Hazare’s village shows Sweden the way to tackle water crisis

Stockholm, November 25

Social activist Anna Hazare’s village Ralegan Siddhi has become an inspiration of a major ground water recharging project on a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea facing acute shortage of drinking water in summers, an uncommon phenomenon in the Nordic country bestowed with abundant natural water.

Unlike the mainland Sweden where large clean water lakes provide unhindered supply of water to a population of 10 million, the condition is quite opposite in Storsudret in Southern Gotland, a Swedish island.

The area normally populated by just 900 people is thronged by tourists and residents in summers bringing severe strain on groundwater resources, prompting the local administration to stop housing constructions and other water dependent activities.

The reason is the topography of Storsudret having thin soil layers which does not allow the rainwater to recharge ground water draining it into the sea very quickly.

“There is severe water shortage in southern parts of Gotland. So they have to bring water from the northern part of the island. We have placed a test bed for water supply in the region. The reason why we put the test bed here is because it is so difficult. If we can show that it works here then it can work anywhere in the world,” Staffan Filipsson, expert at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute leading the project, said in an interaction with journalists here.

The researchers were left with the option of desalination plant which could make the Baltic water drinkable for the population but involves high energy consumption.

Rupali Deshmukh, another expert at the IVL, gave an idea to start a project using traditional conservation knowledge of the Indian villagers to store rainwater and marry it with latest information technology tools to study the outcome.

Filipsson says Storsudret receives more than enough rainwater to ensure adequate water supply but the challenge is to collect and store the water so that it lasts through the summer.

The project has been sanctioned 8 million Swedish krona from the innovation agency Vinnova and an additional 8 million Swedish krona from participating organisations, he said.

Deshmukh, who hails from Nagpur in Maharashtra, said there were similarities in the topography of Ralegan Siddhi and Storsudret where traditional knowledge was being used to conserve ground water.

“We got knowledge from a small village in India — Ralegan Siddhi. We are using traditional rainwater harvesting like check dams, groundwater ponds etc used by the village which was never used here in Sweden,” she said. — PTI