Neerjaal is a concept originally conceived by the Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective (GRWHC), Barefoot College in Tilonia Rajasthan. GRWHC, under its flagship activities of Barefoot College, has been collecting and managing information regarding various linkages of Water in the desert of Rajasthan, especially in and around tilonia village near Kishangarh . Recently, GRWHC, together with Digital Empowerment Foundation, discussed the Neerjaal concept together and developed the entire concept to implement at the national level, where the water sources, water bodies, water consumption, water usage, water harvesting, and water shortages and needs could be mapped and put on an interactive platform. The long term vision of Neerjaal is to allow each and every villagers and villages to put their water data on the public domain, and gradually with as the help of people and universal contribution, we gather widespread data related to water in India.
For generations people have addressed their own problems of drinking water by collecting rainwater where it falls.
The Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective aims to build on this knowledge, technology and skill that has existed for hundreds of years in rural communities across the world.
What make this initiative different is that it will concentrate on two areas.
Collect rainwater from rooftops only for children in schools and community places like dispensaries, libraries, hospitals, family planning centers and so on.
Revitalizing wells and hand pumps that have gone dry. This is done by directing surface water into open wells within the village rather than allowing it to evaporate or slowly percolate into the ground in tanks outside the village.
Features of Neerjaal:
The project with collective effort by partners have build a software that integrates and enables sharing and feeding of data for masses with information relevant to their geography and scientific solutions. Some of the features are:
- Water quality check
- Date wise water quality check
- Harvesting level
- Water shortfall and adequacy
- Local Statistics
- Impurity indicators check
- E-coli density report
Click to download Water Testing Manual (Hindi)
Click to download BIS Drinking Water Standard (English)
Click to download BIS Drinking Water Standard (Hindi)
Partners:
- Barefoot College
- The Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective
- Digital Empowerment Foundation
Few Facts:
- In India, nearly 1300 systems in 17 states with a total storage capacity of 47 million liters provide clean water to over 235,000 school children in remote, rural communities.
- In Afghanistan and 5 countries in Africa, 15 rainwater systems constructed since 2006 with a total storage capacity of 1.5 million liters provide clean water to over 4,200 school children