The town of Devanahalli lies to the north of Bengaluru. With a population of about 30,000 the town gets its water supply from borewells and summer time is tough as the groundwater table falls.
Already tankers are busy plying and supplying water and summer has yet to come in full force. The town has no underground sewerage and has only pit toilets to serve the population. It would be impossible to place a sewerage unless the water supply position improves. In the meantime, when the pit toilets are emptied by vacuum trucks of the municipality, there is no official place to dispose off the waste.
Yet, in an innovative approach farmers dig a pit, collect the waste, cover it with farmyard manure, allow it to decompose and then apply it on their grape fields as manure. This does not figure in any conventional books on management of sewage or septage yet a practical answer has been found which seems to make ecological sense.
In the town of Vijaypura further north, water supply is based on borewells and is intermittent. The Government Urdu school has a tough time in managing the water requirement for the mid-day meals and for sanitation. Yet its 10,000-litre rainwater tank has been a big help. During the rains rainwater is filtered and stored and during other seasons tanker water is stocked up.
The Headmistress of the school is very happy with the system and the children have water for health and hygiene purposes.
Further west of Vijaypura, after the large city of Kolar comes Mulbagal town with a population of about 60,000 people. This was the land of open wells and ponds and continues to be dependent on borewells and groundwater.
The house of Ramesh in this town is over 100 years old as is the open well on the premises. The well is at least 80 ft. deep and for the first time in his memory has gone dry. He buys water from tankers paying Rs. 600 for a 8000-litre tanker load. In a month he pays Rs. 1,800 for water. When the well was full he paid almost nothing.
Close to Ramesh’s home is a temple pond de-silted by the local municipality. It is now fenced completely and prevents cattle and people from access. Adjacent to the pond is a deep well. Two men have been plying a livelihood-based trade here for over 30 years.
They lift water from the well manually using ropes and a tin bucket, fill the 400-litre drums on their bullock cart with this water and then transport it to households who need this for Rs. 60 a cart load. It is hard, brutal work and in a day they lift 20 kg. of water weight 200 times. No wonder they are muscular. Are they part of a ‘water mafia’ or are they merely providing a service and making a livelihood?
In a nearby government school vandals have stolen most of the taps from within the school compound. They have not spared the rainwater pipes and that connecting the overhead tank to the water filter in the school. The toilets are unusable because of this destruction. The teachers are helpless and the students deprived of basic water and toilets. Not unusual for a school as many of them face the same situation. No amount of water supply levels in the town will enable it to be accessed by these students, for the problem is social and not technical.
The story of water and sanitation in our towns and cities is actually a million stories of one of many problems and quite a few solutions. In the big picture one tends to forget the small narratives which are very important.
Good water management and governance will weave these many threads into a grand tapestry of sustainability and access. That will be water wisdom.
zenrainman@gmail.com
Good water management and governance will weave the many stories of community initiatives into a grand tapestry of sustainability and access.
