All of us use groundwater and are familiar with openwells and borewells. All of us have gone through or witnessed the agony of our or our neighbours' borewells going dry. We are beginning to get interested in and invest in groundwater recharge in the hope of keeping our wells alive.
We however have to understand our groundwater better - where does our groundwater reside ?, does it flow and how ?, how much of it is there? What are the different things that we do knowingly or unknowingly that affects groundwater ? How do we ensure the quality of water from our wells ? How are lakes and groundwater connected ? How deep can we keep digging ? How can we use our dried up borewells ?. Our city is grappling with all these and many more questions.
The funny thing is this : It is our stories and observations of our own open and borewells at home that is a window to understanding our groundwater. All of us could together share these stories. And we could get help from geologists and hydrogeologists to interpret our stories - the science of hydrogeology is the science of groundwater. And this can result in a much better understanding of our groundwater - our "aquifers". This will help us then improve our practices, optimise our investments in recharge and manage our groundwater better. For us as a community and for each one of us in the community.
To facilitate this we - WIPRO, BIOME, ACWADAM and MAPUNITY - are working together for a "Participatory Aquifer Mapping Program". We want to invite all of you to be a part of it. What better place to talk about this than after seeing all the rainwater recharge work that Rainbow Drive has done ?
Excellent post and very needed work of bringing community together.
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