The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Harvesting rainwater the organic way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 16, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Harvesting rainwater the organic way

M. Gunasekaran

The tank constructed to store water is built neither using plastics nor concrete mixture

Photo: M. Balaji

Pure and sure: Baby George near the water tank at his farm in Puduppalayam, near Pollachi, in Coimbatore district. –

UDUMALPET: Baby George (51) is a happy man today. After continuous failures to construct tanks at his farm at Pudupalayam, 16 km from here, since 2000, he finally succeeded in making a 4,000 cubic metre tank without using plastics or concrete mixture.

An assistant executive engineer of District Rural Development Agency in Palakkad, Mr. George abhors the idea of sinking borewells and vouch for organic farming and natural way of living. The serene surroundings at his 21-acre farm that bears amla, pomegranate, Bengal grams besides coconute groves stands testimony to it.

“When we settled here, we were totally dependent on water supplied in tanker lorries. Now we are getting good quality water for cooking and farming needs,” says he.

The 43.5 X 30.35 X 4 tank constructed at a cost of Rs. 1.25 lakh can provide water for at least 10 months.

“Evaporation is the main problem. On sunny days 1 cm of water get evaporated a day,” Mr. George says. His next attempt is to protect the tank from direct sun light.

“There should be a tank on every 10 acres in Tamil Nadu to overcome water shortage,” he says. The Governments should take proactive steps to encourage farmers constructing small tanks as they helped raising the water table.

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