge: Based on the type of usage, structures can either be used to store the collected water for direct use or to recharge groundwater.

Urban-rural difference: Urbanization has resulted in the shrinking of open spaces as well as unpaved areas. This has resulted not only in flooding of cities but has also caused water scarcity due to groundwater depletion in general and saline water intrusion in coastal cities. While rural harvesting is mostly traditional and is carried out in surface storage bodies like rivers, tanks, ponds, lakes etc., urban harvesting, due to lack of open space for capturing the runoff, is mostly in sub-soil storage as groundwater recharge.

Rooftop & driveway harvesting: When we say rainwater harvesting, the first thing that comes to our mind is the terrace. This greatly restricts the scope of rainwater harvesting as a considerable amount of water that falls around the built-up area is let out of the building as run-off. Driveway run-off water should not be led into a sump for immediate use or to a source well, but it can very well be directed into recharge wells.