Jamkhambhaliya : When the land goes dry and the sky doesn't yield rain, the people of the water-starved districts like Devbhumi Dwarka look within to meet their water requirements.

Faced with frequent drought conditions and severe water shortages, people in districts of Jamnagar, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Rajkot, among others, are increasingly opting for rainwater harvesting to recharge their bore-wells and build up a back-up water storage facility.

Underground, cement-and-bricks tanks (up to 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6 feet deep) with up to 8000-10,000 litres storage capacity have been built at an estimated cost of ₹50,000.

"We built this tank two years ago, harvest rainwater when it does rain, and use it when there is a water shortage. They are a life-saver,” says Kanjibhai Devrajbhai Nakumbh, a resident of Harshadpur village.

Since this water is used for drinking purposes, maintaining cleanliness gets top priority. That’s easily accomplished with some rudimentary techniques: *kali chuna (calcium carbonate) and a cloth filter.

“Most of the 2,500 households of Harshadur have created underground tanks, and almost 60-70 per cent of them came up only in the past two years after the severe water shortage of consecutive years,” says Ketan Nakumbh, another resident. It’s not just villages, even cities in Saurashtra have embraced water conservation practices. In Rajkot, for example, individual houses have bore-well recharge systems in-place. To recharge bore-wells, householders dig up another smaller (up to 30 feet) bore-well, which channels rainwater.

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