RAIN WATER HARVESTING IN HILLS OF SIRMOUR, HIMACHAL PRADESH

The mountains and the hills are the natural catchments for rain water. District Sirmour has an average annual rainfall of 1670mm and more than 80percent of this is received during kharif season. The excess water during kharif season goes as runoff and crops face drought like situation many times. So National Watershed Development Programme was introduced at Dedag with the main objective to harvest rain water and recycle it. Dedag is located at longitude 770 24’E and latitude 300 50’N with height varying from 1600-2348 meters above mean sea level in Sirmour HP.The project has 570 ha of effective area from five villages supporting 145 families, with irrigation restricted to only 15 % of area.The survey revealed that top priority of farmers was Water harvesting and recycling. So different water harvesting modules were demonstrated in the watershed through participatory approach. 1. Water harvesting from Base or Surface flow-The water source at Sanio contributed 20-25 thousand liter water per day under normal situation but the discharge increased to 85-90 thousand liter per day during rainy season.This large volume resulting from rainfall was not harvested properly and was going waste as surface flow. So, to harvest every drop of water, i