Tackling the drought

“Kodaimazhai”, says the Tamil lady. “That’s how we call those rare showers that suddenly pour down in the midst of the hot season. When I was young, they were normal. But in the past decades they have almost disappeared.” Almost, indeed. But in May, we saw a comeback. For four consecutive days, intense rains brought a welcome freshener in a season otherwise known for its excessively hot temperatures, which sometimes exceed 41 degrees C.

But the showers, though much welcomed, were a mere wetting of the earth. Auroville’s water situation, warns L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s town development authority, is in dire straits. Many wells have less output than before; some are drying up; others need deepening. After two years of drought and countless years of over-extraction of the aquifers, the consequences are showing.

In fact, water levels are dropping all over Tamil Nadu. A recent article in The Times of India stated that water tables across the state have fallen by 0.5 to 2.3 metres since March 2013. Throughout the rest of the country, aquifers are dropping as well. North India’s groundwater levels are declining at one of the fastest rates in the world. In 2012, the World Bank released a report that stated that if current trends continue, in 20 years about 60% of all India’s aquifers will be in a critical condition..

There is little that can be done about it, but whatever can be done, should be done. L’Avenir asks Aurovilians to avoid over-watering their gardens, to close the tap while washing dishes or brushing teeth, to flush toilets less often and repair leaking taps and pipes. Auroville’s average water usage exceeds the Indian standard of 90-120 litres per person a day by at least 300%; suspicions are that the excess water is used for excessive irrigation of gardens or disappears into the ground due to leaking distribution pipes.

L’Avenir appointed Tom to take up the task of coordinating all efforts in the water sector. Tom has been involved with water from 1982 when he first set foot in Auroville. In 1989, at the request of Chief Architect Roger Anger, he made the first Auroville Water Master Plan. He recently returned to Auroville after six-years working as Director of Operations of a logistics company in oil fields all over Africa. “I have been active in Sudan, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Chad. It was a great experience, even though it was exhausting at the physical and vital levels. But it was necessary for me. I needed to recover from Auroville, as I had been going through a difficult time when I left.”

Coming back, he didn’t see much of a change, he says, except for the fact that the work he had started had not been continued. “I was asked to once again look into Water Harvest, the company I had set up many years ago. But I encountered a ghost of what it was, drained of its strength, knowledge and equipment. There may have been reasons for this, but, nevertheless, it was painful.” Most importantly, the work of monitoring the groundwater levels, which had been started by the Auroville Greenwork Resource Centre in 1994 and which Water Harvest had continued, had stopped. From October 2007 onwards, there is no data about the performance of Auroville’s wells.

“It has become impossible to say anything precise about Auroville’s general water situation,” he says. “Auroville presents a scattered picture, with over 120 wells operating at different depths. Lacking up-to-date data and given the complexity of the issue, you can’t make absolute statements. But the indications are that the water levels have gone down. And if that is correct, it is very serious. For it will affect the future of Auroville. We have to rapidly come up with large-scale solutions, for our survival is at stake.”

Luca, who for the last 20 years has been working in the water field, agrees. “The water yield of Auroville’s bore wells has diminished; and there are fears that the wells located near the sea will turn saline. Borewell monitoring is a necessity; but I do not expect that they will tell us anything different from what we know already: that the aquifers underneath Auroville are holding less water than before. With the population surrounding Auroville on the increase, and drawing water from the same aquifers, Auroville’s situation cannot be expected to improve, not even if we have a few very good monsoons. Auroville will have to find solutions for her water needs and take action as soon as possible.”

A multi-sourcing approach

Tom and Luca propose a multi-sourcing approach. Pointing to the success of Auroville’s rainwater harvesting which has resulted in ‘zero-runoff’ through the building of bunds and dams, they propose compulsory rainwater harvesting and wastewater treatment systems in all Auroville settlements. They also support building a desalination plant to provide drinking water for Auroville and some of the nearby villages. Relying on one source, they feel, is unrealistic and dangerous. “Rainwater harvesting depends on the availability of rainwater. If there is a long period of drought, you will have problems, and all your investments will be useless. Desalination is a costly but reliable source which is always available,” says Luca. He points out that harvested rain water is suitable for public ponds, the Matrimandir Lake, and for agriculture and gardening, but would need to be cleaned if it is to be used for drinking water purposes, something which is not allowed in Western countries. “Ideally,” he says, “we should implement two water systems: one for drinking water, and a secondary one for agriculture and ponds. That would have the additional advantage that less water would be drawn from the aquifers.”

They also propose to invest in centralized water distribution systems. “The water level in most of our shallow wells, those that go down to 65 metres, is declining. Communities that depend on such wells for their water needs may soon face problems. We suggest that they connect to a centralized water system, if that is possible,” says Tom. He comments that many communities still have a proprietary attitude towards ‘their’ bore wells and pumps. “This has to go. There is no longer any justification to say ‘this is my well, this is my pump, I won’t share my water with you.’ We need to develop a water system that serves the entire city and also connects as many greenbelt communities as possible.”

Auroville has three such centralized systems. They all are fed from one or more deep bore wells, with depths of around 150 metres. Auroville’s biggest system, the overhead water tank nicknamed ‘the elephant’ near Arati community, supplies 140 cubic metres a day to 21 communities in the Residential Zone and 40 cubic metres to the Town Hall area, serving approximately 600 Aurovilians. “This system, which is supplied by four major bore wells, can easily cover more communities,” says Luca. Two smaller centralized water systems are located in the Industrial Zone. “If, at some time in the future, desalinated water can also be supplied to these centralized systems, Auroville’s water requirement would be secured,” he says.

Water distribution and safety

Water distribution is equally important. “We want to install a ring mains along the Crown Road, a circular centralized water distribution pipeline to which as many communities as possible are connected,” says Luca. “The Residential Zone section of this pipeline was laid two years ago and we now want to expand it. At the same time, in nearly all communities the existing underground PVC piping systems will need to be replaced by HDPE pipes. Most of those systems are old and leaking; we have discovered systems where 30% of the piped water leaked away. Moreover, PVC is unhealthy.”

“That aspect is often forgotten,” says Luca. “Each community needs to ensure that its drinking water is not contaminated. Pollution can be caused by improper capping or protection of the well-head; or by a septic tank or a wastewater treatment system that has been built too close to the well; or by water leaking into a broken underground pipe.” He clarifies that in India, ‘drinking water’ refers to the relatively clean water that is used for laundry, bathing and cleaning. All households have some kind of filter to further clean the water, which is then used for drinking and cooking. For in the tropics, the sources of pollution are so numerous that it is virtually impossible to ensure that borewell water is clean according to Western standards. Moreover, in Auroville water chlorination is not accepted. So the only solution is that each household has its own water filter “and that they do not forget to regularly clean them!” he adds.

Auroville’s laboratory at Aurobrindavan has the facilities to do all the necessary tests, but testing has not yet been made mandatory. Tests are done whenever the ‘owner’ of the well asks for it, and results are kept confidential. “This is no longer acceptable,” says Luca. He proposes that the community authorizes the laboratory to do a mandatory test of all water sources once every two months, and publish the test results. “It is a matter of public health,” he says. “It is our duty to protect all in Auroville who use that water – our guests, our workers and ourselves.”

Towards an Auroville Water Board

Tom has meanwhile presented a substantial budget to purchase essential monitoring equipment and is in the process of reviving the Auroville Water Cell. “For many years, specialists and students have been studying Auroville’s water situation and they have written many reports that are a goldmine of information. But Aurovilians are in the habit of highlighting those solutions they like. The main challenge is how to put all that together, and this is part of the work I have come to do,” he says. A first meeting showed the challenges: proprietary attitudes, lack of collaboration, communication and trust, and no agreed-upon water plan for Auroville. Harmonizing opposing views is perhaps the major challenge to achieving a solution to the water crisis. But time is fast running out.