A Cornerstone to Sustainable Development in the Evaluation of the State of the Ground Water Supply and Its Recharge through Rainwater Harvesting for the NCR and Surrounding Areas: A Case Study

Increasing population and rapid urbanization in NCR region has high dependency on ground water to meet the daily needs.River Yamuna is the prime source of surface water in monsoon season only.Usage of ground water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes has put tremendous pressure on groundwater aquifers where water tables are depleted daily.NCR region gets enough rainfall to meet the ground water need however the volume of extraction of ground water is high as compare with its natural recharge.Hence Rainwater harvesting is the effective method that can be adopted to increase the volume of ground water recharge.Urban and rural areas can adopt different methods of rainwater harvesting based on the requirements.In parallel with that, rejuvenation of surface water bodies using increased storage of its tank capacity is also another approach of increasing water table using rainwater.The cost of installation of rainwater has reduced due to advancement in technology.Hence, by identifying the water deficient areas and prioritizing them for implementation of Rainwater harvesting system, as a mandatory provision for all can help recharge drying aquifer more.The importance of rainwater harvesting system, the available ground water resources of Delhi NCR, the rainfall pattern of the said area for last few decades, conventional-or traditional rainwater harvesting patterns, technological components of harvesting patterns, modern harvesting systems and their relevance etc. are briefly summarized in this paper.