Revisiting traditional water conservation practices

Despite not having a perennial river, the landscape of Tamil Nadu thrived in agriculture until a few centuries ago if one were to go by the history. Thanks to the excellent water management system practised by both the kings and commoners alike, the thousands of lakes and canals, all artificially created, ensured that there is always surplus water. 

“The Tamil word Eri (lake) itself means an artificial water body created for irrigation purposes. And there are so many Tamil words to refer to different kinds of water bodies which were created for a purpose, that do not have an English equivalent,” says T R Shashwath, who will deliver the talk organised by Tamil Heritage Trust at Arkay Convention Centre in Royapettah. 

An electronics engineer by profession, Shashwath is also an environmentalist and heritage enthusiast and has been part of the Cooum Cultural Mapping project. “This is the first time, I’m going to a talk with more focus on the heritage part of water conservation and less on the technical aspect,” he says. 

According to Shashwath, the nature of the landscape was never tampered with, though we created so many water bodies in the past. “To use the land is no problem. But how harmonious we are in what we do to what exists matters. But what we draw now from underground is called fossil water and it is no less to mining of other minerals,” says the environmentalist. 

While Shashwath says it’s neither necessary nor possible to go back in time to reverse  everything, he adds that we need to learn from the past and do the needful now. “This has happened in the past too. Different kingdoms have made changes in the way water was managed for better. So, it’s not like we remove industries and everything will be alright now. That’s another misuderstanding. 

We definitely need industries for development. Certain greed for land and total lack of understanding of what we were doing are the major reasons of the present plight. For example, Cooum alone has been under the responsibility of over 20 sub agencies and they always play the blame game. 

While OMR is being promoted as the ultimate housing destination, the drainage system is still not place. This is not the actual development. The need to address these issues arose 20 years ago. But the last two years have been a wake up call,” concludes Shashwath. Shashwath will deliver his talk today at Arkay Convention Centre, Royapettah, at 5.30 pm. It’s open to all.