OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Noted water expert and conservationist Anupam Mishra talks about the culture and traditions of water harvesting in the north Indian desert state of Rajasthan. He also compares the traditional water harvesting systems with the modern ones and looks into the social and economic benefits in the region.

The geography of Rajasthan is challenging, to put it mildly. It has often been characterised as the land where the sun hardly ever seems to go down. Geography books describe the region as hot and arid, little rainfall. Temperatures touch 50 degrees centigrade in the summers. Home to the Great Indian That Desert, water seems to be a rare commodity! Adding to the gloomy picture is the general remark that groundwater is scarce, being usually available at great depths of more than 300-400 ft. and that too largely saline.

But Rajasthan is also a blessed land. Its people have nurtures and sustained rich and varied institutions and traditions of rainwater harvesting and water management to meet all their needs so much so, tat the divine boon became synonymous with the resourcefulness, the ability and the skill of the people, which did not allow even a drop of water to go waste! What about the modern boons? One such example is the case of the Rajasthan Canal; where the idea was to grant the boon of unlimited water to the remotest corners of Rajasthan and to establish piped water supply, where taps were to be a new phenomenon! But the boon has slowly turned into a curse for most of its waterlogged command area.

Yet saving graces exist. Today out of the 515 villages in Jaisalmer, 462 are populated and 53 have been deserted. Except for one village, in all the other 514 villages there is evidence of water availability through local rainwater harvesting structures. According to a State Government Report, 99.787 per cent of Jaisalmer’s villages have their own water resources, namely wells, baories, tankas, tablas etc. (diverse water harvesting systems.) Thus 99.8 per cent of the villages have adequate water resources, all of which have been maintained themselves.

In contrast to this remarkable system, all contemporary indicators of social and economic growth are far from satisfactory – out of the 515 villages, only 19 per cent are connected by modern roads; post and telegraph services cover just nine per cent and electricity even lower than four to five per cent.

And so, where the modern state of numbers and statistics seems to be barren, ad the shortages contemporary indicators loom large, these life-supporting systems – kuians, kunds, tankas, baories, tablaas have been the lifelines of life and prosperity in the middle of the desert. They have withstood the test of time and change to become symbolic of the philosophy that not only links the past to the present but also harbours the potential to make a future of benefits based on lessons of the past. It is not centralised large dams and canals that are going to satisfy people’s basic needs and bring about development. It is only such techniques of local rainwater harvesting, that are participatory, employment generating, sustainable, equitable, socially just and even cost effective, that can achieve development in the true sense of the term.

SOURCE: Sanctuary Asia