He delightedly called us up to say that not only had the new borewell sprung
to life, but the original borewell, which had been dug 30 years ago, was
yielding clean and potable water after decades of being dry!
Bangalore is reeling with a shortage of fresh water, even before summer has truly hit the
city. As an International Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) journalist for the last decade or
more, this was a day we knew which would come, but not so soon. There are parts of the
city that are parched and dry, begging for water and there are some like the 10 women in
the gospel (Matthew 25:1-13) who are fine as their lamps are trimmed and ready with Rain
Water Harvesting, which they did last monsoon.
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten women, which took their
lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and
five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with
them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the
bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”
I see the commonality between the story of the virgins and the rain water harvester today.
Harvest the rain for the dry months and you will not suffer when the need comes up for
fresh water in the summer.
As a young woman I was told about RWH when we went for Choir Practice by Fr Cecil
Saldanha, a Botanist and Jesuit in St. Joseph’s Boys high School. Obviously 40 years ago
when Fr Cecil spoke to us, Bangalore was still a small town and had no water issues. But
then he was looking into the future like all scientists do. He explained that we should save
all the rainwater that fell and save it for when there was none. At the time we thought he
was nuts.
A few years ago our farm in Hoskote was in trouble. Both the bore wells had dried up and
we were buying tankers of water to keep the mango and chickoo trees alive. Then I was
invited to several media sensitization courses held by UNEP and UNFCCC in different
countries, especially in Africa, where water was a massive problem. It was there that I saw
first hand how RWH had helped the population especially in the little villages to survive.
That's when we decided – just two years ago to put in RWH mechanisms in the farm. We
first dug several injection wells in the path of the rain water run off. Eight feet deep and
sank ready made concrete rings to hold the sides firmly. The base was left open so that
whatever water collected, could percolate down into the aquifers.
The second important step we took was that the entire roof of the farmhouse was edged
with pipes, which caught the rain that fell and directed it to a massive tank that we had
placed behind the building. The rain filled the tank after which we allowed the run off to
flow into the soil around which was held back by earthen bundhs. This water slowly
percolated down into the aquifers which fed the bore wells, which had dried up earlier.
All along the entire two acres we built mud bundhs on which we grew wild grass to hold
them in place. These bundhs held the rain back across the property and let it percolate into
the soil raising the water table across the property. These were conscious decisions taken
with a clear objective of not losing any rain water that fell on the property, or came into it
from the surrounding areas.
The excitement in the caretaker's voice was palpable. He delightedly called us up to say
that not only had the new borewell sprung to life, but the original borewell, which had been
dug 30 years ago, was yielding clean and potable water after decades of being dry! It was
like a miracle happening before our eyes. This got all the farmers around excited and all of
them have begun putting in place RWH mechanisms.
There are several areas in Sarjapur, Bangalore, which I wrote about as a journalist for the
Deccan Herald, where homes live off the grid on rain water alone. They have put in a series
of filters and tanks which gives them water far superior to the Cauvery water supplied by
the government.
Make a decision to RWH and get a specialist in to fix up the mechanisms. You will never
have to worry again if the water supply runs dry in the summer months.
