Our Water Conservation program to create awareness, innovate, design, implement projects on ground and impact government policy for 5 R's of Water Conservation by working with communities for water security
To create awareness, innovate, design, implement projects & impact government policy for Dignified life, Easy and Sustainable access to Safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for the urban poor and rural India. Also work for Solid Waste Management.
To highlight, empower, connect and reward Water Wise citizens who work and implement water conservation initiatives in communities to help make them water secure
To Educate, Innovate, Inspire and Enable a sustainable, water abundant world by a shift towards profitable, health-giving, water & resource efficient agriculture for food and water secure nation
Jyoti Sharma, President FORCE posted this in Environment Protection on December 11th, 2009
Thank you Dr Hussein for giving us back our faith in ‘the system’….
The students of St Mary’s School are a persistent bunch!! They called up a few days back to say that they wanted to come back to the Neela Hauz to “Check on its restoration status and fight with whoever necessary to make it live again”.
Their comment got me worried. Should our children grow up with this belief that they need to ‘fight’ for what is their’s by right? Should they grow up with no faith in the ‘system’ – government, elders and all those who run the world today? Should they see the ‘system’ just as a destroyer of all that is beautiful and pristine…?
No – our children must grow up having faith in the ‘system’. And, having the capability to appreciate all that is good but rectify all that is bad.
I shared these thoughts with the Lt Governor’s OSD – Ranjan Mukherjee and the Dy Director Landscape – in charge of Bio-Diversity projects – Poonam Diwan. I requested them to give the children back their faith – atleast in the government’s promise for restoration of the Neela Hauz.
And so, Dr Hussein, you met us all today at the Neela Hauz. You told us about the DDA’s plans for Neela Hauz Bio-Diversity Area. You explained the complex interplay between all living and non-living inhabitants of our eco-system and how one exists because the other lives. You told us about why the birds and the butterflies we saw all around have vanished. And perhaps more important – you told us about what will be done at the Neela Hauz to bring them all – and more – back. And as icing on the cake, you shared your philosophy of practical ecological conservation, patriotism and a world without boundaries with us.
Sir, your deep love and understanding of nature shone through like a beacon of hope. If you, Mr Mukherjee and Ms Diwan are part of this ‘system’ it can’t really be so bad !
So, now the children have gone back a reassured, optimistic bunch. They have pledged to be watchful, but not cynical; analytical supporters of good effort and align with nature in creating self-sustaining flourishing eco-systems.
Jyoti Sharma, President FORCE posted this in Environment Protection on October 9th, 2009
Yesterday, a group of IX standard students of St Mary’s School came to the Neela Hauz.. They had read about it in the newspaper and had taken this lake up as a Project for Environmental Studies.
So they hunted out my number from the web and said that they had loads of questions about the lake which they wanted answered. We decided to meet at the Neela Hauz.
That fateful meeting was yesterday and I just wanted to share with you the confusion that they left me with.
They refused to believe that the solid mass of earth and the heavy machinery on top – could have ever been a lake. I tried to build for them the vision that I have seen, not so long back – of a beautiful, hidden oasis of peace with fishes and birds and butterflies all around. I could see, that they thought, I was lying.
They asked me that if it was really so lovely, why did you have to destroy it – did you have no alternative?? In my best adult tone, I told them about developmental prerogatives and about how a bend in a road was a terrible threat to our lives and how broadening the existing road was not possible. They looked incredulous – and asked me whether it wasn’t more dangerous to live without fresh air, water and peace?
They said they thought we adults do not really plan – just give in to pressures from powerful, selfish, short-sighted people.
They asked me why – if I was so concerned – did I not try and stop this bridge from coming up before the construction started. I hid behind my ignorance – I said the government never asked me what I wanted. They thought I was fibbing – they’ve studied about Democracy you see! A Government of the people, by the people and for the people!
Oh they bombarded me with questions – about why a non- intrusive technology could not have been used for construction, about why other parallel roads could not have taken the expected increase in traffic….
I thought they were unfair in making us all feel like silent bystanders to a murder. So I hushed them and told them proudly about our Citizens Movement. I told them how you were a good, ‘Green’ guy who promised to restore this lake to its original state after the bridge is made. I told them about the plan for a Bio-Diversity zone.
I thought I had found a release from the stranglehold of their innocence – but they looked incredulously at the solid earth where once upon a time there was a lake, at the malba dumped all around and the heavy bridge on our once untouched hideaway……….. and killed all hope with their final questions,
Did he really promise? Can he really return back the Neela Hauz? What’s the guarantee??
Help Save The Neela Hauz Lake
Send your message with this open letter to the Honourable Lt. Governor of Delhi, Mr. Tejendra Khanna on his Listening post (lggc.delhi@nic.in) byCLICKING HERE.
Dwarka Underpass has been in the news for the sheer visual shock of seeing 6m (20ft) high column of water on a road after a more than average rainfall in a single day.
Actually, the water was standing not just in the underpass but also on the road leading into the underpass from both sides. Approximately, 1.5 km stretch of road including the underpass had water logging. The water logging was so bad that, even today, 4 days after the downpour, and hectic efforts to pump out the water, the road is still blocked for traffic.
As per our calculations, the total volume of water that was standing in this entire area was between 10-12.5 crore (100 -125 Million) liters. If we take Delhi’s average rainfall, then over the year, this area alone would hold approx 40-50 crore (400-500 Million) liters of water!
To put this figure in perspective,
10 crore liters = 7,50,000 people’s requirement for one day or more than 2000 people’s total water requirement for one whole year!
WHY THIS HAPPENS:
1) Faulty drainage planning – An underpass is an artificial depression dug out from the ground. Drainage in an underpass is always a problem because it’s almost always impossible to align the slope of the underpass drainage with that of the main drain outside the underpass (whose level will be higher than the underpass). The problem becomes worse when the underpass is located at a site which is topographically also a naturally depressed zone. In such an area the tendency of water from all the surrounding catchment area is to flow towards that depression with no escape route in sight.
It is important therefore to ensure that the drainage for surrounding catchments is planned in such a way that all water gets diverted away from the underpass BEFORE it enters the depressed zone.
2) Poorly designed / constructed rainwater harvesting systems. As per court orders all flyovers are supposed to do rainwater harvesting. It does not seem like the Dwarka Underpass has done it. Even if it has,
a) The system is obviously insufficient because its recharge capacities have not been designed after taking into consideration the runoff generated by the entire CATCHMENT of the underpass area.
b) Poor intake of the system because of faulty design / construction.
c) The system is poorly maintained. Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) system needs regular cleaning to maximize its intake capacity. If this is not done, the system gets choked and becomes defunct. Its cleaning is especially necessary where the RWH system takes (water from road / open surfaces etc where the silt load is high.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
1) Proper Drainage planning. The Problem can be corrected even now. However, planners will need to look beyond the underpass and plan for catching run-off from the catchment area for the underpass itself.
2) Rain water Harvesting – All along the 1.5 km stretch, maybe perhaps more (analysis of exact site conditions needs to be made) an extensive rainwater harvesting system needs to be made. This will ensure that the runoff gets recharged to groundwater and there is no surplus flow left to “water-log” the underpass.
POLICY CHANGE NEEDED
The Dwarka Underpass is just a stark reminder of the urgent need to change policies to reflect urban water conditions:
1) WATER PLANNING SHOULD BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE DESIGNING WITH INTEGRATED EFFORT FROM ALL AGENCIES: Drainage and Water Harvesting planning to be done by agencies in co-ordination. When the underpass would have been constructed, PWD would have been given jurisdiction only over the immediate stretch of land over which the underpass is to be constructed. Hence, their designing and implementation would have to be a closed loop with minimal co-operation / interface with authorities managing that catchment area roads and drainage. So even if PWD wanted to plan an extensive drainage system, it would not have been able to do so. By the same logic, they might have been aware of / might have been advised by experts to do RWH for the entire catchment but since their intervention area was limited, they might not have been able to implement those suggestions.
2) RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS SHOULD BE MADE PART OF THE STORM WATER DRAINAGE SYSTEM. Currently, since RWH is seen as an ad-hoc activity, it is largely unplanned and adequate provisions for maintenance – BOTH OF STRUCTURES AND CATCHMENTS – are not made. RWH systems should be integrated with Storm Water Drainage systems. This will at least ensure that an annual schedule and provision for maintenance will be made by government. It should also be ensured that the catchment conduits for runoff and the RWH systems are maintained simultaneously. This will help ensure efficient working of the systems.
Unless we plan for these now, such fiasco will increasingly occur over time. And why not turn a fiasco into an opportunity – harvest water from all such areas!
The Winds of Change are whistling through the corridors of the Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR) – happily threatening to turn this staid, typical ministry into a vortex of new ideas, unconventional solutions and win-win partnerships.
All it took was a mild mannered, smiley-faced man who sometimes sounds more like a satsangguru (sermon priest) than a bureaucrat. The Jt. Secretary of the MOWR – Shri. RM Mishra – has been slowly but steadily opening up the doors of the ministry to positive minded community groups working on water issues. For the past two years, I have seen the ‘public’ being invited for seminars, workshops, intensive meetings – not just to sit and clap but also to share their ideas and action agendas. Of course, I’m sure, the other senior bureaucrats in the ministry and also the past and present Minister of WR are equally to be thanked for this change – I just hope they keep up this drive.
The 16th of July ’09, I think, was a watershed in this journey. A Meeting without a name, without a pre-defined agenda, was held in the ministry.
The invitees – roughly 30 practitioners of water conserving community movements from different parts of the country
The broad objective – to create a forum for free interchange of ideas, email-ids, phone numbers and support groups.
The invitees included:
Religious groups that used religion to create mass movements to protect rivers and make water bodies
Poets and intellectuals
Youth groups
Media and web professionals
Unconventional water cleansing technology providers
Activists, and of course
FORCE!
What makes this a historic meeting is the fact that a government ministry created this forum for
Completely unrestrained expression,
Auto-evolving agenda, and
With an objective of creating an ever expanding river of water conservationists working in harmony with each other in their own unique ways.
The spread & power of the government coupled with the passion of the crusader – can change be far behind??
Some credit for these winds of change must go to FORCE as well. Not only hasFORCE been a partner of the ministry in helping create the public interface, but we also pioneered the JAL RAKSHAK movement (a forum of community leaders working for the cause of water conservation).
Incidentally, the Jt. Secy. Mr RM Mishra – is a Special JAL RAKSHAK too!
May the tribe of JAL RAKSHAKs increase! Here’s your chance to jump on to this juggernaut – register yourself as a JAL RAKSHAK and be a part of the Great Indian Water Turn-Around!
Water Security Program
Their comment got me worried. Should our children grow up with this belief that they need to ‘fight’ for what is their’s by right? Should they grow up with no faith in the ‘system’ – government, elders and all those who run the world today? Should they see the ‘system’ just as a destroyer of all that is beautiful and pristine…?
