Raleigh
ICS India marks World Water Day 2013
Friday 22nd March was World
Water Day 2013, and we have been thinking a lot about different issues relating
to water in this part of India. In Kalahatti, India Yankee 9 have been
attempting to reduce their water usage by using waste water from washing up to
flush the toilets in the school where they are living! In the UK flushing a toilet
uses more water in one go than many people have access to for an entire day:
Most
of the 1.1 billion people categorized as lacking access to clean water use
about 5 litres a day. On average, people in Europe use more than 200 litres—in
the United States more than 400 litres. When a European person flushes a toilet
or an American person showers, he or she is using more water than is available
to hundreds of millions of individuals living in urban slums or arid areas of
the developing world). UN Human Development Report,
2006.
The Raleigh India Field Base is located in
Karnataka, but we also have project groups in Tamil Nadu. Water is an ongoing
issue between these states as a result of two controversial agreements signed
in the late 1800s and 1920s which specified how much water each state can
access from the Kavari River which is shared between them. In February this year, a sixteen-year tribunal aimed
at resolving these issues came to a conclusion, with Tamil Nadu being awarded 419 Thousand Million Cubic feet (TMC) of water
(against the demand of 562 TMC); Karnataka 270 TMC (against its demand of 465
TMC); and the nearby states of Kerala 30 TMC and Puducherry 7 TMC. A further 10
TMC was reserved for environmental protection (Times of India, 2013).
In Hosavidahundi, current home to India Yankee 2, we have
observed another more localised water issue. The tap which members of the
community use to collect water for drinking, washing and cooking; is only
functional twice a day: once, at midday, and once at 3am! It is difficult to
imagine having to get up every single night to collect water, to use for
everyday life.
In Chilakahalli (India Yankee 1), the teams have been
thinking about their secondary projects and are considering the idea of using
the runoff water from the school taps to irrigate a vegetable garden which they
will help the children plant. This will not only mean that less water is
wasted, but it will prevent pools of stagnant water forming around the taps and
attracting mosquitoes.
Water issues definitely affect a lot of the
communities we are working with here in India. It is our responsibility as
volunteers to ensure that we are considerate in our own water use whilst
working on projects and also to try to improve the sustainability of water use
here so that we help to create a lasting impact. We have learnt a lot about how wasteful we
often are with water in our own lives and plan to reduce that when we are back
home.
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