Water and First year MBBS students

St Johns College, Bangalore has a relatively new department "Health and Humanities", which introduces the students  to music, art, literature, ecology, history, spirituality etc from the point of view of the health of an individual. The attempt is to get the young doctors-to-be to see all aspects of health - going beyond the traditional form of medical education including diagnoses, surgeries and medication. 

BIOME Trust was invited to take a session on WATER for the first year MBBS students (It was a course on which the students would subsequently be tested and hence not to be taken lightly !) The idea was to sensitize the doctors to the water situation and make them aware of the various sources of water, water quality issues and treatment processes. Sustainable practices like Rainwater harvesting and waste water treatment and reuse were also discussed.

The young doctors were a chirpy and enthusiastic lot and are probably now totally immersed in formal medical education. From our experience we see that hospitals are now taking baby steps to understand and sustainably manage their water use. It will be nice to see at least some of these doctors leading the way in water management at hospitals

Most big cities source water from far away rivers

Not everybody gets water in their taps

The full class

RWH tour for students of Golden Valley CoE, Madanapalle

11 final year Civil Engineering students and their guide (an Engineer with the Irrigation department) visited different types of RWH installations today alongwith BIOME as part of their final year project. The trip had a good mix of both theory and site visits. They went to  SISA Kendra, Rainwater Harvesting Theme Park, Rainbow Drive and Sobha Quartz - each presenting a different aspect of RWH to the students.

Some thoughts and information that stayed with us post the visit

1. The students had collected the daily rainfall data for the past 5 years from the tehsildar's and irrigation dept. offices and were keen to share it with us
2. They had ideas on how RWH and Waste Water Treatment could be implemented back home. We wait to hear from them
3. Their guide had been deeply moved by the water episode on "Satyamev Jayatae" and thought it important that something be done about the same. He has been at it and trying out different ideas for the past few months. This RWH tour being one of the attempts too
4. The willingness, pride and enthusiasm with which, the people that have implemented RWH like to talk about it is also an amazing feeling. A very warm thanks to all the folks at each of the venues that helped us by allowing us to use the facilities at the premises as well as interacted with the students

We should do more of these !!

Theory session at SISA Kendra

At the RWH park

Shobhit explains: Recharge Wells at Rainbow Drive

RWH Theme Park

Sobha Quartz basement

Final Group photo

The customary tea - just before winding up