Small grants

"Up till now, 75 per cent of funds under Small Grants Programme (SGP), has gone to projects on biodiversity and climate change, but it was only due to absence of good proposals from the other sectors such as rainwater harvesting", says SNair, National Coordinator of SGP in India.

Under SGP, Rs 15 lakh per project are provided by United Nations Development Programme and Global Environment Facility, to 63 developing countries for community-based natural resource management.Since 1996, more than 76 projects have been funded by SGP.

Ongoing quest for pure water

The quest for safe drinking water is fascinating and is ongoing. Let’s look at this water wisdom from the very beginning.

A sanskrit manuscript Ousruta Sanghita, from 2000 BC observes that "It is good to keep water in copper vessels, to expose it to sunlight and filter through charcoal."

Early Egyptian paintings from the 13th and 15th centuries BC depict the sedimentation apparatus being used.

Historically, the taste of water used to determine its purity. Hippocrates, the father of Medicine, invented the ‘Hippocrates Sleeve’, a cloth bag to strain rainwater, in the 5th century BC.

Between 343 BC and 225 AD, Roman engineers created a system — supplying 130 gallons daily through aqueducts.

Sir Francis Bacon, a philosopher, chronicled only ten experiments in the preceding 1,000 years that dealt with water treatment. He believed that saline sea water could be purified if it were percolated through sand.

In 1685, an Italian physician, Lu Antonio Porzio, designed the first multiple sand filter. It used contained two compartments (one downward flow, one upward). The filter used plain sedimentation and straining followed by sand filtration.

Filtration was gaining popularity.In 1746, a Parisian scientist Joseph Amy, was granted the first patent for a filter design consisting of sponge, charcoal and wool. By 1750 his filters were out in the market for home use.