Monday, May 24, 2010

May & the Monsson!

A Month before the Monsoon.....







Here I remember a tell of Akbar & Birbal.....


One day Akbar asked in the Darbar, that how many blind men are there in Delhi? Every one got surprised & tried guessing with different numbers but not Birbal. He said Badshah, I will tell u tomorrow evening, exact figure.






Next day morning Birbal sat in midway of busiest road of Chnadani Chowk & started repairing a Khat ( cot with ropes) with note pad along.


Soon the news filtered till the Darbar & even the Akbar got curious & went to see what’s up! When he saw Birbal repairing the Khat in mid road, he asked " Birbal what are u doing"? Immediately Birbal entered his name in list in the note book. Akbar asked '" What’s that u entered my name in?" The sheepishly Birbal replied, respected sir, u have asked me to tell u the numbers of blind men, here is the figure till now & sorry to say even your name is in the list, as just one man asked since morning that " Birbal, why are u repairing the Khat in mid way?" rest al asked Birbal what are u doing? So u know...... Akbar realized what Birbal wanted to say, that even with having eyes how many people see what the see!






The greatness of such stories is they prevailed in today’s times too! Look at the each year burning issue of water which comes along with summer & brings along talks about Rain Water Harvesting / RWH!






We live in a metropolitan city like Pune & we are proud of our life style. By official claims, we get water of more than 210 lit/head /day which is way beyond imagination even for many other metros also, leave apart the rural india! For many of us May is the month with Vacation time of Schools & Colleges. For some, it’s the time of watching New Releases in the Multiplexes with cooling down amongst the friends in the evenings at popular hang outs. For many others it’s outing time or just leisure afternoons reading books or watching DVD's at home.


Each time when Summer starts heating up & front page of news papers get packed with snaps of tankers & queues for water & dry wells!














Not all around us are so fortunate... In States like Rajasthan, Gujrath people are busy with preparations for water collections as Monsoon is the sole source of supply for the remaining 9-10 months after that. In some part of Rajasthan it rains hardly 3"-4" ,which is one tenth of what we got in Pune.Also the land over there is arid & it don’t hold water so what ever falls on the open land is gone for ever. There, people starts cleaning all the collection tanks, roof terreces,village roads, open spaces in front of the houses & making them water tight. So whatever rain falls over, it gets collected without minimum wastage.






Not far from our beloved city, if you take a drive in rural areas of Maharashtra & you see Faces dried up with no water, Faces busy in making their fields in extreme heat for next crop, Faces tense with the thoughts of arranging the funds for buying seeds for the new crop, Faces with doubts in mind about the timing & volume of rains!










On other hand, at some places like Orissa & W.Bengale's Deltas (Delta is a part of land formed like small islands where river merges with the sea) people are in mode of migrations as the rivers bring along huge volume of water & mud ,rising the water levels by many feet & submerging large chunks of the lands.


Monsoon is same but the preparations to face it are different everywhere.
Its all about Monsoon, every other person than us is thinking of in the month of May.






In our city all we care or get known to its arrival is by news papers that Municipal Corporation has undertaken pre Monsoon road repairs & rain Water Gutter cleaning! We take it as a usual joke & divert our concentration to our TV sets or go along planning our evening parties, without even thinking for the many Faces who are desperately awaiting the Monsoon with a smile in one eye & a tear in other!






Friends, just do give a thought while wasting a glass of water this May that some where some one is going to remain thirsty or going to get flooded in coming Monsoon & decide that you will try to share your fortune with them in some way or other. Well, that will be the least but best preparation you can do for this Monsoon as an aware Human Being.






For builders it’s a war time so as to finish all the outdoor works which the rain may hamper or delay i.e. Plaster Ext & painting. Excavation becomes risky as of wet subsoil. Especially the gaothan area buildings as the adjoining properties get dangerous to slide down.


The labor hutments need to be taken care. Other worry is most of the labors are having their farms at native places so they went back to take care of fields & labors are in shortage.


We are fortunate enough to have rainfall of average nearly 30”-32” per year & which is very good in compare to many places.


But where’s the rain water going…?






Each time we miss the most important part “What we are going to do with the Rain?”


Unfortunately the answer is nothing. Crores of litters of water flooded the cities, towns, villages, and farms & gets spilled away. Though there have been efforts at various levels for Rain Water Harvesting, such as making of “Gaotali” i.e. formation of small ponds within the fields, some buildings have been furnished with the roof water collecting systems but over larger scale the efforts are very less.






Here I think we are playing the role of all the people who kept asking Birbal, what are you doing? It’s like we are blind about the Rain Water Harvesting with having eyes! And for that we have to understand first what’s the rain water harvesting actually means?


It’s a process in which the water generated due to rainfall is used to its optimum which otherwise would have been wasted due to the surface losses or evaporation or getting percolated deep down the earths crust.


Few years back when PMC published the Rain Water Harvesting policy, interestingly to my knowledge only one suggestion objection has come & that’s by PBAP’s Environment Cell J






I am sure in the current scenario everybody knows about the importance of


Rain Water Harvesting (RWH), the question what’s the effective way to achieve


the target.






RWH doesn't necessarily mean to store the rain water but it means proper


utilization of the rain water in any form i.e. to minimize the wastage in


the form of surface evaporation or uncontrolled percolation in a stratum


from where its recovery is impossible.






On primary basis we can categorize the same in five types:






1. Surface to Surface collection & use, such as small lakes, bunds etc. This is possible at large scale & most govt's Irrigation dept/Water works etc are doing it. At village /town level local gram panchayat/municipality keeps on doing it via Rojgar Hami Yojana". The concpet is try to stop runoff & store it above the surface.Runoff is the rain water which flows actually over the earths surface & gets collected. Gaotali is a fine example of the same. In USA i have seen many large urban developments having their own lake,especially in Florida state which does get ample rains. I was wondering how lucky these developments are to have lake in each area! But then I came to know that ,its the norm of local body to have the space like we have open space to collect the rain water & its mandetory.


Many will, say, USA is a big country & they dont have land problem for such land use. Here I always think, why our local bodies cant work out this way, we too have concept of open space of 10% for lay outs bigger than 1 acre,now when we do have adequate rain fall ,why 50% of this 10%open space cnat be made mandetory for water storage above surface, or relax the height & coverage norms & make space for water storage. This is what we need to work out to deal with environment conservation,not emaining idle on the rules what we have but flexible & imliment them fast..






2. Surface to UGWT collection tank & use. This is what we all mostly meant when it’s RWH, but how many times & places its possible is the question. As we receive all our rain fall in span of 3 month & that too in some weeks of these months. Issue is how much we can store & how we are going to use it & for what? As this will need purification & which is a costly affair & during these monsoon times any ways plants don’t need extra water so we cant use it for the same ,then what we do with this water? Also we are getting the PMC water which is nonmetered & included in property tax, so how we are going to make people aware to use Rain Water instead PMC water?






3. Surface to subsurface strata charging & use by lift irrigation such as


open or bore wells. This is what best we can do in cities like Pune where rain isn’t a problem. As subsurface strata acts as a water reservoir & which we can use in summers too for non domestic uses such as gardening, flushing in toilets etc. For this we ned to have provision in storage water tanks for seperete compartments of storing bore water & drinking water. Where the developer hasnt made such arrangement there the society can have seperete tank at terrece level & lift the bore well water directly to the same & use it for non domastic purpose. Unfortunetly we all are ready to spent a lot on our home interiors but not for such colective cause.






4. Surface to near by Perennial Source, such as Stream, River etc. In many places especially where we need to see that the rain fall reaches to the towns/villages at downstream, this particular system can be used. As rain water harvesting isnt utilizing the water at the source only, anybody who can utilize it should be able to use it is important.






5. Collection at central place via underground channels (rain water


Gutters) filter & distribute it. Such systems have been used by the public bodies at city level e.g. Singapore. This is one thing which we can consider at city level as it will reduce the cost of treating the collected rain water & PMC can recirculate it via its water line network.






What is need of the time is identify the system of RWH & see that it gets executed. The traget is tough as ultimetly success of any RWH system is how much treated poatable water is saved & for that metered water supply is a must.






India is a tropical country where three different seasons i.e. Summer, Winter


& Rains. We get rain water in 4 months time span & that too few weeks out of


four month produce the maximum rain fall. Also we got a varied geography to


dealt with like high altitude differences of Himalayas to arid dry lands


of Rajasthan to Maharashtra Deccan platu.Then again rural areas & cities


like Mumbai & Pune, in such situations a single policy can’t be worked out


for every project. Studying all above aspects the city wise & then at


Micro level project wise policies have to be decided.










Reusing of the rainwater is also a very good thought, but for residential projects & for domestic use it’s some what impractical because considering the intensity of


rainfall in a short period of span, we will need huge storage tanks and


filtration arrangements, which will be idle during all other seasons.


Instead we can use the rainwater collected from terraces & on hard paving for harvesting


purposes & also can route the same for nature parks or landscaped areas around, that’s using it for the gardening.






Filtration and reusing of rainwater is usually adopted in the areas where
there is very minimum rainfall and the water is scarce commodity for any
use and most importantly geological conditions are such that it’s impossible
to raise the ground water level by harvesting for e.g. : Arid/ Desert lands of Rajasthan.


Also its found workable in the rural areas where the built up portion is less & the rain water can be used for even farming or other agro based business like drinking of cattles,poltries i.e. mainly in non treated form.






Once we decide to go for it then the techniques can be worked out as per the case wise. Important is open up our eyes & look at the problem with them !














--


Sanjay Deshpande


Sanjeevani Dev, Chairman Envo Power Committee,PBAP.


smd156812@gmail.com






Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani!






http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/






http://www.flickr.com/photos/16939159@N05/sets/72157623108407263/










www.sanjeevanideve.com






Think Green, Think Life

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Short forms of Life !

Few days back I conducted a small test with my few of the younger school/college going friends by sending them a mail about some of the short forms & they are real terms in general, approximate 10 odd numbers of them. Below are the answeres in bracket & former are the replies which I received & are 90% outcome!

DDLJ dilwale dulhania le jayenge

LSD love sex & dhoka

APGK ajab premki gajab kahani

KANK kabhi alvida na kahana

TJP tare jamipar

BDP ??? (Bio Diversity Park)

PMC Pune Municipality ?? ( Corporation)

DP ??? ( Development Plan)

RWH ??? ( Rain Water Harvesting)

ETP ??? ( Effluent Treatment plant )

ICBM ??? ( Inter Continetal Balastic Missiles)

IBM International business Machines

AK47 Gun ( Automatic Kalashnikov)

SLR Self Loading Role

SUV Sports utility Vehicle

Now what we see? Most of them were very perfect about the movies & then about gadgets ,vehicles, computers etc. But what I feared most & got myself correct was the awareness about the surrounding, I mean real surrounding. Still I didn’t asked about PMT, BRT, MSEDL i.e. formerly MSEB & things like that!

All the time we ourselves so called literate, aware citizens of this city are screaming these short forms from News papers, various forums, Yahoo groups, chats but is it filtering enough? Every day people like NGO's heads, Volunteers, Editors of leading news papers are screaming about the rotating condition of the infrastructure in the city, the effects of deteriorating environment, use of excess conventional energy sources. We furiously discuss about the steps to be taken by the administration of civic body, politicicn’s thick skin attitude about their responsibilities & each segment of the society blaming other segments for worsening the situation! But I kept wondering still why every thing remains same, rather getting worst!

I think some where the answer lays in this mail of mine too! Are we really giving enough attention to a very large segment of the society to make them aware & exposure them to the situation about their responsibility towards it? Somewhere we are neglecting it, taking the losing battle against all to us only, which we are either worn out of fighting with wrong strategy. Otherwise why when each of us is aware about the simplest thing like proper driving/traffic rules, still we are unable to have a smooth flow of traffic & numbers of accidents happening all along the city roads!

If you refer the recent paper news you must have been used to the child crimes events. The most shocking is murder by school goers in filmy style of another boy just for the suspect of he is from enemy camp! Wow! Are we leading to "Al Capone" era of new age? These schools goers can think of murdering their own friend & coolly cut his head & destroy it so as the police won’t have clue! But they are not ready to take on so many social problems around & use their brain/daring/energy/ anger whatever you call it, for solving the same! At least identify the issue & go for it, isn’t it bare minimum expectation, if they can plan crime as dangerously planned as above! Pity is they are angry about the enemy & eager to finish him at any cost but won’t do anything about eliminating the feeling of the enmity itself!

But no, I think we don’t deserve such expectation because we are not doing much from our part of that expectation. Recently I had gone for giving a lecture at a very famous school's 10th std exam appearing students. The principal in advance has told me that be careful as her students are specialized in hooting out the guest lecturer not by shouting of hurryeing but just by neglecting whatever he/she says! All they were interested is their makeup, looks, gossips etc! Well how I survived isn't part of this sharing but I did enough to interest them in my lecture which was about their future responsibilities towards the people around them & to my surprise they not only listened but asked so many questions that made me speechless over a while!

While we all are busy in doing so called our duty of social responsibility, what role we are playing to make this yougistan to understand their role or what use we are making of their energy? Mostly they are part of some human chain which we perform on roads for a protest rally or they are busy in collecting signs on some forms against or for some social cause or we organize some film festival for them or an essay competition about my ideal city & similar stuff, that’s all? And this too covers how many how them? Hardly 2% of the entire youth segment is what my gut feeling is! We have subjects like Environment Science, Civics, History right from 5th std but what really goes in their mind, have we analyzed?

The need of the time is an year round well focused program which will make them interested as well give them exposure about what's expected & possible through them about so many issues threatening the so called our civilized society! And the program should be such that it will cut through all the segments of the society covering as much youngistan population we can! There lies the chance of solution we are repeatedly missing amongst ourselves.


There is a famous saying “If we build enough schools today then we will save on numbers of jail's tomorrow"! It's the hi time to build such schools outside the regular schools to make the saying n reality & its everybody’s job, mind it!


--
Sanjay Deshpande

smd156812@gmail.com



Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16939159@N05/sets/72157623108407263/


www.sanjeevanideve.com

Think Green, Think Life