Development Talk
Oman should harvest rainwater
Do you have ever noticed some interesting things about the water resources in Oman? I have witnessed for a lot of torrential raining in different regions of Oman and the typical flood cross (Wadis) areas on the roads. It is really a magnificent experience and strange that you are caught on the roads for hours as wadis crossing the roads. The typical wadis appear and disappear within hours.
At the same time I have seen a lot of Omani villages suffering from the scarcity of water. Many of the householders depends water tankers to get their daily usage water and an average payment for the same is around RO. 20/- per month for a small family. The householders mentioned here are in interior areas where no municipality taps have been fixed so far. They are either in a place where no well within their premise or no water resources available free of cost.
But, why the shortage of water is? Is it because of not having enough raining? The annual rainfall in the sultanate is 760 mm in the mountain regions and 150 mm in the coastal areas. Surprisingly the annual rainfall in the Sultanate is either half of or one third of the rain falls in India, and more than what United States is having. Then, why the country is suffering from the scarcity of the water? Why, because, the country is not able to preserve the rained water as the genuine and dependable source of water.
Here I wish to put forward some use of preserving water for the benefit of the country in total. I am damn sure that I am nothing in this regards and people who are experts in this field, from within Oman or without can contribute more. The basic idea behind this is how we can put forward measures or reducing the amount of water flowing to the sea without dammed anywhere. How much rain water we can preserve and to be used for the future use? Here are some tips for what we should stop rain water from flowing into the sea.
1. A great solution for the water scarcity faced by the sultanate in total including drinking water, daily use water, cooking and other daily use purposes. It will decrease the efforts of putting the taps and pipes to distribute water into remote areas. This water can be preserved by areas and can be distributed locally
2. Agriculture and Irrigation use: Oman is a fertile land of agriculture and farming. We can see in interiors a lot of lands with scarcity of water have stopped farming. The dried and weaken date trees will really worry anybody who loves farming and agriculture. Moreover, dates and farming was the backbone of Oman’s wealth in the past. So preserving agriculture should be a must. Self sufficiency is must in the agriculture as the food and vegetable export countries, when they suffer from food shortage, they will first cut the export.
3. Industrial use: Industries is booming in Oman. Water is a must and unavoidable for the industries. So preserving water will be a boost to industries as it can be provided with low cost.
4. Township use: New developments and townships is a common sight in Oman. So the preserved water will help to meet the needs of townships as well as the needs of the existing towns
5. Revival of streams and wells: The preservation of the rain water will help to revive the dead streams (Aflaj) which was a prime water source of the past in all the places and at present in many of the villages. Also preservation of rain water will help to revive the well water sources and to have water in the existing wells. It is mentioned that in India a small check dam helped to revive wells to nearby villages at least 15 sq km surrounding.
Now let me come to the ways to preserve the rain water. Again, I wish to say that, mine is some small suggestions, and there will be experts who can put more lights in to these thoughts. The following methods are common and experienced by the countries like India, Netherlands and Latin American countries to preserve water.
1. Small dams or check dams: check dams are small hindrance to the flow of water. It is the block built across a small channel or wadis. This is not an expensive effort as check dams can be built out of stones, logs or sandbags as per the availability. It can even be constructed with wood and rock fills. The result will be like this. The wadis will be transformed to a small stream pools. Once water reaches the heights of the check dam, it will over flew and move to the next check dam. In one Wadi, a lot of 2 or 3 meter height check dams can be done with the effort of the villagers. A 2 meter height check dam will help to preserve water to an extend of at least 300 - 400 meter for days and weeks where the land will be forced to drip down the water a little bit. This will definitely revive the nearby streams and wells.
2. Rain pits and ponds: This is making of the pits and ponds in an intention to preserve the water poured in that area. Also, if it is big ponds, small wadis can be channelized to these ponds. The existing water in the ponds will help the dripping down to the earth and it will revive the streams and wells. The pits on the top of soil rich mountains will result in nourishing of new waterfalls and streams. This can create wonders
3. Big dams: As far as I know, this is an ongoing project with the Oman government. The preserved water can be utilized for irrigation purpose, to solve the scarcity of the drinking water and all other kinds of water usage.
4. Mountain lakes: This is a small idea, but can create wonders. Suppose there are four mountains nearby, which shares a common valley of 100 or 200 sqmtr. The gaps in the mountains can be blocked by walls and the rain water can be preserved. The place will soon be transformed to a lake. This kind of lakes will invite a lot of trees and thus inhabitants including flora and fauna. Also these locations can be transformed into tourist attraction places with boating.
5. Individual Harvesting: Individual harvesting is by the householders. The amount of rain poured on the house of an individual will be routed through a pipe and will be preserved in a big tank or an artificial pool with cement belt, which can be used for future purposes. This is an existing model in many countries. There as specific advises available on the net on how to preserve the water individually.
If I continue, the writing, I think, there will be lot of tips to incorporate. So, I leave the matter to those who take development as their spirit and work for the individual, society, and their nation.
