Spatial mapping of Fluoride Contamination in ground water in Mulbagal Taluk, KOLAR District

A spatial map created by Ashwin (an intern who worked with us for 2 months) that plots the fluoride levels in ground water (a source of drinking water) in 280 villages in the Mulbagal Taluk. Ashwin personally tested water from each of these sources for monitoring Fluoride levels. It is interesting to see how the incidence of Fluoride is highest in the Western Part of the Taluk. Above 1ppm or 1mg/l is not permissible in drinking water.

48 villages have above 1ppm and 15 villages are critical with more than 3ppm. A portable test kit from Development Alternatives (Jal TARA) put together by the WIPRO Earthian programme was used for the testing

While it is a little clumsy the map has been inserted in full size so that all the village names are visible :)

Rainfall runoff from a Polyhouse

Commercial polyhouses are typically large and require a fair bit of water for watering the plants even in the rainy season as the rain cannot directly fall on the plants. Even a 30mm rain on a polyhouse of 1 acre (about 4000sqm) can result in a runoff of 108,000 litres (this is  equivalent to the daily water requirement of 200 families at about 500 litres per family per day). The runoff water is very clean and must certainly be put to good use. The 2 short videos capture the runoff from one such polyhouse after a short shower - so as to highlight potential for rainwater harvesting