It means capturing rain where it falls or capturing the run off in your own village or town. And taking measures to keep that water clean by not allowing polluting activities to take place in the catchment.

Therefore, water harvesting can be undertaken through a variety of ways

Capturing runoff from rooftops

Capturing runoff from local catchments

Capturing seasonal floodwaters from local streams

Conserving water through watershed management

These techniques can serve the following the following purposes:

Provide drinking water

Provide irrigation water

Increase groundwater recharge

Reduce stormwater discharges, urban floods and overloading of sewage treatment plants.

Reduce seawater ingress in coastal areas.