Trees, Plants & more: Water conservation

Trees, Plants & more: Water conservation

Water and a City- Bangalore

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/festival/play/5453/Water-and-a-City/VmtaV1JrOVdRbEpRVkRBOStF

All those friends, who are interested in water conservation, might like to have a look at this.

Wish all the cities in India make rainwater  harvesting a reality and benefit. Is anyone listening out there?

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I found this to be a very good initiative. Wish other cities, also will take it up soon.
And my dear Hyderabadis will adopt it  too, for my convenience and saving the petrol/diesel.

Hope this succeeds.

Will anyone listen , I wonder.

Yesterday we had a unique experience.

We have an open ground in front where the road ends in a cul-de-sac and the ground starts. The ground hugs our colony periphery on the south eastern side.

It has been a vacant lot for ever, and the greenery is soothing. A place for birds, and all other small animals. We don't complain, since it gives a lovely mini forest canopy. There was a huge well, where children used to play, fish and swim. But 15 years back some high rise was built on the well and a few Eucalyptus trees were planted in their compound.

 There is a nala flowing between our colony, and the high rise .In fact the forest cover gives a respite from the nala overflow and also the stench.

It is needless to say, the high rise residents find it convenient to throw their garbage into the mini forest, and choke the nala from time to time.

Three days back, while I was on the terrace watering the plants, I heard a loud noise, and to my amusement saw one tree, breaking up and falling over some compound walls, over the nala, and lay sprawling on our part of the road.

People who were out running, hearing the bang, were sympathetic, to find a big tree sprawled across. It was also occupying major portion of the road, and vehicles could not pass...

I saw the huge canopy and I requested my domestic help to collect the leaves as much as possible for use in the garden as mulch, and went about my work.

The owners of the tree immediately arranged for cutting the debris and disposing it.  It took them almost a day to cut the branches and clean up the road, and workers were quick to finish, by disposing it in the nala! 

The normal process could have been, to summon the lorry from Cantonment Office for collecting the tree debris. That would have involved some expenditure.

By chance I heard some noise, and peeped out. To my horror, smoke and flames were leaping out of the forest ground. The flames were some 15 feet high and making cracking noise. I rushed out and saw that, couple of workers were watching the fire, smoking, and chatting on cell-phones.

Hearing the commotion, the neighbours came out rushing. The fire was spreading to the dry twigs and branches. Though it was in the direction away from our houses, there was a danger of it coming towards our homes due to some heavy winds. So much commotion was going on, but no one from the high rise came forward. 

They might have been watching from their closed windows and balconies, but they did not respond. I had to shout above the din of noise, that I am calling the fire department and the police.

  

The workers got panicky when we all shouted, and they started throwing some water. I was shocked that in the wake of water being bought for 1000 per lorry, how can anyone think of disposing a tree by kindling a forest fire?

They started getting some more pipes and some small bucket to pour over the fire. Meanwhile the green trees were fast catching the fire.

I threatened one of the workers that we are going to catch him and hand over to the police for starting such a fire in summer, which prompted others into action. They stared jumping nearer to the fire area and pouring water collected from the nala!

We were also asking, who gave them advice to dispose of such a huge tree into the drainage nala, they pointed out at the high rise"sir". 

Once it came to some semblance of control, the man from the high rise in charge of such mighty operation appeared. We lost no time in asking at his plan of setting the neighbourhood on fire, jeopardizing our homes and trees. He coolly defended himself by saying he never told the workers do such thing, and he only asked them to clean.

Clean? By throwing the tree in the nala and chocking it? In case of next rain, our colony will get all the mucky water! He had no answer, but to mumble something else. I had to show restraint, and call for his good senses and educated status(is he really educated ?), to refrain from  such careless clean ups such things. The worst is , he did not even apologise!

I found the workers were more responsible and doused the fire and apologised for what happened.

Finally, it irked me that, this is not the first time it happened. Six months back, we were all carrying buckets of water from our homes and dousing the fire. for almost one hour!!We did not know then, who had lit such a fire, now we know who thinks of easy disposals!!!

Just because, we alerted and no loss took place, does it mean we can brush it aside?. I wish people were more responsible and realise how a small careless thoughtless act, might develop into a disaster. And learn to avoid unnecessary loss.

Will anyone listen, I wonder.

Rain water harvesting - World Water Day

Today is World Water Day. As I was reading my subscribed blogs, I came across some socially aware pages in regional languages.

One was in Tamizh, written by Ms.Gomathi Arasu at http://mathysblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/blog-post_21.html

The blogger gave a reference to Sri. Vincent -, who is a pioneer in green movement, in his own simple ways. His blog in Tamizh is informative, with many tips on how to live in harmony with nature and how to ensure, that the land stays green. He has lot of innovative ideas on growing plants, in containers, and on terrrace.
http://maravalam.blogspot.in/2010/03/blog-post_10.html

Here is a video uploaded by Sri. Vincent in respect of water conservation, worth viewing and circulating too.
http://maravalam.blogspot.in/2010/03/40.html

Another interesting historical fact about the fall of Agra fort and the deafeat of ShahJahan, by his son, using the water shortage here
http://maravalam.blogspot.in/

Water conservation - A compulsion of our times , is the blog written by Sri.Mohd. Ali here http://pettagum.blogspot.in/2012/03/blog-post_4408.html

Mr.Ali has been vocal about how to save the rain water, and how to harvest it.  I would like to give a gist of what he has explained in the following paragraph.

"Rain water can be harvested, either for direct use, or for storing below the ground level.There are some basic procedures to be followed for storing under the ground level, thus increasing the water table. The rain water harvesting programme instituted by TN government(while Ms.JJ was the CM ) did improve the water table in Chennai.

Another important point is that the existing wells  should not allowed to go to seed, or closed. The rain water can easily be channeled for collection in to the wells. This will surely improve the water table in that area, apart from increasing the quality of water.

The borewells which are dug out above the rock table and not too deep, also need to be replenished with rain water harvesting. This will improve the water levels in the borewells and will be useful in summer months"

I would like to share that , ten years ago, we connected pipes on the terrace, to the dried up well and started collecting rain water. We have also left lot of area unpaved around the house.  Apart from the well, we also let the water flow into the borewell area, to soak the water in.

This summer there is serious water shortage in Hyderabad . There are no tankers available on demand, and it takes 10 days to even get one . The Government water supply is seriously hampered , and they are distributing tankers , if booked, once a month only.

Needless to say, so far , we are getting water in our borewell, sufficient for our daily use. Thanks to rain water harvesting.:-)

Updated on 30th March 2012

This topic is hot right now, hot due to weather,a nd due to lack of water availability.
Here is another link about rain water harvesting, wish Governments and people take notice.

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/4026-water-gandhi-in-limca-book-of-records?s=rss

Thanks to Water Gandhi, somewhere someone cares.

Added on 13.05.2012 Motehr's day

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/360-degree/water-starved-water-stressed-008
Interesting ideas from an expert! Hope govt. takes note.