Day 16, 17

4th and 5th May, 2011

I mentioned Pachputewadi and their water crisis in Day 14's post. That day we discussed a lot with the villagers about how to get the things done and doing all the measurements and finally getting an estimate of the whole project. Now the villagers were too keen on starting the project so by the time we were in office yesterday, they got all the

required materials, got it up there on the hill and the next day they called up and said - we've started working! Jared was awestruck by the news. A small disturbance in the spring and we can loose the spring. So he wanted Grampari to be there when things start. We had 2 springs to be totally redone and rest of them to be extended. A couple of new sources were also found and something with that too was also to be done. But then, they just started!

Jared and me immediately went there to see what they have been doing. What was feared the most had happened. The damage was done. One of the springs (We called it big spring as it supplied the most water!) was damaged. The water output reduced by 75 %! We went there and immediately asked to stop any kind of digging. No digging at any cost.

Now we had almost 80 people working randomly on different things! Some of them were women. Sowmya went and started talking to the ladies. Jared and me started to organize people. Finally we had a few teams and 2 owners of each stream. Owners were responsible for anything and everything that happened to the spring and the spring box. So we organized the whole team, of course with their help. People started working again. It was interesting to know how the springs can be effected by a small mistake.

Looking at the picture, we would understand how springs are made. In this hills that we are working on, it is quite similar to what is shown in the picture. There is a rocky layer sitting under the soil top of the mountain. The rain water penetrate the soil and go on penetrating till the rock layer due to gravity. There is also some pressure from the waters from the next rain fall. Then when they hit the rock layer, no more penetration can occur. So they find some other way through the rock and create some sort of spring. this is out the springs are created. Now the water is very lazy. It would go through the easiest route it could find. While digging if we change the pressures of the soil and the pores in the earth, we may change the path of the spring and then it might turn very hard to find it again.

Here is the design of the spring boxes that we planned to build.

This is very similar to the design that pachputewadi is going to build. The Box would act as a reservoir of water, the jelly behind that would hold the spring against soil erosion. And a pipe coming out to take the water to the destination. Let me know if you want to know more on the design part.

The last two days were all working with the Ashok, Falke sa'ab and all other villagers and contractor datta in making those boxes. During the process, the villagers also showed the other smaller springs which can be taken in to operation. Jared has another design for that. We all worked together and ate together for these two days. It is totally a different experience of working with them. There are more such days to work. The project would not be complete without the water shed activities. We have made a map of the whole area.

I had a compass in my bag since college time. I brought it from home. I did nt know we would use it here. It became very handy while making the map. You never know what/who would help you out. :) Would upload the photographs soon.

The video shows some of the work done

-SD