2nd Monthly challenge

I believe most of you would have tried our first monthly challenge and would have found out for yourselves some remarkable changes in your life style (Greener life style). Though those challenges we took up for the first month was very simpler ones, they would have brought in a lot of changes in your energy consumption statistics. If you people have worked out by noting the statics of the energy you have saved last month by trying out the practices, i request you to post in your observations and learnings. Whatsoever, i think that we have got into the vibe of being green and have started feeling greener.

By the way, this month we'll get into little more complicated challenges. I'll keep my points rather short and sweet as we all have already got the whole idea of what we're doing exactly in consecutive months. This month we're gonna:

1. 'Eat Local': Try to consume local food stuffs and other locally manufactured or produced goods. You might ask me what is the exact relevance of this to being green. If you think deep, there's a strong relevance. If you go for local produce, you indirectly reduce a lot of energy and resources spent on transportation and other such stuff. Consuming local products also encourage small producers from your local towns or villages.





2. Water harvesting: This month plan your budget to install a rain water harvesting system in your house.

Need for Water Harvesting in India India has 18% of the world's population but only 4% of its fresh water and just over 2% of its land area. Many of the country's groundwater aquifers are already in critical condition. Available per capita water supply has declined since 1975 and water demand is set to exceed all usable sources of supply by 2050. India 's limited freshwater supplies are being steadily depleted through mismanagement and waste. Unless water resources are better conserved and used more efficiently, the IPCC has warned, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus could be reduced to seasonal rivers by 2035. Many of its nearly 900 million people suffer severe water shortages, in part as a result of uneven availability of water. Most rainfall comes during the monsoon season, from June to September, and levels of precipitation vary from 100 millimeters a year in the western parts of Rajasthan to over 9,000 millimeters in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Floods and droughts are both common throughout the country.(8) In spite of higher average annual rainfall in India (1,170 mm, 46 inches) as compared to the global average (800 mm, 32 inches), India does not have sufficient water.

A rain barrel can collect a sufficient amount of water, provided it is emptied every time it rains. If you empty the barrel once everyday (during the rainy season), a 50 sq.m space on the roof connected to a 500 litre rain barrel can collect nearly 23,000 litres of rainwater in a year, under Bangalore conditions. Similarly a 1000 litre rain barrel can collect nearly 35,000 litres of water in a year. In many parts of Kerala with over 100 days of rain annually, a 500 litre can collect around 40,000 litres!
The space required for a rain barrel itself is four cubic feet. On average, installing a rain barrel of 500 litres should cost about Rs 2500. A 1000 litre rain barrel would cost approximately Rs 4300.
Every rain barrel has a tap and an overflow outlet. The water collected in the rain barrel can be used to recharge open wells or bore wells. Using a hosepipe and a Zero-B type filter, the tap can be connected to the bore well or sump tank for domestic usage. A Zero-B filter costs about Rs 60. Overflows from rain barrels can also be used for recharging the ground. (According to Rainwater Club, Bangalore)

Rainwater harvesting is not that complicated as you imagine. With the help of locally available pipes, a plastic drum and a cloth or sponge filter will do the job.
Slum dwellers from Chamrajpet (Bangalore) are all set to build around 200 rainwater harvesting systems with the help of a local NGO. Why dont we give it a try?

Learn more about rain water harvesting from some of the web links mentioned below; do your own research along with that and lets take it as an important task to be achieved this month. Trust me, you're gonna save a lot of water than you would have imagined...

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/tt/rwh/case/rainwater_rooftop.html
http://akash-ganga-rwh.com/RWH/WaterHarvesting.html
http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/whatiswh.htm

You dont have to stop at installing a rainwater harvesting system at your home. You can try to inspire others around you to do it too. People generally tend to follow the words of the ones who are close to them and ones whom they believe to be reliable. So encourage rain water harvesting and save water and thus our environment.