Let us come forward to fulfill the dreams of Gandhi ji

Image courtesy : wikipedia

Today if Gandhi ji would have been alive then he would be the first person to stop the control on our natural resources from the hands of multinationals companies. Bapu ji chose Charkha; the symbol of self-reliance to fight against the East India Company. The large chunk of the hard efforts done by the Indian community was going to Manchester in form of foreign clothing. Hundred years back Gandhi ji was born to protest and fight against the injustice. In South Africa he first protested through Satyagarh against the racism existing there from the Railway Station, where he was thrown out of the first class coach even though carrying the first class ticket with him just because he was a black and the first class coach was supposed to be only for white people to travel. He fought against the racism existing there for 20 years and came to Indian being a victory. Back in India he started movement against the Neel ki Kheti through which the Indian farmers were being exploited. Even while fighting against these social injustices, he was always finding ways to change and to become free from the attitude of dependence. During the search to get freedom he found Charkha to be the simplest way to achieve this.

Bapu identified Charkha as the symbol of revolution just because it signifies against the mechanized and centralized profiteering based economy through decentralization and self-reliant productive process. Charkha was not only symbolizing the ends but also the means in the status of economy at that time. That is why he took Charkha as a tool to fight against the system to create a change through revolution. Charkha was the symbol for society building signifying hardworking, non-violence, and injustice free society. This was a strong tool to defy the domination of dependence from the Britishers. 

Today natural resources such as water, forest and land which are the basis of life, everything is slipping from the hands of the society and the most loot is going through the commercialization and marketeering of the water and in coming five years the ground is being prepared to send the large chunk of the earnings of India to west. Bapu would have reacted sharply, when he would have got the essence of this game plan. He would have immediately started the movement against it. To protest against the injustice he would have not only relied upon the speeches but could have thought of evolving something constructive like Charkha and constructive solution of this crisis have simple answers i.e. dig pond.

In construction of ponds there is no need to have money from any company, the society in itself with their local wisdom and knowledge and most important is with their voluntary contributions they could build ponds. The process of building a pond starts from uniting the community, making them come together in the same platform. Society by belongingness, togetherness among them only makes initiate building ponds. And the water, which is stored in the pond helps in checking soil erosion thereby minimising the ill effects being done against the environment. 

Ponds provide water not only to human beings i.e. poorest of the poor but also to the animals that to free of cost. It also fulfills the emptied earth. Recharges the wells and this whole works makes the society water self-sufficient and a feeling of pride. The way Charkha makes society self-dependent through the hard work and brings prosperity. Ponds keep alive the poorest of the poor without having been paid a single pie. Through ponds only we can stop the marketing of bottled water, which is exploiting common man. When we have a pond in the village filled with fresh water, then on roads automatically there would be water pots, as pond is the source of emergence of water pot. When we will have water pots at every places such as Bus stand and Railway stations, then nobody will buy water. Pond gives water to everybody. It gives life and move ahead without making anything from anybody in return just because of the hard efforts and feelings of the society put behind it.

We can take inspiration for building ponds from Gandhi ji's Charkha. It took so much time and efforts for Gandhi ji to discover Charkha because till then the foreign clothes engulfed Charkha. Now ponds are getting extinct but from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Guwahti to Gujarat still few ponds exist. In villages of Chattisgarh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Gujarat the ponds significance is still prevalent. In villages there is no other life saving support except the pond. Most of the villages are alive only due to the presence of pond. The fate of these villages will remain alive just being near the pond even without money. When Gandhi ji choose Charkha at that time, the significance of Charkha was same that of ponds today. But 100 years back there was no threat for water loot on the head of the society. Water was easily available everywhere. Even if you have to go far away to get water, you would get it free.

On April 1st 2003, the day when New Water Policy was declared for the country, if Bapu would have been alive then protect the existence, purity and culture of pond he would have started a satyagrah. Because water is common natural resource the basis of life. How could any Government can ever think of giving the control of all these natural resources to a company or an individual? But Gandhi ji would have initiated a Satyagrah against this big fraud being committed in the country against our society since independence.

Water is not been created by any Government. This is the common natural resource of Society and Nature. It has to be saved through Joint efforts; he would have joined with the community to dig soil from the pond with spade. Pond signifies voluntary efforts, the way Charkha is. There is no difference in the nature of both Charkha and pond. Both inspire the society and maintain the dignity to get for real hard work and earn their breads with their own hands.

Charkha runs by the hard efforts. Pond also can be build by volunteer efforts. The thread prepared by Charkha interlinks several constituents of the society while in the process of making clothes from it. Same way the pond also integrate the different sections of the society during the building process. This is the common activity fulfilling the common needs of the society that to with so less expenditure. It gives message to the society towards self-reliance and to return back to the earth, through our hard efforts what we extract from it. A pond acts as a feeder towards the environment.

Ponds have being the life and blood of our society and culture. Society also use to perform volunteer work on Amavashya (no moon day) and Poornima (full moon day) to build ponds. These two days were kept for doing common activities in a village for fulfillment of common needs of everybody. Today this tradition is on the verge of extinction. Bapu would have mobilised the society to revive this tradition. He was a century's man. For each work he would tell he is not doing anything new but he is just reviving the good traditions and good would present in the society, which we are leaving behind and society should stand up to do it.

Bapu in his own time has prepared a brigade of volunteers to do some constructive work, they would have encouraged saving and conserving of water through building of ponds. Today there is a big challenge among the workers of Gandhi ji to stop the privatisation and commercialisation of water, which is a life truth. By accepting this challenge where ever such work will start there the crisis of communalism and capitalism will stop automatically. Our country will generate feelings to stand upon own its own feet and become self-reliant. This will be the only way to give a true tribute to Gandhi ji and to rejuvenate the Charkha in the 21st Century.

The enthusiasm, which Charkha had during the independence movement, same zeal today ponds will produce right now. So, to have rights of environment and society over water, we should start building ponds. Ponds will fulfill the dreams of Gandhi ji's Swaraj. It will stop dependency on other factors for irrigation and bottled drinking water. Help in establishing the common rights of everybody. So, we all should come forward to fulfill the dream of Gandhi ji's dream of Swaraj by building of ponds.

-By Tarun Bharat Singh

Re-produced from the PDF content available at http://tarunbharatsangh.in

Scientists stress on micro irrigation in agriculture

Senior scientists on Saturday emphasized on use of less water for agricultural production. Most of them advised to use micro irrigation system like drip irrigation and sprinklers to grow crops. While discussing on the 'Minimizing water use in agriculture' here at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management (IIWM), the agricultural scientists expressed concern over declining per capita availability of surface and ground water resources in India. As demand for water is increasing in other sectors including industry, water to agriculture has become a challenge. "If we fail to use water efficiently, we can't meet the water demand in future," said the experts.

Image courtesy : Wikipedia

Dr Himanshu Pathak, director of National Rice Research Institute at Cuttack, said climate change has become a major problem in the world. Due to the impact of climate change, drought, flood and other natural calamities occur across the globe. It badly impact on water resources too. "So a big challenge for us to save the rain water and use the existing water resources judiciously," he added. IIWM's principal scientist Dr Gouranga Kar said micro irrigation can bring big change in use of water. "We can't check population or industry, but we can control use of water," he added.

He suggested three tricks to minimize water use in agriculture. "Cropping system needs to be changed. We have to develop seeds which can be grown with minimum water. Low water requiring crop can become an answer to this. Second, we have to charge the ground by preserving the rain water. Third, use of micro irrigation system in agriculture," he said. IIWM director SK Ambast said micro irrigation is considered as a very economic and efficient proposition for the purpose of water irrigation. During their experiments conducted in different states for several crops, they have found that the micro irrigation system saves roughly 30-40 per cent of water and around 20 per cent fertilizer and also enhances the yield by almost 20 per cent, he added.  

There is only 40 per cent efficiency in canal irrigation or surface irrigation system, but if we add piped irrigation with micro irrigation system, a huge amount of water will be saved. "We have started our experiment on Puri canal in Odisha. We will demonstrate the techniques to farmers," he added. He also said that fertilizer can be mixed with water in drip irrigation system while irrigating the farm land. It is called as drip fertigation. "We are using this trick at some farmlands at Dhenkanal sadar block. It has yielded good result," he added. Some scientists said how treated waste water can be used for agriculture. They said waste water of Gangua nulla, where all natural drainage channels fall, on city outskirts can be used for agriculture purposes. 

Source : Times of India

Modern tech solutions to help farmers in water management

After undergoing two consecutive droughts, India is finally witnessing a good spell of rainfall, with some areas facing floods. Even as monsoon brings with it an abundance of water for three-four months, we must keep in mind that the precious resource that is fresh water, is facing global depletion. With water consumption for agriculture exceeding sustainable levels, India needs to take measures to avoid a drought-like situation the next year. 

Image courtesy : thebetterindia.com

 While the government plans to build dams, canals and reservoirs to battle the scarcity of water, it would take a few years for these plans to become a reality. In the meanwhile, farmers can adopt water management measures to reduce their blatant dependency on rainfall. Water management will not only conserve water, but it will also help the farmers in the smart usage of water. The following four technologies can help farmers with on-farm conservation of water in India:

Soil Moisture Sensors
In order to receive a great yield of crops, it is very important to ensure that the water levels in the soil stay consistent. Since surplus flow or absence of water causes stress amongst crops, it can ultimately affect the yield of the crop. Therefore, these sensors are imperative as they help in monitoring the level of soil moisture. Majority of the sensors are created to detect the volumetric water content in the soil. Additionally, these sensors measure properties of the soil such as the density of the soil, electrical resistance, temperature of the soil amongst others. The soil moisture sensors provide real time data which can be downloaded wirelessly on computers. This data helps the farmers measure the water usage on the farm.  

Drone Monitors 

While drones are making great strides towards agriculture globally, closer to home, drones are still at a nascent stage. Though drones have been in the limelight for logistics and mass video-photography, the future of drone technology seems promising in agriculture. Drones can help the farmer by mapping and monitoring the following in the field:  

Equal distribution of water 

Drones can map the entire field to ensure equal distribution of water. Additionally, drones also help in monitoring various farming equipment such as sprinklers, pumps and pipes above the ground for any damage, irregularity in the water flow and more.

Thermal imaging of crops 

It is essential to keep a track of the temperature of the crops to determine how much water the crops would need. Since it is a mammoth task for a human to individually check the temperature of every crop, drones can come in handy to scan the vast acres of land for thermal data.

As drones provide an accurate and detailed aerial view of the farm in minutes, it negates the need of the farmer to physically examine every crop and leaf. What’s more, all the data collected by the drone is in real time and can easily be transferred to a computer or a mobile phone.

Weather Applications 

 It is no surprise that the inconsistent and unsteady weather conditions in the past few years have damaged crop yield across the country. Even though the India Meteorological Department (IMD) does its best to forecast the weather and provide timely updates, the farmer doesn’t utilize this information to make informed decisions that can lead to conserving water. Data from mobile applications that monitor and predict weather should be considered while planning irrigation cycles. Factors such as wind, humidity, temperature, rainfall and more affect the soil and crop condition and thus, should be assessed and analysed to regulate water usage and conserve the resource.

Internet of Things in Irrigation 

Internet of Things (IoT) has made an exceptional foray into the healthcare, manufacturing, supply and logistics sectors. In the agriculture sector, IoT solutions can provide a gamut of opportunities to revolutionize the sector. Since irrigation is the key method of supplying water to the fields, it is essential to ensure that the irrigation equipment is kept up to date. IoT sensors can be installed in irrigation pumps to detect wear and tear, defect, leakage and more. These IoT sensors can also measure the quality of freshwater and determine whether the water is suitable for farming or otherwise.

By Mohnish Sharma

The author is CEO, DestaGlobal, an agri-tech company that aims to empower the farmers with technology.

Info source  : firstpost.com

Organic farming is way forward

Tamil Nadu's agriculture sector is a victim of isolation. Many of its problems are caused by the heavy dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides on the one hand and the lack of an integrated approach to farming activity on the other. 

Despite having about 4% (130.33 lakh hectares) of the total land area of the country, Tamil Nadu's net cropped area is only 46 lakh hectares, about 35% of its land holding. Its vast stretches of dry land remain uncultivated for ages. One of the main handicaps is water scarcity. Against a national average of 2,200 cubic metres of per capita availability of water per year, Tamil Nadu's share is a meagre 750 cubic metres. Only about 33 lakh hectares of land is irrigated with available sources of water. The rest is left to the mercy of rain. Tamil Nadu agricultural engineering department says our water resources have been exploited up to 90% of the potential. As the water use efficiency of conventional irrigation methods is only about 35%-40%, the state needs to look at alternatives. 

Some farmers have already taken to cultivation of millets and pulses to tide over the water crisis. In Tamil Nadu, while paddy is cultivated in about 18 lakh hectares, millets are cultivated in 7 lakh hectares and pulses in 6.4 lakh hectares. The area under pulses and millets cultivation has been growing in recent years. "Many farmers in Cauvery delta made profits of close to Rs 1 lakh per hectare because of the rising pulse prices last year," said Tamil Nadu Agricultural University vice-chancellor K Ramasamy. The state government has set a target of producing close to 10 lakh metric tonnes of pulses this year.

Experts are of the opinion that instead of lamenting the non-availability of water and high cost of agricultural operations, the government should look at finding ways to judiciously use available water resources and encourage farmers to take to organic farming by integrating it with dairy and poultry farming, fish culture and high level of mechanization.

Ramasamy said the starting point for any farming activity was rearing cattle and cultivating fodder for livestock, because they would provide much of the input required for the farm.

If farmers are trained to enrich waste from dairy and poultry farms to produce their own organic manure and pesticide, the cost of agricultural operations could fall drastically. While fish culture will generate income, waste water from fish ponds can be used for irrigation. "Farmers who have shifted to micro-irrigation methods cannot afford the exorbitant cost of water soluble fertilizers, which are mostly imported from Israel and Belgium. Heavy use of chemical fertilizers has completely destroyed the life of soil. There are no micro-organisms left in our soil. Proper nutrient management is key to sustainable soil fertility. Farmers can be trained even to make their own micro-nutrients," opined S M C Pillai, a retired technocrat, who is into organic farming for the past few years. "Many farmers laughed at me when I did watermelon cultivation using drip irrigation. At the time of harvest, I had the last laugh as my produce was much better (and bigger in size) than those of other farmers, done through flood irrigation," said Pillai.

Source : Times of India

Kumulur agricultural college cultivates brinjal using sprinklers

The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University’s Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute at Kumulur has taken up cultivation of brinjal under sprinkler-irrigated conditions to demonstrate conservation of water.

Image & Article courtesy : The Hindu

The college has raised brinjal in its demonstration plot on an extent of about 320 square metres with micro sprinkler system.

Excess water use for irrigation only causes leeching but not many horticultural farmers are aware of this fact, said K. Ramaswamy, Dean of the Institute. The demonstration plot had been developed with a view to exposing the farmers to the advantage of using micro-sprinkler, he said.

Apart from saving water, the growth of the plants and the quality of vegetables are also enhanced as compared to the traditional method of cultivation, said K. Arunadevi, Assistant Professor, Soil and Water Conservation Engineering Department of the Institute, who has been closely monitoring the growth of the plant. She said that the use of micro sprinkler would help achieve a yield 20 tonnes or more against the normal average of 18 tonnes per hectare under conventional irrigation.

Uniform distribution of water at low pressure was the special feature of the system. The rate of supply was 26 litres per hour. The flowering of the plants was not affected as water is sprayed at low pressure.

The timing of spraying could be adjusted depending on the wet condition of the plants.

Farmers would be exposed to the micro sprinkler technique in the course of time, after the plants registered appreciable growth.

source: The Hindu

Google Earth images indicate a part of lake already becoming sea

Chilika lake, India's largest on the east coast in Odisha, will become part of the Bay of Bengal unless there is a "scientific intervention" to save it, a leading geologist has warned. 

Analysis of high-resolution Google Earth images obtained between 2005 and 2013 indicates that "a portion of the lake has already become sea," says Jagadiswara Rao, retired Professor of Geology at Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati. 

Image courtesy : Anirban Biswas @ wikipedia

The 60-km-long pear-shaped lake with an area of about 1,165 sq. km. receives fresh water from inland rivers and saline water from the Bay of Bengal, thus making the water body a highly productive eco-system with rich fishery resources. 

Besides sheltering a number of endangered species, it is a wintering ground for more than a million migratory birds and it sustains the livelihood of more than 150,000 fisher folk living around the lagoon. 

Over the years, the flow of seawater entering into the lake got so much reduced that a good portion of the lake was transformed into a fresh water ecosystem with a remarkable decline in the overall biodiversity and steep decline in fish production. 

In 2000, the Chilika Development Authority (CDA), the state agency responsible for the upkeep of the lake, sought to rejuvenate the lake ecosystem by dredging of the outer channel which connects the lake to the sea, and opening a new "mouth" to enable seawater enter into the lake. Funding for this came from two special grants totalling Rs. 570 crore from the central government. 

According to Rao, these interventions no doubt resulted in improvement in the fishery resources of the lagoon but also had an adverse impact on its environment. The analysis of the Google imageries has indicated that the lake itself may be gobbled up by the sea as a result of opening a new path from the sea to the lake, he told IANS. 

Rao said he reached this conclusion about Chilika lake while being engaged in restoration of Pulicat lake, another large brackish water lake that straddles the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in South India. 

"We studied the multi-date Google Earth images of the Chilika lake coast to find rapid closure of old mouths and opening of new mouths with an overall shift of mouths by a few kilometres leading to environmental degradation," Rao said in an email.

He said the sediment transport (littoral drift) along the sea coast had been shifting the lake's mouth opening to the sea in a northeast direction, leading to the development of a 32-km-long barrier island, with widths ranging from 100 to 1,500 metres.  

"The barrier island that separates the outer channel of Chilika lake from the sea is progressively getting degraded owing to gradual closure and opening of mouths since the opening of the new mouth by the CDA in 2000," Rao said. 

"The images clearly show that some natural mouths formed after 2005 lie farther into the outer lagoon, indicating that a portion of the lake has already become sea," he added. 

According to Rao, a four-kilometre stretch of the barrier island has become barren of vegetation with the number of naturally-formed mouths increasing from one to three. "The heights of the mouths have reduced, and their cumulative width has gradually increased," he said. 

"Despite CDA getting funds from the United Nations Environmental Programme to obtain the Chilika Lake Ecosystem Health Report Cards both in 2012 and 2014, no effort has been made to study the degradation caused to the barrier island bordering Chilika lake owing to closure and opening of mouths," he said. 

He cautioned that "in the absence of scientific intervention by the CDA, there is danger of the entire barrier island getting destroyed with the outer channel of the Chilika lake becoming part of the Bay of Bengal. Something has to be done quickly before a permanent damage takes place."

source: New Indian Express

Israel - Doing Magic with Water

Creating water from air, saving every drop of water (and even using it twice!), transforming sea water to drinking water, all of these might have sounded like science fiction 20 years ago, but out of necessity and the need to make arid land fertile, Israel had created innovative solutions to water scarcity and water quality and even in hard climate condition, Israel has overcome most of its water challenges. 

Image courtesy : wikimedia.org

Since antiquity, Israel has been facing the challenges of making livelihood in arid land. Since regaining independence, 67 years ago, Israel has been placing emphasis on maximizing its water supply and famously turning much of its arid land into fertile agricultural soil with yield amongst the highest in the world, paralleling with water-rich nations. 

Behind this success story lays an integrated endeavour of Government, Business sector, Academic sector and the general public. This holistic approach has generated considerable expertise in various fields of water conservation as well as in the field of water management.

Necessity, mixed with Israeli spirit of creativity, is the engine that keeps pushing forward Israel’s WaterTech industry. These days, the extent of the Israeli water industry export stands at approximately 1.4 billion dollars annually (2010), mostly emitter products for agriculture, water management solutions and treatment. Over 600 companies are active in this field, including approximately 100 start-up companies, offering a variety of products and technologies designed to meet the needs and means of a wide spectrum of customers. 

Many of these companies are active in India, working hand in hand with Indian partners to provide water solution to farmers and industry and to improve the quality of drinking water. For laks of farmers and other consumers in India, the Israeli magic is making wonders: spinning life out of water.

Water Management

The Israeli water sector is considered, globally, unique and advanced, thanks to its policy of managing water supply in periods of shortage, and a strong supportive industry. Through promotion and development of desalination programs, as well as reclamation projects, with an effective mixture of assertive administrative approaches, creative thinking and advanced technologies, Israel’s water sector was revolutionized and entered a new era. Thus, despite Israel's water crisis of the last few years, Israel had attained regular high quality water supply, some of the world's highest wastewater reuse and low water loss rates, and maintained its position as a leading exporter of agricultural and water technologies.

Desalination 

Water desalination is a key to sustainability, converting salt water into fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. With its arid conditions and through a spirit of creativity Israel is a leader in the field of desalination and Israeli companies are offering a range of innovative technologies and solutions geared to maximizing desalination efficiency. Many of the Israeli ground-breaking desalination solutions, allowing for cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for regions where its availability is limited, are the products of collaboration between the public and the commercial sector.

Wastewater & Water Treatment 

 For the sake of future generations, it not enough just to preserve water we have but we need to find way to "create" more. This is where creativity meets creation…

With over 60 years of experience in the fields of wastewater treatment, purification and water reuse for agriculture and industry, Israel is a global leader and a success story, reusing more than 85% of its wastewater.

Irrigation

Collaboration, between Israeli farmers and researchers, generated new, revolutionary and transforming form of irrigation: Drip Irrigation. drip irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation and fertigation have lowered the water-use rate in growing plants, allowed precise irrigation of trees through individual spray irrigation, and introduced advanced computerization of irrigation systems that indicate real-time monitoring and pre-programing of irrigation intervals, buried moisture sensors providing information on moisture levels of the soil.

With the growing partnership between India and Israel, especially on the field of agriculture, and in view of the shared challenges, Israel's water sector is opening up to India, offering a new partnership through transfer of knowledge and technologies, joint development of new technologies working together toward international standardization in this field.

source:indiawaterweek.in

Community-Based Flood Early-Warning System

To enhance the resilience of 45 vulnerable communities in the Indian Himalayan region to flood hazards, a collaboration encompassing ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development), Aranyak and SEE created the Community-Based Flood Early-Warning System. The information and communications technology (ICT) enabled system uses a flood sensor attached to the transmitter to detect rising water levels. When the water reaches a critical level, a signal is wirelessly transmitted to the receiver. The flood warning is then disseminated via mobile phones to appropriate agencies and vulnerable communities downstream. Critical flood levels are set with the help of local communities.

Fast facts:

•     In 2013, five community-based flood early warning systems were installed in the Singora and Jiadhal rivers. 

•     The system installed in the Singora River sends flood warning signals to 20 flood-vulnerable communities downstream; 25 flood-vulnerable communities receive warnings from the system installed in the Jiadhal River.

•      During the flood season of 2013, the flood early-warning system installed in the Jiadhal River successfully informed community members of pending floods, helping them save assets and lives.

Image & Article courtesy : http://unfccc.int

The problem

The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is one of the most dynamic and complex mountain systems in the world. It is also extremely fragile and sensitive to the effects of climate change. Climate change is gradually increasing the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events and natural hazards in the region, which has led to higher levels of risk and uncertainty. 

One of the effects of climate change is the formation of melt water lakes on the lower sections

Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

On 11 March, panic struck engineers at a giant power station on the banks of the Ganges river in West Bengal state.

Image & Article courtesy : BBC

Readings showed that the water level in the canal connecting the river to the plant was going down rapidly. Water is used to produce steam to run the turbines and for cooling vital equipment of coal-fired power stations.

By next day, authorities were forced to suspend generation at the 2,300-megawatt plant in Farakka town causing shortages in India's power grid. Next, the vast township on the river, where more than 1,000 families of plant workers live, ran out of water. Thousands of bottles of packaged drinking water were distributed to residents, and fire engines rushed to the river to extract water for cooking and cleaning.

'Shortage of water'

The power station - one of the 41 run by the state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation, which generates a quarter of India's electricity - was shut for 10 days, unprecedented in its 30-year history.

"Never before have we shut down the plant because of a shortage of water," says Milan Kumar, a senior plant official. 

"We are being told by the authorities that water levels in the river have receded, and that they can do very little."

Further downstream, say locals, ferries were suspended and sandbars emerged on the river. Some 13 barges carrying imported coal to the power station were stranded midstream because of insufficient water. Children were seen playing on a near-dry river bed.

Nobody is sure why the water level on the Ganges receded at Farakka, where India built a barrage in the 1970s to divert water away from Bangladesh. Much later, in the mid-1990s, the countries signed a 30-year agreement to share water. (The precipitous decline in water levels happened during a 10-day cycle when India is bound by the pact to divert most of the water to Bangladesh. The fall in level left India with much less water than usual.)

Monsoon rains have been scanty in India for the second year in succession. The melting of snow in the Himalayas - the mountain holds the world's largest body of ice outside the polar caps and contributes up to 15% of the river flow - has been delayed this year, says SK Haldar, general manager of the barrage. "There are fluctuations like this every year," he says. 

'Filthy river'

But the evidence about the declining water levels and waning health of the 2,500km (1,553 miles)-long Ganges, which supports a quarter of India's 1.3 billion people, is mounting.

Part of a river's water level is determined by the groundwater reserves in the area drained by it and the duration and intensity of monsoon rains. Water tables have been declining in the Ganges basin due to the reckless extraction of groundwater. Much of the groundwater is, anyway, already contaminated with arsenic and fluoride. A controversial UN climate report said the Himalayan glaciers could melt to a fifth of the current levels by 2035.

Emmanuel Theophilus and his son, Theo, kayaked on the Ganges during their 87-day, 2,500km journey of India's rivers last year. They asked fishermen and people living on the river what had changed most about it. 

"All of them said there had been a reduction in water levels over the years. Also when we were sailing on the Ganges, we did not find a single turtle. The river was so dirty that it stank. There were effluents, sewage and dead bodies floating," says Mr Theophilus.

The waning health of the sacred river underscores the rising crisis of water in India. Two successive bad monsoons have already led to a drought-like situation, and river basins are facing water shortages.

Water conflicts

The three-month-long summer is barely weeks away but water availability in India's 91 reservoirs is at its lowest in a decade, with stocks at a paltry 29% of their total storage capacity, according to the Central Water Commission. Some 85% of the country's drinking water comes from aquifers, but their levels are falling, according to WaterAid.

No wonder then that conflicts over water are on the rise.

Thousands of villagers in drought-hit region of Maharashtra depend on tankers for water; and authorities in Latur district, fearing violence, have imposed prohibitory orders on gatherings of more than five people around storage tanks. Tens of thousands of farmers and livestock have moved to camps providing free fodder and water for animals in parched districts. The government has asked local municipalities to stop supplying water to swimming pools. 

States like Punjab are squabbling over ownership of river waters. In water-scarce Orissa, farmers have reportedly breached embankments to save their crops. 

Back in Farakka, villagers are washing clothes in the shallow waters of the power station canal and children are crossing by foot.
"We would dive into the canal earlier for a swim," says a villager. Not far away, near the shores of the Ganges, fisherman Balai Haldar looks at his meagre catch of prawns and bemoans the lack of water.

'Unthinkable'

"The river has very little water these days. It is also running out of fish. Tube wells in our village have run out of water," he says. "There's too much of uncertainty. People in our villages have moved to the cities to look for work."

It is a concern you hear a lot on the river these days. At the power plant, Milan Kumar says he is "afraid that this can happen again".

"We are being told that water levels in the Ganges have declined by a fourth. Being located on the banks of one of the world's largest rivers, we never thought we would face a scarcity of water. 

"The unthinkable is happening."

source:BBC

Noyyal River Restoration Federation

I love being with nature. I love plants and trees. I love to involve children in eco-conservation,” says eco-crusader Vanitha Mohan, sitting in the office of Siruthuli, an NGO that focuses on restoring tanks, installing rainwater harvesting systems, and planting trees across Coimbatore.

Siruthuli literally means ‘tiny drop’, but Vanitha’s plans are anything but tiny!

Meet the doughty woman, who is spearheading a people’s movement to revive a dead river, the Noyyal, which was once the lifeline of the Kongu region.

“I want the Noyyal that my grandfather handed over to me for my children,” says the 63-year-old Vanitha whose past record of restoring several waterbodies in Coimbatore has generated a lot of expectations on her latest plans.

Image & Article courtesy : theweekendleader.com

Noyyal originates in the Western Ghats near Coimbatore and meanders along a 160 km stretch through the districts of Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, and Karur before joining the Cauvery.

It is fed by 34 small streams flowing down from the Western Ghats in Coimbatore district. A well-planned network of tanks is found alongside the river, said to be constructed by the later Chola kings for flood control and water harvesting. 

The once perennial river is dry most part of the year now and has been polluted by the sewage and industrial effluents flowing into it at many places.

Will the river regain its lost glory? That’s the million dollar question as Vanitha and her team at Siruthuli areplanning an ambitious restoration programme. All her past work though would seem like child’s play compared to the task at hand. But Vanitha, managing trustee of Siruthuli, is undaunted by the enormity of the mission.

“It’s very difficult, but we will do it,” she declares.

It was this very spirit that led to the formation of Siruthuli back in 2003, at a time when Coimbatore was reeling under severe drought and the water table in the city and its vicinity had plummeted to alarming levels.

“The situation was very bad then. The monsoon had failed for three years in a row and water was not available even at 1,000 feet,” recalls Vanitha. Having joined the family business in the mid 1990s, she had already desilted a few ponds near their factory at Perianaickenpalayam and seen how groundwater in the area had got recharged and dry wells came to be filled with water.

“There were few people in our company who were extremely passionate about water conservation. They helped me in these initiatives,” she reminisces. When drought hit the city in 2003, she could relate it to the shrinking tanks and lakes in the city, which were being encroached upon, polluted and abused to the extent that their storage capacity had decreased rapidly over the years. 

“There are nine major nine major tanks in Coimbatore. Until the 1970’s they were brimming with water, but the rot set in later with urbanisation. Garbage, building debris, and sewage found their way into the tanks,” says Vanitha. Not just the tanks, but the 34 streams feeding River Noyyal had also been choked and the result was the fall in groundwater table in the city.

To replicate the success she had achieved at a few small ponds and check dams near their factory across the bigger waterbodies in Coimbatore she needed more resources and here her family background helped her.

Vanitha’s father LG Varadarajulu was a second generation businessman, who had got into manufacturing of automobile garage equipment and built from scratch the ELGI group of companies along with his brothers.  Her husband Vijay Mohan’s family owned Premier Mills. But Mohan exited from the textiles industry, got into manufacturing of automotive parts and built PRICOL (Premier Instruments and Controls Limited), whose current turnover is close to Rs 1,100 crore.

Vanitha is the Vice Chairman of PRICOL. She takes care of internal audit and the HR department, apart from the CSR activities of the company.

So in 2003, PRICOL along with “a few conscientious corporate business houses of Coimbatore” – Bannari Amman Group of Companies, LMW Group of Companies, ELGI Group of Companies and Sri Sankara Eye Society –came together to form Siruthuli with a mandate to solve the water and environmental problems in the region.

The six founder-trustees include Vanitha and SV Balasubramaniam, chairman of Bannari Amman Sugars.

Vanitha’s previous experience in restoring ponds came to her aid and Siruthuli hit the ground running, cleaning one tank after another.

“We restored Krishnampathy tank first. It used to be spread over 125 acres, but it had shrunk to 75 acres due to encroachments. We removed silt from the tank bed up to 17 feet and created a bund around it.

“It rained for just two days and the entire tank got filled up. It gave us confidence and after that there was no looking back. We cleaned five more tanks in a matter of fifteen months,” she says. 

The organisation has spent about Rs 20 crore on various environmental projects till date. In 2013, they started cleaning Periyakulam, a 325 acre tank located right in the middle of the city. “We were carrying on the work for two months, day and night, using six JCB machines,” says Vanitha. But the highlight of the project was the involvement of the people of Coimbatore in the cleaning work.

 “For four consecutive Sundays, people turned up in large numbers to join hands with us. On the last Sunday we had around 10,000 people,” says Vanitha, whose organisation has cleaned an estimated 1,000 acre tank area and strengthened a stretch of 18,246 metres of bunds in Coimbatore.

Out of all the tanks they had cleaned up, Vanitha picks Kuruchi, the largest one with an area of 345 acres, located on the way to Pollachi, as the project that had the most significant impact.

“Coconut trees around a radius of 25 km from the tank were drying up. The area turned fertile after we cleaned the tank and it filled up with water,” she reveals.

Siruthuli kicked off Noyyal restoration project in March on World Water Day by launching Noyyal River Restoration Federation (NORFED) in the presence of social activist Anna Hazare and actor Suriya.

NORFED has partner NGOs from three other districts through which Noyyal flows - Jeeva Nadhi Noyyal from Tiruppur, Olirum Erode from Erode and Noyyal Kaapom from Karur.

Vanitha is conscious of the challenges lying ahead. “Lot of things are involved in river restoration. We are now doing a survey of the streams that bring water to Noyyal, which are in Coimbatore. These have to be mapped and the streams need to be cleaned first,” she says.

There is a plan to divide the entire stretch of the river into 500 m sections, with each section proposed to be handed over to institutions or individuals who can take up the cleaning work and later maintain it as well.

But the biggest problem would be plugging the inflow of sewage and industrial effluents into the river, an issue they face even in the tanks they have cleaned in the city.

“Due to sewage content the tanks are covered with water hyacinths, which are water guzzlers. We plan to set up low-cost decentralised sewage treatment plants at few places along the river to tackle this issue,” she says.   

On the positive side, she is excited about the support she has received from the local panchayats, who are key stakeholders in the project.

“They are very keen in saving the river,” says Vanitha, who holds a PG diploma in business management from University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Besides PRICOL, Vanitha’s family also has companies with interests in hospitality, real estate and few other sectors. 

Her first son Vikram is into business and is the MD of PRICOL. Her second son Viren is a nature lover and a wildlife photographer, much like his mother who remains a naturalist at heart even though she is active in the family business.

“I would like to be known as a crusader for Mother Nature rather than as a businesswoman,” signs off Vanitha.

 source:theweekendleader.com

ஆறுகளும் ஆன்ட்டிபயாடிக் மருந்துகளும்

கூவமும் அடையாறும் சுத்தமாகப் போகுது... சென்னையின் கனவு நனவாகப் போகுது!

சென்னை ஐ.ஐ.டி. உட்பட உலகின் 8 நாடுகளைச் சேர்ந்த 15 பல்கலைக்கழகங்கள் இணைந்து HEARD (Halting  Environmental Antibiotic Resistance Dissemination) திட்டத்தின் கீழ் மனிதனின்  ஆரோக்கியத்துக்குக் கேடு விளைவிக்கும் மாசடைந்த நீர்நிலைகளின் நீர் மாதிரிகளை ஆராயும் முயற்சியில்  இறங்கியுள்ளனர்.

இந்தியா முழுவதற்குமான மாதிரியாக, நம் சிங்காரச் சென்னையில் உள்ள கூவம், அடையாறு மற்றும் பள்ளிக்கரணை  சதுப்புநிலங்களின் நீர் நிலைகளை இவர்கள் ஆய்வுக்கு எடுத்துக் கொண்டுள்ளனர். பல்வேறு தனியார் சுகாதார  அமைப்புகளைச் சார்ந்தவர்கள், சென்னை மாநகர குடிநீர் மற்றும் கழிவுநீர் வாரியம், தமிழ்நாடு மாசுக்கட்டுப்பாட்டு  வாரியம் மற்றும் பொது சுகாதாரத்துறையைச் சார்ந்த உறுப்பினர்களுடன் இந்த திட்டத்தில் இணைந்து செயல்படப்  போகிறார்கள். கடந்த ஐந்தாண்டுகளில் பல்கிப் பெருகியுள்ள நுண்ணுயிர்கள் மற்றும் பாக்டீரியாக்களை அழிக்கக்கூடிய  தொழில்நுட்பங்களையும், கருவிகளையும் உருவாக்கக்கூடிய ஆராய்ச்சிப் பணியை இப்பல்கலைக் கழக உறுப்பினர்கள்  மேற்கொள்ள இருக்கிறார்கள்.

இத்திட்டத்தின் ஒருங்கிணைப்பாளரான சென்னை ஐ.ஐ.டி. சிவில் இன்ஜினியரிங் துறை பேராசிரியரான இந்துமதி நம்பி,  “எங்களின் இந்த ஆய்வு, எதிர்காலத்தில் சாத்தியமாகும் சிகிச்சை முறைகளைப் பற்றிய விவாதங்களுக்கு வழிவகுக்கும்.  இப்போது சென்னை நகர மக்கள் இந்த ஆறுகளின் மாசடைந்த நீரினால் பரவும் தொற்று நோய்களுக்காக அளவுக்கு  அதிகமான ஆன்ட்டிபயாடிக் மருந்துகளை எடுத்துக் கொள்ளும் நிலையில் உள்ளனர்.

Image & Article courtesy : Dinakaran

ஆற்றல்மிக்க ஆன்ட்டிபயாடிக் மருந்துகளை தொடர்ந்து எடுத்துக் கொள்ளும்போது அதற்கு உடல் பழகி, குறிப்பிட்ட  ஆன்ட்டிபயாடிக்கின் எதிர்ப்புசக்தி குறைகிறது. இந்த எதிர்ப்பு சக்தியை சமாளிக்க புதிய ஆன்ட்டிபயாடிக் மருந்துகளின்  வரவு சந்தையில் அதிகரிக்கத் தொடங்கும். இவற்றின் பயன்பாட்டை கட்டுப்படுத்துவது மிக முக்கியம்” என்கிறார்.

“எதிர்காலத்தில் மனிதர்கள் மற்றும் விலங்குகளின் ஆரோக்கியத்துக்கு  மிகப்பெரிய அச்சுறுத்தலாக இருக்கப்போகும்  சுற்றுச்சூழல் சீர்கேடு சம்பந்தமான இந்த முழுமையான ஆராய்ச்சி அவசரத் தேவையாகும். பாக்டீரியா தாக்குதல்  ஆபத்தான நிலையில் இல்லை என்றாலும், மாசடைந்த நீர் ஆதாரங்களை சுத்தப்படுத்த வேண்டியதன் அவசியத்தை  புரிந்து கொள்ள வேண்டும்.

ஆராய்ச்சியாளர்கள் காணும் தீர்வுகளை எதிர்காலத்தில் ஆக்கபூர்வமாக செயல்படுத்தும் வகையில் ஒரு கூட்டமைப்பை  உருவாக்க வேண்டும். அப்போதுதான் அவர்களின் கண்டுபிடிப்புகளை முழுமையாக பயன்படுத்திக் கொள்ளமுடியும்”  என்று  தமிழ்நாடு சுகாதாரத்துறைச் செயலர் டாக்டர் ஜே.ராதாகிருஷ்ணன் பரிந்துரைத்தார்.எப்படியோ இந்த ஆராய்ச்சி  மூலம் நம் கூவத்தையும் அடையாற்றையும் மீட்டெடுப்பது நமக்கு மகிழ்ச்சி தரும் செய்தி!.

source:dinakaran

What makes rainwater harvesting such a powerful technology?

"India receives most of its rainfall in just 100 hours out of 8760 hours in a year. If this water is not captured or stored, their will be no water for the rest of the year"

Picture By Edal Anton Lefterov (Own work)via Wikimedia Commons

Just the simple richness of rainwater availability that few of us realise because of the speed with which water, the world’s most fluid substance, disappears. Imagine you had a hectare of land in Barmer, one of India’s driest places, and you received 100 mm of water in the year, common even for this area. That means that you received as much as one million litres of water — enough to meet drinking and cooking water needs of 182 people at a liberal 15 litres per day. Even if you are not able to capture all that water — this would depend on the nature of rainfall events and type of runoff surface, among other factors — you could still, even with rudimentary technology, capture at least half a million litres a year.

It is, in fact, only with this rudimentary technology that people came to inhabit the Thar desert and have made it the most densely populated desert in the world. And assuming you could capture the 2000 mm annual rainfall that is common in eastern India, you would need only 500 square metre of land (a 21 metre by 21 metre plot) to capture one million litres. It is also interesting to note that rural population density follows intensity of annual rainfall. Barmer, for instance, has less rainfall but few people and a lot of land available per person whereas 24-Parganas in West Bengal has much more rain but more people and less land available per person.

Even in the villages suffering from drought this year, it is not as if there was no rain. But the people let the water go. It does not matter how much rain you get, if you don’t capture it you can still be short of water. It is unbelievable but it is true that Cherrapunji which gets 11,000 mm annual rainfall, still suffers from serious drinking water shortages.

In fact, we have consistently argued that there is no village in India that cannot meet its basic drinking and cooking needs through rainwater harvesting. Figures speak for themselves. India’s average annual rainfall is 1170 mm. It varies from 100 mm in the deserts of Western India to 15,000 mm in the high rainfall hills of the Northeast. Nearly 12 per cent of the country receives an average rainfall of less than 610 mm per annum while 8 per cent receives more than 2500 mm. But more than 50 per cent of this rain falls in about 15 days and less than 100 hours out of a total of 8760 hours in a year. The total number of rainy days can range from a low of five days in a year in the desert regions of Gujarat and Rajasthan — though on some of these days there can be high-intensity rainstorms — to 150 days in the Northeast. Therefore, it is very important to capture this rainwater which just comes and goes in a few hours.

Recognising this fact that almost all the rain comes down in a few years, our ancestors had learnt to harvest water in a variety of ways:

(a) They harvested the rain drop directly. From rooftops, they collected water and stored it in tankas built in their courtyards. From open community lands, they collected the rain and stored it in artificial wells.

(b) They harvested monsoon runoff by capturing water from swollen streams during the monsoon season and stored it in zings in Ladakh, ahars in Bihar, johads in Rajasthan and eris in Tamil Nadu, to name a few. 

(c) They harvested water from flooded rivers in places like north Bihar and West Bengal.

The strategy for drought proofing would be to ensure that every village captures all the runoff resulting from the rain falling over its entire land and the associated government revenue and forest lands, especially during years when the rain was normal, and store it in tanks or ponds or use it to recharge the depleting groundwater. It would then have enough water in its tanks or in its wells to cultivate substantial lands with water-saving crops like millets and maize.

source:downtoearth.org

Cherrapunji has water scarcity

Cherrapunji has water scarcity for nine months in a year despite
having 11,000 mm of annual rainfall. This should be an eye opener.
If you don’t harvest the rain, there will never be enough water

No water, no weddings in parched Bundelkhand

A tumbler tucked under her armpit, Bhuri trudged along the dusty broken path to the “Pahadi wali Ma ka Mandir.” The exhaustion on the 48-year-old Kumhar woman’s face was apparent as she approached the hill in the blazing sun. 

But the hill hosts more than a goddess — the well at its foot is the only natural supply of potable water for the village of Kapsa. The catch — it is two km from the village, a long distance to walk for a glass of drinking water, especially in scorching temperatures. For Bhuri, that can mean a journey to the hill multiple times a day. 

Image & Article courtesy : The Hindu

“My parents decided my marriage. Had I known I would be fated to this, I would have never got married in this village,” Bhuri said. “Which woman would like to spend the rest of her life fetching water like this?” she asked. 

Bhuri’s regret is borne out of experience but there is also an element of anxiety as her three sons have found it difficult to find brides. 

While caste, class and religion are routine factors in any arranged marriage, proximity to the nearest well in the groom’s village has become a crucial element in deciding nuptials in drought-hit Bundelkhand. 

In Kapsa, successive droughts and a perpetual water scarcity have made it difficult for men to find brides. As is traditional, the girls of the village have moved out after marriage but families from other villages are not willing to send their daughters to this village in Maudaha tehsil of Hamirpur, fearing they would be stuck fetching water from far away for the rest of their lives.

Critical situation

As 50 districts of Uttar Pradesh reel under severe drought, the situation in Kapsa is critical. The village has no tube well or canal close by. Its five ponds have all dried up, and of the 20 hand pumps, only seven are functional but high salinity makes this water non-potable. The only relief has come from two water tankers that supply a limited quantity of water at intervals. 

“Fathers of the girls usually ask me, ‘When you or your sons are not in the village, how will my daughter cope? Will she do this for the rest of her life?’ I have no answer to give,” said Ranvijay Singh, who is finding it difficult to get his two younger sons married. “On many occasions, people have visited to see my boys. My boys are decent-looking and tall, and the girls’ families liked them. But once they sense the water situation, they do not return or call back,” said Mr. Singh. 

After much difficulty, he got his eldest son Bharat married in 2012. Now, Mr. Singh faces the “gargantuan task” of getting his two younger sons married. All three sons work as security guards in Gujarat. 

With 1,530 inhabitants, Kapsa’s population mainly comprises upper caste Thakurs, Yadavs, Dalits and Pals. 

A paltry 51 per cent are literate and most residents are depended on agriculture as farmers or farm labourers. If its water scarcity has deterred women from marrying into the village, over the years, scores of young men, like Mr. Singh’s sons, have been forced to migrate to work in brick kilns and construction sites as manual labour. Inter-region migration is also reported. 

The recent drought has triggered a fresh bout of migration from the village.

As one walks around the Dalit corners of the village, one can see houses that are locked or with no male members — in some cases, entire families have fled the crisis. One of the houses belongs to a Jatav, Brij Lal, who migrated to New Delhi a month ago to escape the blight. His neighbour Manni, whose husband already works in Noida, plans to follow in the next few days. Her son, an electrician, faces a similar quandary as the rest of bachelors in the village. “Will we save our lives or arrange marriages?” Manni asked. 

The present severe drought has meant that marriages have been cancelled, scaled down or postponed across Bundelkhand. For Kapsa however, the problem is a perpetual one, earning it an infamy it is finding hard to shed. Pradhan Chandrabhan Singh is concerned. “Yes, people think twice before giving their daughters in marriage. The truth is that even the most prosperous among us have gone to the well at least once,” he said. 

To mitigate the water scarcity, the Samajwadi Party government has allocated funds for tankers and installation of new hand pumps. But pradhan Chandrabhan Singh feels that would not be enough to solve Kapsa’s long-term crisis. 

“It is for the first time in two decades that tankers have entered the village. But what about the permanent solution? I have written to the administration to dig bores at four sites, for which I am willing to provide land. But they have not even responded,” Mr. Singh complained. 

When Kapsa’s case was brought to the attention of Chitrakoot Divisional Commissioner Venkateshwarlu, he said he would inspect the condition in the village. 

source:thehindu

10 Ways Farmers Are Saving Water

Sustainability-minded farmers are looking ahead and using an arsenal of methods to conserve water. Here are just a few.

1. Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation systems deliver water directly to a plant’s roots, reducing the evaporation that happens with spray watering systems. Timers can be used to schedule watering for the cooler parts of the day, further reducing water loss. Properly installed drip irrigation can save up to 80 percent more water than conventional irrigation, and can even contribute to increased crop yields.

Image courtesy : wikipedia

2. Capturing and Storing Water

Many farms rely on municipal water or wells (groundwater), while some have built their own ponds to capture and store rainfall for use throughout the year. Properly managed ponds can also create habitat for local wildlife.

Image courtesy :wikipedia

3. Irrigation Scheduling

Smart water management is not just about how water is delivered but also when, how often, and how much. To avoid under- or overwatering their crops, farmers carefully monitor the weather forecast, as well as soil and plant moisture, and adapt their irrigation schedule to the current conditions.

4. Drought-Tolerant Crops

Growing crops that are appropriate to the region’s climate is another way that farmers are getting more crop per drop. Crop species that are native to arid regions are naturally drought-tolerant, while other crop varieties have been selected over time for their low water needs.

5. Dry Farming

California dry farmers don’t irrigate, relying on soil moisture to produce their crops during the dry season. Special tilling practices and careful attention to microclimates are essential. Dry farming tends to enhance flavors, but produces lower yields than irrigated crops.

6. Rotational Grazing

Rotational grazing is a process in which livestock are moved between fields to help promote pasture regrowth. Good grazing management increases the fields’ water absorption and decreases water runoff, making pastures more drought-resistant. Increased soil organic matter and better forage cover are also water-saving benefits of rotational grazing.

7. Compost and Mulch

Compost, or decomposed organic matter used as fertilizer, has been found to improve soil structure, increasing its water-holding capacity. Mulch is a material spread on top of the soil to conserve moisture. Mulch made from organic materials such as straw or wood chips will break down into compost, further increasing the soil’s ability to retain water.  Farmers may also use black plastic mulch as a soil cover to suppress weeds and reduce evaporation.

8. Cover Crops

Planted to protect soil that would otherwise go bare, cover crops reduce weeds, increase soil fertility and organic matter, and help prevent erosion and compaction. This allows water to more easily penetrate the soil and improves its water-holding capacity. A 2012 survey of 750 farmers conducted by North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education found that fields planted with cover crops were 11 to 14 percent more productive than conventional fields during years of drought.

9. Conservation Tillage

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was created by a perfect storm of deep plowing and loss of perennial grasses followed by extreme drought and wind erosion. Conservation tillage uses specialized plows or other implements that partially till the soil but leave at least 30 percent of vegetative crop residue on the surface. Like the use of cover crops, such practices help increase water absorption and reduce evaporation, erosion, and compaction.

10. Going Organic

In a 30-year farm systems trial, the Rodale Institute found that corn grown in organic fields had 30 percent greater yields than conventional fields in years of drought. In addition to keeping many of the more toxic pesticides out of our waterways, organic methods help retain soil moisture. Healthy soil that is rich in organic matter and microbial life serves as a sponge that delivers moisture to plants. The trial also found that organic fields can recharge groundwater supplies up to 20 percent.

source:cuesa.org

Status of Ground Water : Extraction exceeds recharge

On May 5th, Members of Parliament in Lok Sabha discussed the situation of drought and drinking water crisis in many states.  During the course of the discussion, some MPs also raised the issue of ground water depletion. 

Image courtesy : wikipedia

In light of water shortages and depletion of water resources, this blog post addresses some frequently asked questions on the extraction and use of ground water in the country.

Q: What is the status of ground water extraction in the country?

A: The rate at which ground water is extracted has seen a gradual increase over time.  In 2004, for every 100 units of ground water that was recharged and added to the water table, 58 units were extracted for consumption.  This increased to 62 in 2011. Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, saw the most extraction.  For every 100 units of ground water recharged, 137 were extracted.

In the recent past, availability of ground water per person has reduced by 15%.  In India, the net annual ground water availability is 398 billion cubic metre. Due to the increasing population in the country, the national per capita annual availability of ground water has reduced from 1,816 cubic metre in 2001 to 1,544 cubic metre in 2011.

Rainfall accounts for 68% recharge to ground water, and the share of other resources, such as canal seepage, return flow from irrigation, recharge from tanks, ponds and water conservation structures taken together is 32%.

Q: Who owns ground water?

A: The Easement Act, 1882, provides every landowner with the right to collect and dispose, within his own limits, all water under the land and on the surface. The consequence of this law is that the owner of a piece of land can dig wells and extract water based on availability and his discretion. Additionally, landowners are not legally liable for any damage caused to  water resources as a result of over-extraction.  The lack of regulation for over-extraction of this resource further worsens the situation and has made private ownership of ground water common in most urban and rural areas.

Q: Who uses ground water the most? What are the purposes for which it is used?

A: 89% of ground water extracted is used in the irrigation sector, making it the highest category user in the country. This is followed by ground water for domestic use which is 9% of the extracted groundwater.  Industrial use of ground water is 2%. 50% of urban water requirements and 85% of rural domestic water requirements are also fulfilled by ground water.

Figure showing surface water use and ground water use for irrigation. Pic: PRS

The main means of irrigation in the country are canals, tanks and wells, including tube-wells. Of all these sources, ground water constitutes the largest share. It provides about 61.6% of water for irrigation, followed by canals with 24.5%. Over the years, there has been a decrease in surface water use and a continuous increase in ground water utilisation for irrigation, as can be seen in the figure alongside.

Q: Why does agriculture rely most on ground water?

A: At present, India uses almost twice the amount of water to grow crops as compared to China and United States. There are two main reasons for this. First, power subsidies for agriculture has played a major role in the decline of water levels in India. Since power is a main component of the cost of ground water extraction, the availability of cheap/subsidised power in many states has resulted in greater extraction of this resource. Moreover, electricity supply is not metered and a flat tariff is charged depending on the horsepower of the pump. Second, it has been observed that even though Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) are currently announced for 23 crops, the effective price support is for wheat and rice. This creates highly skewed incentive structures in favour of wheat and paddy, which are water intensive crops and depend heavily on ground water for their growth.

It has been recommended that the over extraction of ground water should be minimized by regulating the use of electricity for its extraction. Separate electric feeders for pumping ground water for agricultural use could address the issue. Rationed water use in agriculture by fixing quantitative ceilings on per hectare use of both water and electricity has also been suggested. Diversification in cropping pattern through better price support for pulses and oilseeds will help reduce the agricultural dependence on ground water.

source:http://indiatogether.org

Meet Amla Ruia: The Woman Who Brought Water To Hundred Villages In Rajasthan

Amla Ruia known as ‘Water Mother’ brought water to hundred villages in Rajasthan through her initiative. Here is her story.

Image courtesy : wikipedia

While most of us take water for granted, we can never truly understand the hardships people face in using it to make a living. Farms in Rajasthan are usually dry because of the area’s sweltering heat and baring sunrays, yet with the help of one Indian activist, these farmers’ lives just got exceptionally easier.

Amla Ruia was motivated to support the villagers who suffered from the severe drought. She said, “I saw the government providing water tankers to meet the water needs of the villagers. But I thought to myself that this was not a sustainable solution…there must be a more permanent solution that could help the farmers in the long run,”

Image courtesy : thebetterindia.com

After seeing the struggle that the people of Rajasthan were going through, Amla had to take action. “Rajasthan farmers are among the poorest in the country. Using rain water harvesting technology to alleviate the situation seemed like a good choice. It was important to involve the local community and engage them to make our model more sustainable,” she said.

This is when the Aakar Charitable Trust came into the picture. She founded this organization to build check dams (i.e. small, temporary dams) for villages to provide water security. With these dams, water was able to be caught just like a large dam, but more cost efficiently.  Her first success was in the village of Mandawar, where two check dams were constructed.

The reason the Trust is so affluent is because they get each community on board with the idea of building the dams, this creates, essentially, trust between the organization and the citizens. It starts with the organization’s field workers contacting the individuals and spreading awareness of the drought situation, and how their problems could be solved easily, no strings attached. After that, a location for the dam would be decided and there would be no looking back. By the next monsoon, the dam would be constructed and everyone would be happy, thanks to Amla and ACT.

The villages in Rajasthan have completely transformed, from being dry and torrid to prosperous and hydrated. Women who had to walk miles to fetch water can now enjoy the facility we all take for granted. This was just the beginning to Amla’s journey in helping these villages. Now, Aakar Charitable Trust has constructed 200 check dams in 100 villages of Rajasthan, and has helped over 2 lakh people who earn a combined income of 300 crore per year.

Amla has also helped in the villages’ economies through diminishing emigration. “There is less migration to the cities now. Earlier, no one was ready to get their daughters married to the men living in these dry villages. That is not a problem anymore,” says Amla.

Amla Ruia, the “Water Mother,” has not stopped her environment expedition with her team as they hope to expand their positive effect to other states (most dams have been constructed in Rajasthan and Maharashtra), bringing liquid gold to all those who need it.

source: womensweb.in

மேற்கு தொடர்ச்சி மலை அடிவாரப் பகுதியில் 400 தடுப்பணைகள் கட்டி விவசாயி சாதனை

தேனி மேற்கு தொடர்ச்சி மலை அடிவாரப் பகுதியில் நிலத்தடி நீர்மட்டம் உயர 400-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட தடுப்பணைகளைக் கட்டி விவசாயி ஒருவர் சாதனை படைத்துள்ளார். 

தேனி மாவட்டம், மேற்குதொடர்ச்சி மலை அடிவாரத்தில் அமைந்துள்ளது கோம்பை கிராமம். இந்த கிராமம் மலை அடிவாரத்தில் இருப்பதால், மழை மறைவு (மழை பெய்யாத) பிரதேசம் என்றும் அழைக்கப்படுகிறது. இந்த கிராமத்தில் பல இடங்கள் வானம் பார்த்த பூமியாக கிடந்தது. சில இடங்களில் சோளம், கம்பு, கேழ்வரகு என மானாவாரி சாகுபடி மட்டும் நடந்து வந்தது. 

Article & Image courtesy : tamil.thehindu.com

இந்நிலையில், கோம்பை பேரூராட்சித் தலைவராக கடந்த 1996-ம் ஆண்டு தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்ட பி.ராமராஜ் என்ற விவசாயி, அப்பகுதியின் நிலத்தடி நீர்மட்டத்தை உயர்த்தி மானாவாரி சாகுபடி தவிர, மற்ற காய்கறிகளை சாகுபடி செய்ய, தமிழக அரசுடன் இணைந்து தற்போது வரை சிறியதும், பெரியதுமான நானூறுக்கும் மேற்பட்ட தடுப்பணைகளைக் கட்டி சாதனை படைத்துள்ளார். 

தள்ளாத வயதிலும் சுறுசுறுப்பு

74 வயதானாலும் இளைஞரைப் போல சுறுசுறுப்புடன் வேலை செய்து வரும் பி. ராமராஜ் ‘தி இந்து’விடம் கூறியதாவது:

கோம்பை மேடான பகுதி என்பதால், முல்லை பெரியாறு அணையில் இருந்து 18-ம் கால்வாய் வழியாக தண்ணீரைக் கொண்டு வரமுடியில்லை. இதனால் விவசாயம் பாதிக்கப்பட்டது. பல விவசாயிகள் பிழைப்பு தேடி, வேறு மாவட்டங்களுக்குச் செல்லத் தொடங்கியது எனக்கு வேதனை அளித்தது. 

இதற்கு மாற்று ஏற்பாடு செய்ய நினைத்த நேரத்தில், அரசு 1997-ம் ஆண்டு நதி நீர் பள்ளத்தாக்கு திட்டத்தை, தேனி மாவட்டத்தில் கொண்டு வந்தது. இந்த திட்டத்தில் கோம்பை பேரூராட்சியையும் சேர்க்க நடவடிக்கை மேற்கொண்டேன். இதனையடுத்து, செயற்கைக் கோள் மூலம் கோம்பை பகுதி வரைபடம் தயாரிக்கப்பட்டது. இதில் மேற்கு தொடர்ச்சி மலை அடிவாரப் பகுதியில் ஓடைகளை கண்டறிந்து, அதன் குறுக்கே எனது பதவிக் காலத்திலேயே 240 தடுப்பணைகள் கட்டப்பட்டன. மானாவாரி காடுகளில் நீரை தேக்க 1500 ஏக்கருக்கு மண் கரைகள் அமைக்கப்பட்டு பலப்படுத்தப்பட்டது. 

பின்னர், தேர்தலில் போட்டியிடாமல் மேற்குமலை தொடர்ச்சி மேம்பாட்டுத் திட்டம் என்ற சங்கத்தை தொடங்கி, அதன் தலைவராக இருந்துகொண்டு தோட்டக்கலை பொறியியல்துறை மூலம் ஆண்டுதோறும் 5 தடுப்பணைகள் வீதம் 10 ஆண்டுகளில் 50 தடுப்பணைகளும், வனத்துறை மூலமாக 48 தடுப்பணைகளும், நமக்கு நாமே திட்டத்தின் கீழ் விவசாயிகள் பங்களிப்புடன் இரண்டு பெரிய தடுப்பணைகளும் என, இதுவரை 400-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட தடுப்பணைகள் கட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன. 

மேலும் 36 தடுப்பணைகள்

தற்போது தோட்டக்கலை பொறியியல் துறை மூலம் 36 தடுப்பணைகள் கட்ட திட்ட மதிப்பீடு தயாரிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. இதற்கிடையில் மழைநீர் சேமிப்பு, மண்வள பாதுகாப்பு விவசாயிகள் சங்கம் என்ற மற்றொரு புதிய சங்கத்தைத் தொடங்கி சேதமடைந்த தடுப்பணைகளை அரசு உதவியை எதிர்பார்க்காமல், இதுநாள் வரை விவசாயிகள் பங்களிப்புடன் சீரமைக்கும் பணிகளை மேற்கொண்டு வருகிறோம். 

இப்பகுதியில் மானாவாரி விவசாயமே நடந்துவந்த நிலையில் நிலத்தடி நீர்மட்டம் உயர்ந்ததால், கடந்த சில ஆண்டுகளாக தென்னை, வாழை, கொத்தமல்லி என மற்ற பயிர்களும் விளைவிக்கப்பட்டு வருகின்றன.

வெளியூர் சென்ற விவசாயிகளும் சொந்த ஊருக்குத் திரும்பிவந்து விவசாயத்தில் ஈடுபட தொடங்கி விட்டனர் என்றார். 

நன்றி : தி இந்து