Rainwater harvesting

According to meeting minutes of the Auroville Town Development Council appointed by the Governing Board, two rainwater “collection ponds” have been designed to “collect the water from the stretch of the Crown which will go from Solar Kitchen to Savitri Bhavan” and divert it to the Matrimandir Lake.

In our July issue, we reported on recent developments on the site of the Matrimandir lake. These included the excavation of section two of the lake, which will be 250 metres long, more than twice the length of the existing test lake.

The first section of the 10 metres deep and 100 metres long Matrimandir test lake is nearing completion. By the end of September, the digging was finalized, two five-metre high walls of concrete lego blocks had come up on either side of the lake, and the lake’s floor and slopes were clad with a high density polyethylene (hdpe) liner embedded between two layers of geotextile.

On the night of April 19th – 20th, 2022 a special milestone was reached with the completion of the installation of the waterproofing liner in the 7.5 metre wide water channel, one kilometre long, which now surrounds the Matrimandir gardens.

Water has always been at the centre of Auroville’s story. The land sits on the ridge of the only plateau in the 740 sq. km. Kaliveli watershed area.

“Dear Community, this is to inform you of the water scarcity that Auroville is facing. And though there is still water flowing from our taps, it is important to know that many of our supply wells are showing depleted levels, some are already dry.

People greatly appreciate Kireet for continuing the work that had been started by pioneering greenbelters. Greenbelters continue to improve water conservation in the lands that they steward and with the funds they have.

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

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.

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.