Issue Nº311-312

Alan Rusbridger, the retiring editor of The Guardian newspaper, recently wrote an article on climate change. One of the things he noted was that newspapers don’t always cover the most important topics because “they may be occurring too slowly or invisibly for the impatient tick-tock of the newsroom”.

Tom worked for many years in Auroville Water Service and later set up Harvest, an Auroville data collection and water management organization that did much work in the bioregion.

Toby, former director of a public water company supplying water to a province of the Netherlands, is executive ofthe Auroville Water Service.

Michael Bonke is a long-time friend of Auroville who has been instrumental in initiating and funding major projects in the community. One of the aims of Varuna, a company he set up and runs with a team of Aurovilians, is “to build and operate a small desalination plant which can supply water to Auroville, for the future Matrimandir Lake and the nearby villages”.

The bioregion was defined as Pondicherry, Auroville, and the surrounding districts of Villupuram and Cuddalore (PAVC), an area of 2500 sq. kilometres that constitutes a distinct ecological bioregion along the Coromandel Coast.

Auroville Today met with four local farmers who irrigate their land in the area of Kuilapalayam. Arivasu’s main crop is cashew, but he irrigates coconut trees.

“Compared to many villages in Tamil Nadu, Alankuppam is well-off,” says Moris from Auroville’s Village Action (AVAG), pointing at its clean, pothole-free roads.

Many famous civilisations were born around water sources, such as the Indus Valley or the Nile, and Kuilapalayam village is no different, according to local school principal and history enthusiast, Shankar.

The work of Sadhana Forest is well known. Yearly, more than 1,000 volunteers come for shorter or longer periods to learn about water conservation, rainwater harvesting, earth dam building, afforestation, alternative energies and many more ‘green’ practices.

“Artisans cum aspirant artists,” says Luisa tentatively. “Players with paper,” suggests Hervé. They laugh, attempting to label the Aurovilians working at Auroville Papers – Christine, Jean-Jacques, Florent, Luisa and Hervé.

Francis and Doris are the Auroville Video Productions team which, for the past ten years, has been documenting the history and unfolding of Auroville.