The months of June & July mark the onset of monsoons. The sight of monsoon; wet roads with burst of green all around, skies with dark clouds to feeble-grey ones, the lashing rains and mild drizzles, is something we like to indulge in. But before we lean back to enjoy the melodrama of monsoon, there are realities we must confront.
Adequate monsoonal rains are vital for farming, and for drinking and other human needs. Year on year, rains arrive, unless there are drought like condition due to some phenomena like El Nino. In cities, the roads get flooded. Drains overflow. Traffic snarls become a common sight. In the country side, good rains ensure proper crops that year. There are different issues, the urban and rural populace confront. But their common owe is conservation of water.
Rain water is a natural resource and the availability of the resource is restricted to the monsoonal months. If we can take proper steps to conserve it, we can provide for our needs, for the rest of the year. But the biggest threat to conservation is the way we develop our lands, the way states develop and maintain common infrastructure like roads, tanks, lakes and water channels.
Despite efforts by civic bodies in constructing rain water drains and rain water harvesting mechanisms, we find our roads inundated even with minimal rains. On the conservation front, rain water hardly reaches fresh water lakes or under water tables.
Another reason is, we build our houses in such a way that we seal all open spaces with concrete or tiles, and grow greenery in pots. If we look at our neighboring towns in Kerala, still houses are built with open earth spaces around the house, allowing plenty of space for trees and plants to grow. These open earth spaces function as a natural rain water harvesting mechanism with roots of the plants and trees aiding in absorption of rain water and refilling of water tables. Likewise, dense array of trees on road sides, facilitate natural draining of water, preventing flooding of roads.
Conservation of rain water in rural India, on the other hand, needs a concerted eco system. We can grow plenty of trees around farm lands and between crops, build a host of smaller ponds and lakes and micro irrigation channels to ensure proper collection, storage and utilization of rain water. A concerted rural eco-system can make every agricultural village self-sustainable.
Wherever we live, in urban pockets or rural villages, conservation of rain water is some thing every individual can take up at micro level. Individual effort towards conservation of water will compound to copious availability of water. And very soon it is going to become a necessity. The frequency of drought years is said to increase between the years 2020-2049, according to a research paper published by Current Science Association and Indian Science Academy. If we take conservation of rain water seriously and expand green cover, we will be able to minimize the effects of man-made blunders resulting in climate change and poor monsoonal rains.
The first simple step can be ours. This monsoon, as you revel in its charm, create earth spaces within the perimeter of your house and grow trees. With droplets harvested in Earth, Oceans can be built beneath the earth.
Adequate monsoonal rains are vital for farming, and for drinking and other human needs. Year on year, rains arrive, unless there are drought like condition due to some phenomena like El Nino. In cities, the roads get flooded. Drains overflow. Traffic snarls become a common sight. In the country side, good rains ensure proper crops that year. There are different issues, the urban and rural populace confront. But their common owe is conservation of water.
Rain water is a natural resource and the availability of the resource is restricted to the monsoonal months. If we can take proper steps to conserve it, we can provide for our needs, for the rest of the year. But the biggest threat to conservation is the way we develop our lands, the way states develop and maintain common infrastructure like roads, tanks, lakes and water channels.
Despite efforts by civic bodies in constructing rain water drains and rain water harvesting mechanisms, we find our roads inundated even with minimal rains. On the conservation front, rain water hardly reaches fresh water lakes or under water tables.
Another reason is, we build our houses in such a way that we seal all open spaces with concrete or tiles, and grow greenery in pots. If we look at our neighboring towns in Kerala, still houses are built with open earth spaces around the house, allowing plenty of space for trees and plants to grow. These open earth spaces function as a natural rain water harvesting mechanism with roots of the plants and trees aiding in absorption of rain water and refilling of water tables. Likewise, dense array of trees on road sides, facilitate natural draining of water, preventing flooding of roads.
Conservation of rain water in rural India, on the other hand, needs a concerted eco system. We can grow plenty of trees around farm lands and between crops, build a host of smaller ponds and lakes and micro irrigation channels to ensure proper collection, storage and utilization of rain water. A concerted rural eco-system can make every agricultural village self-sustainable.
Wherever we live, in urban pockets or rural villages, conservation of rain water is some thing every individual can take up at micro level. Individual effort towards conservation of water will compound to copious availability of water. And very soon it is going to become a necessity. The frequency of drought years is said to increase between the years 2020-2049, according to a research paper published by Current Science Association and Indian Science Academy. If we take conservation of rain water seriously and expand green cover, we will be able to minimize the effects of man-made blunders resulting in climate change and poor monsoonal rains.
The first simple step can be ours. This monsoon, as you revel in its charm, create earth spaces within the perimeter of your house and grow trees. With droplets harvested in Earth, Oceans can be built beneath the earth.