This Man Is Helping Farmers Fight Both Dry Spells and Water Logging with a Unique RWH Technology

The system consists of a pipe erected in such a way that excess water passes through it, gets filtered and accumulates in an underground well. Later, farmers use a motor to pump the water up and use it for irrigation. In this way, farmers get a chance to earn double of what they would normally make. The technology also helps avoid evaporation loss and wastage of water during the monsoon season.The underground reservoir can hold 40 million litres of water and can supply for as long as seven months. Additionally, the non-saline rain water, when mixed with the underground saline water, brings down the salinity of the groundwater and makes it fit for agriculture.

Bhungroo comes in 17 designs for different agro-climatic zones in India and the design varies for each field. Earlier, in the initial phase, Naireeta Services was alone involved in the installation of Bhungroo. Now, with knowledge guidance from Ashoka India, a network of social entrepreneurs worldwide, the organization has adopted a partnership model. Different NGOs, cooperatives, institutions, CSR wings of organizations, etc., partner with Naireeta Services to become carriers of the technology.

The entire process of setting up Bhungroo is led by women. Naireeta Services, or the partner organizations, train members of women Self Help Groups (SHGs) in different villages.

In the first stage, these members help identify women who are below poverty line – they verify their land ownership and poverty status. Next, they measure the gradient of the land to understand whether it is suitable for the technology. Five women form one Bhungroo group, with one of them giving her land for construction. The team conducts a geohydrological study to identify the part of the land that will be conducive for erecting Bhungroo.This is the lowest point of the catchment area because the rainwater will rush to that spot. After this, the farmers provide labour for construction and drilling.

The team drills a pipe with a diameter of five inches, which then guides the water to the subsoil aquifer at a depth of 110 feet. The aquifer is an underground layer of permeable rocks or materials like gravel, sand or silt that can contain or transmit groundwater. Once the water is saved, the atmospheric moisture in the soil helps in the growth of crops for the next month. And the stored water helps whenever required during the rest of the year.

Biplab has worked with more than 14,000 farmers and transformed 40,000 acres of barren or disaster-affected farms. Along with its partners, Naireeta has installed Bhungroo in farms across Gujarat, Jharkhand, Bundelkhand, UP, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Bihar.

The cost of Bhungroo has been subsidised under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). Farmers from underprivileged backgrounds, or those affected by drought, do not have to pay a single rupee for the installation. Others have to pay a subsidised fee of around Rs. 5,000. Naireeta Services charges partner organisations according to its partnership model.

You can learn more about Bhungroo and Naireeta services here. contact Biplab by writing to him at biplab@naireetaservices.com.

Photos Capture India’s Ancient, Vanishing Stepwells

Victoria Lautman, author of The Vanishing Stepwells of India

People began constructing stepwells in western India in around 650 AD. They were intended primarily as a source of clean water but also served as gathering places, temples and refuges from the heat. They could be as simple as a spiraling staircase down to a round pool of water in the center, or a busy maze of stairs and columns with the complexity of a sketch by M.C. Escher.

image: https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/f7/6b/f76b3edc-f728-4019-91c3-126172be261e/stepwellsp40-v2.jpg

While Hindu in origin, the value of stepwells was grasped by Muslim rulers of the Mughal empire beginning in the early 1500's. Some Hindu religious inscriptions where defaced, but they allowed construction to continue and even built their own wherever they went.

When the British occupied India (succeeding the Mughals) they considered stepwells unsanitary and set about creating new sources of water. Drilled and bored wells became common, along with pumps and pipes that made stepwells obsolete. The vast majority of Indian stepwells fell into disuse. The last one was built in 1903.

In areas without consistent, coordinated trash removal, many disused stepwells became handy pits into which garbage was (and still is) thrown. Some have been claimed by wasps, rats, snakes, turtles, fish and mongooses.

“[From the photos,] you can't tell how decrepit and rundown and remote and dangerous a lot of these stepwells are,” Lautman says. “I was going into these things by myself and pushing myself to slide down on my butt down a thousand years of garbage, asking myself, 'why are you doing this?' [...] This is not for the faint of heart. Anyone who is afraid of heights or bugs or snakes or just the incredible filth, anybody who doesn't like any of that is going to have a hard time.”

This is architecture that is both ubiquitous and invisible. There are hundreds – perhaps over a thousand – stepwells in India and Pakistan. But Lautman often found that people who lived mere blocks away from a stepwell had no idea that it existed. She has helpfully included GPS coordinates for every well described in her book. (An online, collaborative atlas can also be found here.) A few stepwells, including Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen’s Stepwell) at Patan, Gujarat​, have been well-preserved and are known tourist destinations, but most are obscure and difficult for travelers to find.

This blue drum is changing lives in sub-Saharan Africa.

The blue drum design

The innovative COCOON planting technology enables trees and plants to grow in arid conditions, revitalizing ecosystems and communities.

• Low-cost - 10 x cheaper than traditional tree planting
• 100% biodegradable - COCOON dissolves into organic substrate for the plant
• Low maintenance - after planting, NO follow up irrigation or maintenance

 

The COCOON is designed to support a seedling through its critical first year. By providing water and shelter while stimulating the seedling to produce a healthy and deep root structure, tapping into the sub-surface water supply within its first year. This way, the COCOON produces independant, strong trees which are not reliant on external irrigation and can survive harsh conditions. 

Trees have been planted with the COCOON in more than 20 countries with survival rates of 80-95%.

 

The water reservoir

The water reservoir is made of paper pulp, crop residuals or grasses and other FDA improved organic compounds to ensure water tightness during the first year. It is only filled once during planting. Water is sparsely transported to the tree using wicks. As the reservoir degrades and empties over time, the remaining shallow pits will serve as a micro-catchment to collect surface runoff during rain events. Additionally, the degraded reservoir becomes organic substrate ameliorating the soil.

Mycorrhizal fungi

Mycorrhizal fungi are added to the soil surrounding the roots of the plant. They increase the surface absorbing area of roots 100 to a 1,000 times. This improves access to soil moisture as well to the soil's nutrients. Mycorrhizal fungi also release enzymes into the soil that dissolve hard-to-capture nutrients, such as organic nitrogen, phosphorus and, iron commonly fixed on to the soil complex. These fungi are present in 90% of natural forests and woodlands and form a critical, symbiotic relationship with the roots.

Tree shelter

A cylindrical shelter is placed around the tree to protect the plant against the sun, desiccating winds and smaller animals feeding on the young plant.http://www.landlifecompany.com/products.html

Premjibhai's method of planting trees

http://www.gian.org/viewslide.php?type=image&innovation_im_id=144

Shri Premjibhai has developed an innovative practice for planting / growing trees in the arid region. The named the technique as Sand Pipe method. Description : The steps of the methods are as below. (To see the planting method stepwise in detail, please Click Here) Step: 1) A pit is dug ( about 1 feet deep) and a sapling is placed vertically in the pit. Step: 2) A PVC pipe of approximate 6 inch in diameter and 2 feet in length is inserted (about 1 feet deep) placed vertically aside of the plant in the pit. Step: 3) The pit is filled with the normal soil up to the ground level. Step: 4) Now the PVC pipe is filled with the coarse sand up a ground level Step: 5) Pull out the PVC pipe slowly. The process makes a passage in the ground nearer to the root portion of plant and facilitates easy and maximum movement of water towards roots. Steps: 6) Watering one – two bucket of water (15 – 25 liters) on the top of the sand passage. This water does not spread in surrounding area but remain in the dry coarse sand and give moisturize effect to the root zone of the plant. This accelerate the root germination and helps the plants growth much faster. Steps: 7) In case of insufficient monsoon, additional water and if available , watering the plant one or two times in six months  ( during summer and winter ) . This water is sufficient for the tree to survive till next monsoon (for one year) The concept behind this is that the sand filled pit acts as a chamber and moisture is retained for a longer time. Water percolating through sand facilitating water absorption by root zone of the plant and it helps the roots development much faster and ultimately plant survive for longer period.

A safe water transportation backpack

The packH2O water backpack provides a solution for transporting and storing safe water; reducing the impact of waterborne pathogens that lead to illness. The product is lightweight, collapsable, ergonomic, and features a liner that can be sanitized in sunlight. It serves both residential and commercial needs, and is less-expensive to place in the field than the rigid containers currently used. Just one backpack can provide safe water for a classroom of children for an entire day or serve the water needs for a household of five.

This Karnataka Bus Driver Turned Eco-Warrior & Developed a Unique Way to Revive Dead Borewells

Joseph GM Rebello was leading his life at a steady pace as a bus driver when everything came to a screeching halt after a tragic accident rendered him bedridden for 12 months.

But rather than be defeated, he re-invented himself as a staunch environmentalist who has even developed a technique to revive defunct and dry borewells.

Joseph, who is based in Udupi, had dropped out from school after having completed class 10 to become a bus driver. He continued with the profession for 10 years when in 2010, he fell off a tree and was bedridden for a year having damaged his spinal cord.

When he recovered, his employer, a private player in the industry, gave him a job as the bus driver for Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management in Udupi. It was here that he found his passion for environmental causes and conservation while attending gram panchayat meetings in his free time.

Encouraged by the panchayat development officer, he began attending a number of training programmes and was even appointed the convener of the Church Social Development Commission.

While a convener, he came across an empty borewell and quietly started working on a method to revive it. Speaking to the Bangalore Mirror, he explains his method saying, “We dig a pit that is 10 feet deep and 10 feet wide around the abandoned borewell. To make it safe, it is then covered but only in a way that water can percolate through a 5 mm hole in the casing and a mesh is placed that acts as a filter. The rainwater that trickles down brings up the water table.”

The method, that was officially inaugurated last year, was developed after Joseph consulted with experts in the field and also did his own research regarding rainwater harvesting.

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Of course recharging dead borewells isn’t all that Joseph does; he also goes to various educational institutes to raise awareness not only about this technique but also various environmental causes close to his heart.