Waterman: Community water conservation plan need of hour

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 1

To recharge its depleted water bodies and underground aquifers, Waterman of India Rajinder Singh today advocated a tripartite water conservation mantra and a 129-year-old water conservation model of the British. The city needs ‘chaal’ (small water bodies), ‘khaal’ (small streams) and ‘taal’ (tank) that will hold Shimla’s water in Shimla itself and help recharge otherwise depleted underground aquifers, he says.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Rajinder Singh, who is also a Magsaysay award winner, said “Shimla needs to combine three things - chaal, khaal and taal - to work out a plan to hold Shimla’s water in Shimla itself, not allowing it, along with the soil, flow down the khads, drains or nallas. Best example of this is a 129-year-old British-built water conservation catchment area near Dhalli, which is still serving residents here”.

Rajinder Singh was here to spread the mantra of water literacy among school children. Himachal has huge water sources and forests, but it has no chapter on water literacy and no community-based water conservation programme to conservative its depleting water sources, he observed.

Singh said tin roof houses and other concrete structures, including roads, have contributed to the rise in local temperature. They reflect sun rays that produce “red heat”, which results in either erratic rainfalls for a few days or a few hours in which rain water along with top soul flow swiftly down the slopes, without charging the underground water aquifers, which have depleted now.

“We need to build small ‘chaal’ by planning grass, shrubs in the hill slopes so that the water is held back. We need to develop khaal (small water holding structure along the small streams”, Singh advocated, who has revived water sources in Rajasthan ending water crisis there. “We can build taal (tanks) on level fields to further hold water. This bio- engineering can help recharge waters of Shimla”, he asserted.

He quoted the example of the British-built water catchment model and traditional water conservation sources like ‘baolis’ and tanks, which are now depleted or polluted. “We need to revive these and teach children how to do it for secure water future”.

Joint member secretary, council of science, technology and environment, which is launching water literacy campaign for children and residents by roping in experts in the field, Kunal Satyarthi said, “The studies have shown that there is no decrease in the amount of rainfall or snowfall in Himachal. But we face an erratic climate shifts as we either have “concentrated rainfalls in a few days or hours or snow falls extending up to March”.

Stayarthi said they are trying to revive the depleted traditional water baolis and streams in Shimla city to recharge city’s water bodies and underground aquifers learning from the British-built catchments. “We need water harvesting structures by planting herbs and shrubs and check dams to hold water for longer time to recharge city’s water sources”, he added.