Exploitation of new sources of water

• Rainwater catchment and storage system


  • Uses surplus water for aquifer recharge
  • Has an overflow
  • Pumped to header tank in periods of low rainfall
  • Aquifer recharge
• Exploitation of new sources of water is necessary to satisfy the growing population and increased per-capita demand
• Availability of water


  Has a major effect on many aspects of life, including where people can live, what they can eat, which industries can be developed, and quality of life
• Quantity, quality, purity, and location of water

  Affect the usefulness of a water supply
• Rainwater collection


  1. Precipitation

  2. Water catchment

  3. Water used in house

  4. Drain storage tank
• Rainwater collection is increasingly important in areas where public supplies cannot match consumer demand, such as many cities in India. It also reduces urban flooding after heavy rain.
• Collecting rainwater is also important in rural areas where there is no public water supply. The water is often cleaner than other sources such as rivers.
• River water


  • Often the most convenient source of water
  • Accessible over a large land area
  • Natural contaminants are rarely a serious problem
  • Human pollutants were not usually a problem until population density rose
• River water used for domestic use may be contaminated with pathogens
• Reservoirs


  • Allow the storage of water from times when there is a surplus so that it can be used when there is a shortage
  • Many factors must be considered when choosing a site for a dam and reservoir
• Factors affecting reservoir site selection


  • Topography
  • Geology
  • Catchment area
  • Water supply
  • Pollution risk
  • Sedimentation
  • Infrastructure
  • Existing land use and land-use conflicts
• Estuary barrage


  A freshwater reservoir created by building a dam across an estuary where a river enters the sea
• Estuary barrages have fewer land use conflicts than reservoirs on land that require land to be flooded, but they change important inter-tidal habitats, create an obstacle for shipping and can be polluted by human activities anywhere in the river's catchment area
• Seawater desalination is very energy-intensive and expensive so it is only used in countries where seawater is available and there are inadequate supplies of freshwater