A fine balance in Kutch

Interesting insights by Rohini Nilekani

.....Yet, once you talk to the villagers and farmers, it quickly becomes clear how enmeshed are the lives of the people with the cattle. In a small village called Haripar, we walked across a ridge road, recently constructed by the villagers to provide access to the only well in the area, dug right in the middle of the catchment pond, which they hoped would fill up with the season’s first two showers. The women will use the road this year to bring home the drinking water for the day.

Why not put in pipes and pumps to draw water to the settlement instead? That, the women assured us, would destroy the delicate balance they have maintained for so long, between samaj, pani and jaanwar—society, water and cattle. If people get water in pipes, the water of the well would quickly run out, since it would be very hard to control its use. How would the cattle that often depend on the same water source manage? Without the cattle, there would be no livelihood. No one would benefit in the long run.

....Meanwhile, in Kutch, the work continues. Using new technologies and approaches, people are innovating beyond earlier models to create a sustainable water infrastructure. Solar pumps have been installed in some places to compensate for the irregular supply of electricity. New kinds of percolation tanks are being built, new designs tried out for storage and distribution. Local people are being trained in operations and maintenance. Many NGOs are involved in this huge capacity- building exercise. It seems to be yielding social dividends. Quite unusually, in the Kutch villages of Haripar and Karamta, we met strong women leaders who were at the forefront of the discussion, with the men sitting quietly in the back rows. But it will take the strength of the whole village to accomplish the mission they have set for themselves. It is no mean task to convince people all over again to live within their ecological limits.

If it’s so hard for them, who’ve so long lived in a fine balance with nature, how much harder will it be for the rest of us?