"Jalam" Rainwater Harvesting Seminar By Siruthuli
Managing Trustee of Siruthuli Vanitha Mohan (second right) inagurating "Jalam", a rainwater harvesting seminar organised by the Rotary Coimbatore Spectrum in the city on Sunday. Measures such as rainwater harvesting should be adopted more to augment water resources, according to Vanitha Mohan, Managing Trustee of Siruthuli. Inaugurating a seminar, “Jalam”, on rainwater harvesting organised by Rotary Coimbatore Spectrum here on Sunday, she said that water was precious as it was the lifeline of mankind. Without it life was impossible. Life evolved from water and was kept vibrantly alive by water. In business, the normal practice was to match demand with supply. But water, as a commodity, had increasing demand and supply was diminishing. “Nothing is being done to augment the water resources,” she said.
For 100 mm annual rainfall on a hectare, one million litre of water could be harvested. In Coimbatore, the annual rainfall was 600 mm. And, nearly 80 per cent was not being harvested. In the Western Ghats, the annual rainfall was 2,000 mm, she said. As population increased, it was essential to augment water resources. It was also important to adopt water conserving farming practices and treating sewage water. Siruthuli had constructed about 150 rain water harvesting structures here. These had helped improve the ground water level in those areas, Ms. Mohan said.
District Governor of Rotary District 3201 Baby Joseph said there were 24 Rotary Clubs in Coimbatore. If each could take up projects such as adopting an overhead tank it would help in doing something effective. There was a need for safe drinking water here, especially for the needy.
Following a presentation on the importance of water conservation chairman of the seminar Mervyn Jussy said the presentation gave an idea of what would happen to human life without water. There was still time to do something to harvest water. The clubs planned to take up water-related projects, he said.
