Harvesting rainwater information…
For a rich yield to quench the thirst
Interview by Frederick Noronha
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Harvesting rainwater information…
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From farming to the pen, and saving water that would otherwise have gone waste. That's the story of Shree Padre. He calls himself a farmer by profession, and journalist by obsession. By now, he has authored five books n this subject in the regional language of Kannada, and one in English recently (Rainwater Harvesting, Altermedia, Kerala, 2002). Since the last six years, he has been zealously collecting success stories and information on rainwater harvesting from world over. "Rainwater harvesting now is knocking out much of my creative time that my farming gets a blow," he half-complains. Before that, he worked to set up 'Adike Patrike', a popular farm magazine he edited for 12 years. This means Padre has become a pioneer in these parts for spreading farm-journalism -- or farmer-to-farmer communication. (His slogan is 'pen to the farmers'.) Through many workshops, his team has helped farmers to write for their fellow-farmers. In recent years Padre (47) has been instrumental in showing the common man a simple way by which they can increase their invaluable water supply, an area which has suffered long without a sustainable solution. Using such information, hundreds of farmers in five to six districts of South India have been harvesting rain. Padre has also built up an impressive collection of slides and photographs, and has put up some 200 slide shows on rainwater harvesting, mainly for farmers and students. He has done studies on 'surangas' (man-made caves for water), an unique traditional water harvesting system of Kasaragod of South India's Kerala state; and 'madakas' (traditional percolation ponds) of coastal Karnataka and Kasaragod, which have by now almost vanished. He emphasizes on in-situ, low-cost methods of harvesting rain that can be implemented even without subsidies and external help. Over the years, Padre says has been able to use his communication skills in fighting against a man-made tragedy caused by the aerial spraying of the endosulfan pesticides. Shree Padre shares his views with Frederick Noronha:
From September 1996, we started a feature series in the subject that continues even now. Once we got in touch with the non-government sector, the small groups and messiahs of RWH (rainwater Harvesting), we were lucky to gather a mountain of information. We thought, why not cater to the information-needy? I have written five books in Kannada on RWH. The first one, 'Nela-Jala Ulisi' (Save Soil and Water) has sold 3,000 copies and will be reprinted shortly. Knowing this, (South India-based alternative publisher) Altermedia asked me to write one in English too.
They were so kind; they tolerated our repeated queries over mail or telephone. That's how we got the material. Subsequently a good chunk of info is courtesy e-mail!
Like other NGO's Rajender Singh was not (just) a frequent visitor to the villages of action. To bring a change, he lived amidst the villagers, one like them.
What's most important is there is considerable percolation of water and percolation of knowledge! Even the last man knows what to do and what not to do to maintain the sustainability. Their key of success is revival of traditional rain harvesting systems called the 'johad'. They did it without external help.
In the adjoining three districts there are a good number of success stories. Not only that taking information or inspiration from 'Adike Patrike' or from my repeated slide-shows, I assume there must be a minimum of hundred people who got very good success in increasing their water sources with least efforts.
We have feedback from at least 30 cases. More and more people are believing in the concept and are implementing it .
Catch water where it falls, or in-situ rain-harvesting, makes things affordable even for the common man. You needn't depend on inputs from cities, on experts in the field or even government subsidy.
For examples, in an urban house, if there is a dug well, we can re-charge the ground-water using our service well. Or even a dry, abandoned well.
The Tamilnadu Water Supply and Sewerage Board, City Corporation and Metro Water -- all the three government agencies are creating awareness through meetings, web sites etc and also implementing what they preach.
In June 2002, a prestigious Rain Centre has been opened by the initiative of local RWH activists and the (New Delhi-based) Centre for Science and Environment that would catalyse implementation of RWH in the mega city.
Padmanabhanagar, a colony with 64 houses, saw last year 55 houses being installed with RWH in just three months! Venkat Raman, the force behind has spread it to 300 houses in less than a year!
In fact, the whole of the country is facing a water scarcity, of course in varying degrees. Six of our states face severe drought. Even Cherrapunji (the spot in north-eastern India, once called the wettest place in the world) that gets about 12,000 mm of rain faces an acute water problem in summer.
The Malnad areas in South India with 2-3,000 mm have of late started experiencing drinking water problems. A study by the Sri Lanka based IWMI (International Water Management Institute) states that South India will be among the worst hit areas for water shortage in 2025.
The problem of fluoride, nitrite and salinity are also off-shoots of acute ground-water depletion. Private tankers are making a roaring business. Now, it is not important as to how much rain a particular area gets; what is important is what arrangements it has to catch the rain.
Moreover what the country needs today is RWH with people's participation. We needn't be borrowers from agencies like World Bank and ADB (Asian Development Bank), if only people's participation is roped in and enough attention is given to creating awareness, proper planning and revival of traditional Water harvesting structures.
As a mediaman, my basic cup of tea is collection and dissemination of the right kind of info. I run a weekly column on RWH -- probably unique in the country -- in a Kannada daily.
Peoples' inputs are being incorporated in my writings. We have an informal forum called 'Jalakoota' that documents success stories of RWH from the world over. Four more books on the subject are in pipeline.
Shree Padre can be contacted at: shreepadre@sancharnet.in
Frederick Noronha is a freelance journalist based in Goa, India.
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