Water Management

Our journey towards water surplus villages is named "Uyir Thuli" (pronounced as UU-IR-TU-LEE) meaning "Life Drop" in Tamil.

Our journey towards water surplus villages is named "Uyir Thuli" (pronounced as UU-IR-TU-LEE) meaning "Life Drop" in Tamil.

The Problem: Water is the foundation of life. Ambalapattu is gifted with more than 40 water bodies of varying sizes. All of them were once inter connected with each other. The natives developed and nurtured these water bodies and water pathways for generations. Due to insufficient attention over the last few decades, irregular monsoon rain, and reduced inflow from Cauvery river the village is often without any surface water for 3 to 6 months in a year. The village which grew a variety of crops three seasons a year just a few decades ago now mostly relies on coconut farming and rice cultivation once a year.

Ground water levels has dropped from about 20 feet three decades ago to over 200 feet in 2020. In addition to the reasons stated above, the ground water level has dropped significantly due to increase in bore wells, which are dug deeper and deeper with every passing day. Free electricity provided to farmers till recently though well intended also made matters worse as there was no consideration or accountability for the amount of water that was getting pumped out of the ground; further impacting the ground water levels.

The Solution: First and foremost is to remove obstructions in water pathways to ensure free flow of water. Secondly, rejuvenate water bodies by de-silting, strengthening banks, and increasing storage capacity. Subsequently, move to co-operative irrigation methods that reduces the number of bore wells and leverage drip irrigation wherever possible. Finally, water should be collected and stored in every household through water harvesting structures and in small pits and ponds in about every 10 acres of land.

A connected and important aspect of water management is growing more trees, which besides seeding clouds will increase the organic content in the soil, which will in turn increase the amount of water absorbed by the soil and increase the ground water level.

What have we done so far? In 2019 prior to the formation of Seethanam Foundation, the volunteer group (organized under the name "Iyarkaiyodu Innaivom" meaning "Let's merge with nature") in collaboration with Ambalapattu villagers chose Kuruchi lake, which is about 14.8 acres in area as their first project. Kuruchi lake is one of the three major water bodies in this village. Over 500 people contributed to this rejuvenation effort with their time and money. The team collected over Rs. 19 lakhs (about 27,000 US Dollars as of September 2019 when the books were closed) to rejuvenate Kuruchi lake. India Association of San Antonio and San Antonio Tamil Sangam played a major role in this rejuvenation efforts.

More information can be found under "Kuruchi Lake Rejuvenation" in the projects section.

What are we planning to do in the future? Our goal is to rejuvenate all water bodies and their pathways in the village. We also want to bring greater awareness and actively advocate for better rain water harvesting and retention in farmlands owned and operated by farmers.