A large majority of people have not understood what rainwater harvesting is, said Sekhar Raghavan, director, Rain Centre. “India was one of the leaders in rainwater harvesting. There is evidence of rainwater harvesting having been carried out centuries ago, in Dholavira, Kutch, Gujarat. In those days, every part of India had its own rainwater harvesting systems,” he pointed out. Raghavan was speaking at a programme, ‘Understanding the need to conserve water – challenges and opportunities’, held at the Press Institute of India on March 28, in collaboration with Nampayanam, an organisation that promotes Indian culture and natural resources.
Raghavan, who established the Rain Centre in Chennai and began his rainwater harvesting campaign in the city in 1995, said most of India gets its water from rain; there is no melting of ice taking place in the country (melting of ice is the other primary source for water). The secondary sources of water, he added, are rivers, lakes, ponds and groundwater. “If there is no rain, there is no water anywhere,” he said.
Raghavan referred to the eri (meaning lake or water reservoir in Tamil) system of having water bodies in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where the run-off water was used for agriculture. There was a chain of eris, he said, that used to be traditionally managed by the villagers. The village elders decided what kind of crops could be harvested and the villagers looked after the eris. Raghavan was convinced that ‘linking of rivers’ plan would not work. He stressed that rainwater harvesting is the key in water management. “Be sensitive,” was his key message.
T.S. Padmapriya, chief executive, Sanitation First, cited the example of the sensitive coastal eco-system in Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar Districts in Tamil Nadu where saplings of Prosopis juliflora imported in the 1960s for byproducts eventually became trees that sucked the groundwater, an invader that ruined the local species. (In the late-19th century, after a vicious famine, the colonial British Government in India wanted a drought-resistant plant that could supply firewood for the masses without impinging on reserve forests. So, in 1877, Prosopis was imported and planted in India, for the first time. – reference, Mridula Ramesh’s article in Hindustan Times)
The oornis (water sources) were the only sustainable sources of water in the area, and once the maximum number of oornis were in that region (Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar), Padmapriya said. She also mentioned the use of biochar in the fields to reduce contaminants and carbon emissions, the installation of waterless toilets, and the need for water re-purposing and grey water harvesting (collecting and reusing wastewater for purposes such as irrigation or toilet flushing to reduce dependence on freshwater sources.
“We hardly study traditional harvesting systems. Any solution that comes from just one domain will be considered short-sighted,” said Rajeswari R., architect and academician. All speakers agreed that water conservation remains a low priority for many Indians. Traditional water bodies such as lakes and ponds are increasingly falling into disuse and are being ignored by communities, and these were being filled with waste, Raghavan and Meenakshi Devaraj, cultural historian and founder, Nampayanam, who moderated the discussion, pointed out.
In his opening remarks, Sashi Nair, director, Press Institute of India, said that participative, community-based solutions produce the best results in water conservation. Rainwater harvesting must be done the right way, especially in urban areas where groundwater levels are often low, he said. Women must be encouraged to actively participate and spearhead water conservation campaigns at the local level to make such campaigns successful, he added, citing a couple of examples in India that had women showing the way.
from Webdoux