An Investigation on the Effects of the Environment on Rainwater Harvesting and the Effectiveness of Watershed Management in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul District

Today, due to water pollution, the availability of potable water in nature is becoming scarce. Every day water sources as well as pure water get polluted by human activities. There are two types of precautionary measures: 1). preventive measures. It means measures which have to be taken to prevent water from pollution. For example, preventing untreated effluents to be discharged into rivers and other water sources. 2). Curative measures. It refers to purification of polluted water through various steps like waste water treatment; recycling all waste materials from polluted water. This study is an attempt to understand the effects of the environment on rainwater harvesting and the effectiveness of watershed management.

The study is based on primary data through questionnaire methods. Data was carefully compiled and coding for the analysis. The present study adopted multiple linear regression is a method of analysis for assessing the strength of the relationship between each of a set of independent variables. Since the study is involved many independent variables which is uncorrelated each other.

From the multiple linear regression model findings indicating that the model is statistically significant and that the independent variables collectively explain a portion of the variance in potential improvements, as evidenced by the R² value of .929. This suggests that approximately 92.9% of the variance in potential improvements can be attributed to the factors analysed, which include positive environmental impacts (vegetation, wildlife), reduction in conflicts over water resources, community received government support, government efforts to promote watershed management. Among the independent variables, positive environmental impacts have the strongest influence on potential improvements, with a beta coefficient of .557 and a t-value of 12.737, both statistically significant at the 0.00 level (p<0.001). This finding emphasizes that enhancing positive environmental impacts are crucial for fostering potential improvements in the effectiveness of watershed management in Dindigul District.