Recharging Ground Water Using Age– Old Traditional Mechanisms

Abstract

“Give back unto the Earth if water is desired in the coming generations”
“Pawan Guru, Pani Pita, Mata Dharat Mahat” the Gurbani or word of the Gurus as embodied in the holy
Guru Granth Sahib has in these words immortalized the relationship of men with Nature by saying that the
“Wind is the teacher; Water is Father while the entire Earth is the mother”. When this strong bonding of men
and Nature had been recognized several centuries ago it stupefied the human senses to think that man had
ended up destroying the natural habitat unmitigatedly.
Since earliest times almost all natural resources have been reserved and utilized judiciously by civilizations.
The Chinese, Indus valley, Mesopotamian, Roman, Aztec and most other great settlements used water
conservatively. Even back then there was concern for wastage of water.
This paper is focused on looking at the systems of conserving, purifying water and utilizing it to the optimum
without wasting any part of it. The objective of the paper is to determine the functioning and use of these
techniques for present day communities.