We destroyed natural rainwater harvesting system.All living things on the river banks owe their existence to rivers. Rivers owe their origin to forests. Forests, in turn, owe it to rain.
All of these are our sources of life. Without rain, there is no forest. Without forests, there are no river or water sources. Without them, we do not exist.
We are heading for such a crisis, going by the forecast of the Meteorological Department. Rain is expected to be less than last year. We are likely to receive only 93 per cent of the average rainfall. In brief, we can expect a severe drought.
Since we have been given this warning even before the monsoon starts, we have to be prepared. We cannot afford to let a single drop of rainwater go waste. If we waste a drop, we would thirst for it later. We can only go forward if we correct our mindset.
You can rarely find places such as Kerala which receive 3,000 millilitres of rain. We get that rain because of the terrain which can hold so much rainwater. The mountain ranges store the rainwater and give it out in streams during the summer. The soil absorbs the water. The fields of black soil absorb the water like a sponge.
Nature did not want our help in storing rainwater. There are three types of trees atop the hills, a natural device to tame the rain, which will rush downhill if they hit the ground directly. Rain drops first fall on the big trees and then to the leaves on the medium-height trees. Then they fall on the bushes. By the time they reach the soil they have so slowed down that they slip through the pores on the ground.
The pores created by earthworms and other microorganisms take the water to underground reservoirs. When earth dries up in summer this water comes out in streams. This would sustain life till the next rain.
We destroyed this natural rainwater harvesting system. So we have a responsibility to harvest rainwater.
Rainfall is orderly like children going to school. But rainwater flows like a mass of children rushing from the school. We send out water faster by paving our yards with tiles. This time we should not do that. Let me list some of the things to do in the light of several projects implemented in the Pudukkad Assembly constituency.
Dig rain pits in your yards. You can dig at least one even if you live in a small house. Do whatever you can to give rainwater time to sink into earth. We can return to the practice of digging trenches around coconut trees and other trees to hold water. Prepare the ponds and other water bodies to fill with rainwater, not to forget the lakhs of wells we have. Let the maximum amount of rainwater flow into them. Let the rainwater that falls on our roofs go into the wells. The water table will rise with that. Don’t wait for the rain to start.
Our rulers have to focus on long-term projects. Development should be based on watershed areas, not on panchayats or its wards. Rivers are supplied by the watershed areas. Any development should take into account their existence. Encourage organic cultivation to do away with chemical fertilisers which destroy nature’s organic economy. Preserve our fields.
Bushes and mangroves are part of nature’s organic system. Do not destroy them. Plant as many trees as you can. Do not raze the hills, which harvest rainwater for us.
(The writer is a CPM MLA from Pudukkad in Thrissur district)
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