Conservation - Reducing Water Usage

This research study, by Veena Srinivasan, addresses the challenge of supplying water to rapidly growing cities in South Asia, using evidence from the water-scarce city of Chennai. Chennai (formerly Madras) is a rapidly growing metropolis of over 6.5 million people, whose infrastructure has not kept pace with its growing demand for water. In the year 2003-2004, Chennai experienced a severe water crisis, the piped supply for the entire city was virtually shut down for a 12-month period. Consumers became dependent on private tanker suppliers trucking in untreated groundwater from peri-urban areas.

Getting Things Done: Bureaucratic and Entrepreneurial Approaches to the Practice of Participatory Water Management Reforms in Brazil and India

In Rajasthan Ki Rajat Boondein, Shri Anupam Mishra documents the myriad, well-organised ways in which the people of western Rajasthan have harvested and managed water over centuries, through work of the utmost dedication, painstaking detail and community-led action. These systems have survived the test of time, and are present in most villages and towns of the desert state even today.

This path-breaking work in the harsh water-scarce conditions of the desert, was completely managed by the local communities, and serves as a guide to the rest of us, in organising to face and tackle the water crisis, that we face across the world today.

Shri Anupam Mishra has worked in the field of environment and water conservation for many decades, and is currently with the Gandhi Peace Foundation New Delhi. His books on the work of people/society organising themselves, to harvest and manage water - Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Talaab and Rajasthan Ki Rajat Boondein, are considered landmark works in the field, and continue to inspire several individuals even today, to take up work on setting up and reviving such time-tested water harvesting systems.

Conservation and Management of Urban Lakes
Brainstorming Session on Conservation & Management of Urban Lakes 26th Sept 09

Imagine H2O is a not-for-profit company with a mission to inspire & empower people to solve water problems

In addition to controlling gully erosion, check dams also serve to slow the movement of water, allowing increased percolation into the soil. Just above a check dam is a good place to put in a percolation structure. Silt that builds up behind the dam creates good farmland, which can be planted after the rains while it retains moisture. The following series of pictures show one farmer’s success with building a percolation tank just upstream of a series of check-dams.

It is similar to drip irrigation, but less expensive to install. The pitchers are the round earthen containers used in rural areas for water storage, ranging from 10 to 20 liters in capacity. This kind of irrigation is ideal for spreading plants such as gourd, pumpkin, and melon because few pitchers are needed per unit area. It is also very good irrigation for saplings, promoting deep root growth.

Soil and water conservation measures consist of agronomical and mechanical methods. Agronomic methods are supported with mechanical measures where land slope exceeds permissible limits and runoff gains erosive velocities.

The following boxes explain the nature of agronomic measures which are essential in inter-bunded or terraced areas. These practices enhance the utility value of all kinds of mechanical structures.

Sujala Scheme: The Byyraju Foundation's manual for setting up a locally managed, rural drinking water plant. The Foundation's drinking water initiative covers 154 villages across five districts of Andhra Pradesh via 31 village-level treatment plants.
Read More (Size: 2.1 MB)
Byrraju Foundation website

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Technology for Sustainable Development and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne EPFL have produced a report titled Integrated Approaches for Sustainable Development in Water Resources Sector.