The water literacy programmes of Sacred Heart College and Sacred Heart Church in the villages adjoining Madantyar in Dakshina Kannada is paying off with the erstwhile “kattas” (water bunds) across the Artila Halla (a rivulet) making a comeback after nearly three decades holding water for crops during the summer.
Though the college began water harvesting on roofs and adopted other methods of rainwater harvesting on its premises four years ago, the church began promoting water literacy among the people when it entered its 125th year in May 2017. Father Basil Vaz, who is also the correspondent of Sacred Heart Education Institutes, took the lead. Subsequently, the college students and people from the nearby villages joined hands to revive the practice of building “kattas”. It has resulted in six bunds across the Artila Halla between Moodayuru on the upstream of the rivulet and Sonandur on the downstream in a range of about eight kilometres at the end of 2017 and beginning of January 2018.
Prompted by its benefits, three more new bunds were built across the rivulet a few days ago at Nadje (which has two bunds) and Uresagu further downstream of Sonandur. In addition, last season’s six bunds have been re-built.
“Felix Mascarenhas and Subrahmanya Bhat, who are classmates, Praveen D’Souza and Udaya Kumar Naik, natives of the two villages, took the initiative on their own to build the three more bunds,” Joseph N.M., Associate Professor in Economics and co-ordinator of water literacy team of the college, told The Hindu .
“Two borewells in my arecanut plantations which are 700 ft deep are now dry. Even if drilled up to 1,000 ft deep, you don’t get water,” Mr. Bhat said.
Mr. Mascarenhas said that he got a borewell drilled up to 350 ft deep last year. But there was no water.
“Of late, all of us are realising the importance of building bunds to feed water for the arecanut plantations in summer. The aquifer has been emptied by drilling an alarming number of borewells. Imagine a farmer in our village who having a small holding getting drilled nine borewells. All are empty now,” Mr. Bhat said.
Building “kattas” across the rivulets were a common practice in the coastal belt when paddy was being cultivated abundantly. When arecanut plantations replaced paddy fields, the bunds also disappeared with people opting for borewells exploiting groundwater.
Mr. Joseph, who obtained his Ph.D for his thesis “A critical analysis of water resource management in Dakshina Kannada with special reference to Belthangady taluk”, said that the “kattas” held water like a sponge. They cannot be isolated in integrated water management along with rainwater harvesting and re-charging methods of water sources.
Published - January 14, 2019 09:29 am IST
