Following the introduction to my new family, I was to start my internship with the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation (JBF) the next day. Abi, my co-intern, and I arrived in good spirits, ready for organizational integration. We immediately set out with Sanjayji, JBF's Project Manager, to visit some water management initiatives in the area.
Group photo from the water pyramid pilot,
including Sanjayji (far right), Abi and I (centre)
Our mode of transportation was an open-door jeep, which lacked seatbelts, but came fully equipped with a driver who had relinquished any sense of danger probably at birth. For anyone who has not traveled by open-air vehicle through a desert before, the best way to simulate the experience would be to turn on your hair drier and blast your face for two hours. Although incidentally, I was prone to sweat showers throughout the day, but always stepped out at our next stop with a perfectly sculpted doo that any hair dresser of repute would have been willing to claim as their genius.
Group photo from the water pyramid pilot,
including Sanjayji (far right), Abi and I (centre)
Our mode of transportation was an open-door jeep, which lacked seatbelts, but came fully equipped with a driver who had relinquished any sense of danger probably at birth. For anyone who has not traveled by open-air vehicle through a desert before, the best way to simulate the experience would be to turn on your hair drier and blast your face for two hours. Although incidentally, I was prone to sweat showers throughout the day, but always stepped out at our next stop with a perfectly sculpted doo that any hair dresser of repute would have been willing to claim as their genius.
Indian open highway
The Marwar region, located in the western portion of Rajasthan, occupies areas of the Northwestern Thorn Scrub Forest and the Thar Desert. It is known as an arid and inhospitable region, yet paradoxically is the most densely populated desert in the world. Climatologists typically define a desert as having an annual rainfall of 250 mm or less; the Marwar region receives somewhere between 100 to 500 mm. To make matters worse, its water table is falling at around 1 to 2 m each year, and up to 5 m in some areas. These are staggering figures, especially when considering annual rainfall and wet days from other cities I’ve visited:
Enter JBF, its genesis is based on the principle of developing “a persuasive alliance with the people of Marwar to make the region water secure.” Their modus operandi is to educate and mobilize rural communities around water issues, such that by providing them with financial support and engineering expertise, disadvantaged communities can empower themselves to achieve local water sustainability. JBF’s straightaway success encouraged generous grants from foreign development agencies, which has been used to employ over 100 people and facilitate the installation of over 250 projects in only five years.
Measurement process at the berrie (open well)
During our first day on the job, we had the opportunity to explore a smattering of these projects: a water pyramid pilot, a future tanka (closed surface well) site at a primary school, a tanka site at an upper primary school, and a berrie (open surface well) scheduled for improvements. However, our first stop was at a reverse osmosis plant pilot in Pachpadra. The Rajasthani State Government had connected the village with an underground well and declared the water “drinkable.” However, tests performed by JBF determined that the water arriving at the village actually did not meet WHO purity standards, and therefore could not be considered safe for human consumption. It may not be a perfect comparison and a tad sensationalist; nevertheless, the situation in Pachpadra has similarities to the Walkerton E. coli Tragedy of 2000, where seven people died and more than half the population of small Ontario town became ill due to tainted water. The differences lie in the public’s reaction and the respective governments’ standings. While Walkerton effectively signalled the demise of Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution, the Rajasthani Government expressed shock at the sullied water supply, yet has not remedied the situation in Pachpadra nor even re-evaluated their definition of “drinking” water.
Assuming developing countries wish to become developed, it is incidents such as these which demonstrate the separation between the haves and the have-nots. I present nothing original, but evidently, there are still grave inequalities and inequities to be surmounted before India may be properly graduated into the “developed” world. For all the success JBF has enjoyed vis-à-vis water sustainability, there are still many regions which lack this support and yet more which lack basic Western norms (i.e. education, health, habitation, etc.). As much as I hope that my presence with JBF will result in some noticeable benefit, these issues will still remain unresolved when I leave. Conceivably, I can only focus on my contribution and have faith in the power of aggregation.
Measurement process at the berrie (open well)
During our first day on the job, we had the opportunity to explore a smattering of these projects: a water pyramid pilot, a future tanka (closed surface well) site at a primary school, a tanka site at an upper primary school, and a berrie (open surface well) scheduled for improvements. However, our first stop was at a reverse osmosis plant pilot in Pachpadra. The Rajasthani State Government had connected the village with an underground well and declared the water “drinkable.” However, tests performed by JBF determined that the water arriving at the village actually did not meet WHO purity standards, and therefore could not be considered safe for human consumption. It may not be a perfect comparison and a tad sensationalist; nevertheless, the situation in Pachpadra has similarities to the Walkerton E. coli Tragedy of 2000, where seven people died and more than half the population of small Ontario town became ill due to tainted water. The differences lie in the public’s reaction and the respective governments’ standings. While Walkerton effectively signalled the demise of Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution, the Rajasthani Government expressed shock at the sullied water supply, yet has not remedied the situation in Pachpadra nor even re-evaluated their definition of “drinking” water.
Assuming developing countries wish to become developed, it is incidents such as these which demonstrate the separation between the haves and the have-nots. I present nothing original, but evidently, there are still grave inequalities and inequities to be surmounted before India may be properly graduated into the “developed” world. For all the success JBF has enjoyed vis-à-vis water sustainability, there are still many regions which lack this support and yet more which lack basic Western norms (i.e. education, health, habitation, etc.). As much as I hope that my presence with JBF will result in some noticeable benefit, these issues will still remain unresolved when I leave. Conceivably, I can only focus on my contribution and have faith in the power of aggregation.
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