Helping themselves

The residents of Indore have been responsible for overextracting groundwater. They are now involved in recharging efforts through rainwater harvesting. Faced with a big gap between demand and supply, Indore has been overextracting groundwater both in rural and in urban areas. The water supply to the town is 168 million litres per day as against the daily requirement of 320 million litres. Declining rainfall and the growing population has resulted in the gap increasing between demand and supply.

Efforts are currently on to promote rainwater harvesting in rural as well as in urban areas. In Indore the local administration as well as several groups have been playing an active role. The Nai Duniya newspaper group, the mayor of the city, Kailash Vijayvargiya, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and Deepak Khare, professor of civil engineering and applied mechanics at the Shri Govindram Sekseria Institute of Technology and Science (SGSITS) are just some of the people involved in raising awareness and implementing rainwater harvesting.

To study the groundwater pumping pattern and its misuse, Khare along with his students undertook a study of around 200 tubewells in Indore. A questionnaire was prepared and a door-to-door survey was conducted to collect information on the year of tubewell construction, the depth of the well, the level at which water was encountered, the daily pumping hours and the usage throughout the year. In 1988 only 0.5 per cent of the population experienced pumping problems. Ten years later, in 1998, about 40 per cent of the population experienced problems in pumping, indicating intermittent supply.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Nai Duniya newspaper group, a Nai Duniya Seva Trust was set up. The proprieters have agreed to deposit a sum of five paise for each of the 1,30,000 newspapers sold everyday. The scheme was launched on 23rd June, 2000. So far, about Rs 75 lakh have been collected and will be used for various development projects. This fund is currently financing organisations working to promote rainwater harvesting in six rural and six urban areas. They have also sponsored satellite imagery of groundwater resources in Indore so that the efforts can be more effective.

Intense efforts are on to raise awareness about the need and potential of rainwater harvesting. The newspaper group is spreading the message through advertisements and articles in their newspaper. They also plan to publish monsoon cards. The mayor is appealing to the citizens to adopt rainwater harvesting methods to improve the groundwater level and the rquality in the city. He is raising funds from the public to clean the traditional water tanks in the city. A pad yatra (water march) for water harvesting before the next monsoon is being planned. This yatra will include a door-to-door campaign, public meetings, on the spot construction and exhibition of models. Khare, too, has been involved in spreading the word. For the last few months  he has been encouraging people to recharge their tubewells through working models. He has also got in touch with principals of some schools for conducting essay, painting and debating competitions for school children on water conservation issues.

The Indore Municipal Corporation launched its activities on 6th May, 2000 with the theme, ‘If you protect water, water protects you.’ An exhibition was arranged at Rajwada, the palace of the Holkar kings, where models of different water harvesting methods, posters and filters samples were displayed and leaflets distributed. A bulletin Warsha Jal Sanghrah (rainwater conservation) and Shahar ka Pani Shahar Me (the water of a city should stay in the city) was released. A meeting was arranged with various NGOs and individuals and a decision taken to observe ‘Jal Chetna Diwas’ or water awareness day on 20th of May, 2000. On that day, leaflets were distributed at different junctions with the help of NGOs to create awareness amongst the masses. An exhibition at seven different places in Indore was arranged and information’s required by people regarding water harvesting was provided. Techniques of groundwater recharge were demonstrated at Municipal Corporation office, Malhar ashram and the Mayor house.

Several groups are also implementing rainwater harvesting. Khare had implemented rooftop rainwater harvesting at the SGSITS campus. The institute has 10 tubewells and three openwells. Water from the Electronic Instrumentation and Computer building and staff quarters are harvested through rooftop and diverted to the openwells. In Choithram Hospital and School, 110-120 piles (bores) with depths varying from 4 to 6 meters were put in an around an abandoned well. With the help of these piles, the surface runoff was taken care for recharging the groundwater as well as revival of the well. The three storey building of the Shri Indore Cloth Market Hospital and Nursing Training School (Hostel) has rooftop water harvesting system, most of the water demands are met from the tubewell which is recharged from the rooftop after proper filtration.

Rainwater harvesting is being implemented in residential colonies, institutes, clubs, gardens and ashrams. Records of the IMC indicate that more than 2,000 houses in Indore have water harvesting structures. The mayor of Indore, Sanjay Shukla is planning to present a paper on water harvesting for the Indian Administrative Services training programme so that trainees can implement rainwater harvesting during their tenures wherever they are posted.

The Nai Duniya office complex has a water harvesting structure that harvests rooftop rainwater from half of the roof area and recharges an old dugwell. Arrangements to harvest the water from the rest of the campus will be complete before the 2001 monsoon.