Forced In 2003, the state passed an ordinance to install rain water harvesting structures in all old and new buildings. Now people in the state are reaping rich benefits. The ground water table in the state has shown a phenomenal rise.Forty percent of rainwater which would earlier flow into the sea is now being stored underground.
As a result of this, water scarcity is now a thing of the past. Rainwater harvesting has become a people's movement in the state. When Jayalalithaa made this compulsory, many were skeptical. Today even her critics call this a revolution in conservation of water, worth replicating across the country.
7 comments:
yes rightly pointed, collective action for rainwater harvesting,in 1990s we used to scramble for drinking water esp. during summer and wait for corporation water tanks every morning...thanks to Ms. jayalalitha's plans, water scarcity is a thing of the past....
Legislations on rainwater harvesting have been enacted in many states across india. however its true potential has been realised only in a few places. a similar law had been passed in delhi in 2001, though till now, not more than 20% of the new constructions have these systems installed. the primary reason stated for this is that thelocal corporators and municipal officals dont take much interest as they dont get any benefit or appreciation from them. so can it be concludedthat for any action to turn into a successful collective, the implementors have to be brought into the loop too..
rajat bhatia, 30029
During my fieldwork, we went to a village in Gaya which is comparatively a drier district of Bihar. There few homes have got tanks to store rainwater. These tanks have been constructed by the people on their own without any agency's intervention. We can say that when it comes to problems, people also initiate steps to solve it on their own and many a times collective action isn't required in such a case.
SHASHVAT SINGH (30044)
Rajat has raised the true picture about what is happening and what not and also where happening and where not.
I believe it all depends on the need of the people. As shasvat said about Gaya in Bihar, i want to say that in Bihar north part faces flood almost every year where as south part gets droughts.
so what the collective actions should be taken to have a WIN-WIN situation for the people living in these two parts of the state?
its true that laws like this should be supported by people's movement to attain success. but looking at the condition of the village i went for fieldwork i.e. in maharashtra which faced an acute water shortage and had tremendous potential for water harvesting, there was a lack from the local government and the NGOs to make villagers aware of how this can be done and whatever the people did was on there level which was not very effecient. also the jalswarajya project of maharashtra aims at better acess to water and decentralisation of water supply for rural areas but do not have any provision of water harvesting in it. therefore in some states there is a lack of initiative from the governement itself which is necessary to bring about a big change through collective action.
aditi (p300001)
any action or the effort which reaps in maximum benefits for the society will be accepted by all the sections of the people irrespective of the other differences. take the example of telangana movement, the ppl of a political party, which opposed telangana came out of the party and started making comments against the same party and joined other parties which is supporting the movement. the intentions may be different for cooperation, but the actions are the same towards the goal..
I would like to say that its not so much a People’s movement as is made out to be. I lived in Chennai during the “legislation” and there was not much “Collective” about it.The people simply HAD to have Rainwater harvesting before a given deadline.Analysing from a theoretical standpoint,the people don’t gain much doing it in a collective nor do the initial people bear the brunt for the later’s benefit-everyone who does it is doing it for his good.Accepted that it did improve things,but this is merely a govt. ruling that helped the masses.
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