Rainwater Harvesting

INITIATIVE

His Holiness Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin TUS, in his address to community members during the congregations of Muharram in Dubai, UAE, explained the benefits of water conservation, in particular rain water harvesting which has many environmental benefits including fertility of the land, avoidance of pollution, and prevention of soil erosio

The Dawoodi Bohra community has launched a global program to conserve water and recharge the groundwater level through effective rainwater harvesting techniques. Recognising the global water scarcity issues, the leader of the Dawoodi Bohra community, His Holiness Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, in his address to community members in Mombasa, Kenya, stressed the importance of preserving and conserving water.

“Following the instructions of Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, a team of over 200 community officials were mobilized to visit more than 250 villages, towns, and cities in India to study the strain on existing water supplies and provide support for building a more resilient and sustainable water management system”

– Shabbir Najmuddin, Associate Executive Trustee of Burhani Foundation.

About The Initiative

“As part of the first phase of the water conservation program, we targeted water-challenged areas in India by guiding them to harvest rainwater in their backyards, wells, ponds and other local catchment areas,” said Shabbir Najmuddin, Associate Executive Trustee of Burhani Foundation.

The whole process was divided in five major parts

For the long-term rollout of the program, Burhani Foundation is identifying project coordinators from each area who will be tagged to experts to troubleshoot issues and facilitate the installation of rainwater harvesting systems in their regions. In the coming days, the Foundation is also going to

reach out to community representatives from across the globe to harness the power of rainfall in their regions and share best practices for other areas to adopt. Besides that, the Trust is also rejuvenating defunct wells in the identified areas.

According to NITI Aayog, nearly 600 million people, which is almost 50% of India’s population, are facing water shortage issues. The country is vulnerable to droughts as well as floods even as climate change is increasing unpredictability in weather patterns and leading to more extreme weather events Rainwater harvesting, water reservoirs and other methods can help mitigate these extreme events by storing, recharging groundwater and releasing it when needed.