To rejuvenate the traditional sources of water — ponds, rivers, streams, kunds (small ponds), baavdis (stepwell) — and to hand over these priceless treasures to the future generation, there is a need to raise awareness among the people, says Dilip Bidawat
Every third year, the temperature in the Thar Desert rises to 50 degrees due to famine or drought. The rural population is disturbed but locals do not get distracted. This is the reason why Thar is the only desert in the world where there is density of life in abundance. The biodiversity has never depleted even in complex geographical and meteorological conditions and in fact, has found the possibilities of life by always adjusting itself to the conditions. There will be shortage of water in a desert but this is nature’s way of dealing with it. This is a region where salty water is extracted from beneath the earth and sweet water pours from the sky. But dense rainfall can make the desert a swamp with the entire area becoming a saline lake. Every living organism has adapted its life according to the available resources, while maintaining the possibility of life by mutually cooperating with other species. Mankind created unique treasures of water storage for themselves, their animals (especially cattle) and for future generations, life has been arranged to move ahead smoothly. In some areas of India, where there is more rainfall than the Thar Desert, there is scarcity of drinking water, while the people of the desert avoid the situation by utilising water as if it was the treasure of their ancestors.
Time changed, developments took place, humans tried to control nature through technology. To make life more convenient and prosperous, we have developed ways that by a simple gesture, our needs are made available at our disposal; whether it is by storing underground water or by building dams to block rivers.
The exercise of pulling underground water from heavy capacity-powered pumps and through pipelines from the place of origin developed the culture of tap water, which made humans forget the value of it. Still there are people, who walk miles just to fetch a jar of water. A person who has been saving wealth and resources for the last seven generations is least concerned about the availability of water needed for existence.
Will the next seven generations have water and air to survive? By seeing tap water, the people were so fascinated that they forgot the precious treasures of water harvesting passed down to them by their ancestors. Even after seeing that they were looted in front of their eyes, they remained silent. Imagine the thousands of years of indefatigable hard work that went into making these precious treasures. To provide water, our government spends money at a faster pace than a flowing river, making directionless policies and schemes, which give less water and more troubles.
There isn’t a single village or region in the desert, where there is no traditional source of water. Did you know that the names of villages are based on the sources of water. They have — Bera, Beri, Nadi, Sagar, Hala — prefixed to them. A village’s name is kept without it meaning ‘water stagnation’. In the last five to six decades, the government’s plans for providing water to the people are making them forget the traditional water sources as well as making them eyewitnesses to their own methods of wasting water. From Barmer to Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Churu, Nagaur, Jodhpur, Pali, Jalore to the foothills of Aravali, Sikar in Jhunjhunu, old Johad — community owned traditional harvested rain water storage — ponds, rivers, streams, kunds (small ponds), baavdis (step well) — all have turned into ruins. The villagers have filled them with soil and garbage. They have become places of illegal mining. The courtyard of the house, well known for its cleanliness, is now used to get rid of dead animals and trash. A generation that drank water only from these traditional water sources, today only talks about how waste these become.
A follower of Mahatma Gandhi, late Anupam Mishra, wrote some of his experiences seen in the construction process of ponds and the wastage caused due to it in his book — Aaj Bhi Khare Hai Talaab (The Ponds are Still Relevant). He wrote, “Hundreds and thousands of ponds did not appear from oblivion. There were some who was commissioned to work for these ponds and there were many who actually constructed hundreds and thousands of them. But in the last few decades, they have been treated as a complete waste especially by technologically advance people.” Perhaps this is a time shift. The new generation that measures the world with a snap of a finger has seen these water sources being turned into garbage dumps in the villages. They aren’t aware of the traditional water sources that was so prevalent in the olden times. This generation is least concerned about the sources. Due to lack of communication between the two generations in regard to knowledge and culture, the gap has widened.
As things are evolving now, nature is changing and weather patterns are changing too. The water crisis in the desert has started knocking. The method of harvesting rainwater is in doldrums. There could be a crisis of water when there is disruption in supply of through canals and pipelines. There is no reason why the old water sources can’t be restored; it is only a lack of will. Lately, the government, civil society organisations and media establishments have started taking care of the traditional sources, harvesting rain water, organising the society to spread awareness on water crisis and are driving a campaign to build hundreds and thousands of units of these water sources. By combining manpower and hydropower, the society has the opportunity to revive the traditional water sources. To rejuvenate these, to hand over these priceless treasures into the hands of the future generation, there is a need to raise thousands of hands again so that the coming seven generations could live with four million species of living beings.
—Charkha Features
