The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting in India

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Moving to Delhi opened my eyes to the kind of water shortage we are facing. I had earlier read about growing water shortage in Delhi, but living n water abundant states did not really prepare me to reality. And now that I have experienced this first hand, I am more aware of how we use water than ever before.

Given the kind of wastage that is rampant across India (due to various reasons, into which I will not delve now), coupled with exponentially growing population, it is only a matter of time before other cities also face similar or worse water shortages. I strongly feel drastic action needs to be taken, and examples need to be set.

Major companies can start by introducing rain water harvesting at their office complexes and production facilities. Real estate developers should follow suit and ensure that all properties can harvest rain water. All major complex should have water recycling systems in place too.

I am not saying that this is going to be easy to implement, or even cheap. I am not even aware of the complexities involved in implementing such measures. But some steps can be taken without incurring large sum of money. Like harvesting rain water from roof tops - standard practice in India is to drain rain water into sewers.

It is thus I share a video from my beloved site TED, in which Anupam Mishra talks about ingenuity shown by people centuries ago. I do hope we can, in some way replicate some of these practices.

Thoughts, guys?

Comments

Unknown said…
very moving, gagan! i loved the video. i wish there was an invisible all pervading power which would make things happen the way it should be. when you see the possibilities that are just lying around as dreams..
2:38 PM
Kunal Ratanpal said…
ladke..u in Noida NOT Delhi...so mind it :P
10:35 PM
Gagan said…
@ amritha: thanks.. since there isnt such power.. we have to do our bit :)

@ kunal: was in delhi for sometime before shifting to noida.
11:52 PM
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