Crowdfunding revives ponds in south India

Farmer suicides, protests

NAGAPATTINAM, India, July 27, (RTRS): The worst drought in more than a century in southern India has led to protests, farmer suicides, and clashes at the water taps as reservoirs and lakes dry up in the searing heat.

It has also led to an unusual crowdfunding campaign that helped restore a village pond in one of the worst affected areas, with a similar effort planned for a second pond.

The effort, led by The Better India website, raised more than 1.1 million rupees ($17,000) on crowdfunding site Milaap.

The Thiruvaimur-Thamarai pond in Nagapattinam, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was cleaned and de-silted earlier this year with half those funds, in preparation for approaching rains. A second pond in the same area will be cleaned shortly.

“We had crowdfunded other social impact projects before, including destitute women and underprivileged children,” said Aishwarya Guha, head of impact projects at The Better India.

“When we saw the farmer protests, we wanted to do something to help. After some discussion, we decided restoring ponds would have the most long-term impact, and that we should do this with community involvement through crowdfunding,” she said.

Farmers from Tamil Nadu had travelled to Delhi earlier this year to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide relief after the rains failed, leaving many of them in debt.

They displayed the skulls of fellow farmers believed to have committed suicide, and placed live rats in their mouths to draw the nation’s attention to their plight.

The Better India’s crowdfunding effort hit its goal of 1 million rupees in 40 days, drawing contributions ranging from 100 rupees ($1.50) to 700,000 rupees ($10,900) from a philanthropy, Guha said.

Crowdfunding is growing in popularity in India as a means to finance medical emergencies, help underpriviliged people and assist during disasters. Environmental causes — from planting trees to cleaning beaches — is a relatively new focus area.

The restoration of the pond in Nagapattinam was done by conservation group Environmentalist Foundation of India, which has cleaned lakes and ponds across the country.

Modi

Traditional

“We used to have a very good system of using ponds and tanks for farming, for livestock, and daily needs. There was a lot of traditional knowledge and discipline around the use of water,” said Arun Krishnamurthy, EFI’s founder.

“But much of that is lost now, as people began to dig borewells and disregard traditional crop patterns, and because of encroachments and dumping of trash,” he said.

Restoration of a water body entails removing garbage in and around the lake or pond. The lake bed is then dredged, with the captured silt used to heighten and strengthen the bunds around its edges to increase storage capacity and prevent overflow.

The water is tested for levels of contaminants and pollutants before, during and after the process. A small wetland is created in a corner to help filter out incoming waste.

The community is encouraged to plant native plant species around the pond to prevent erosion and limit evaporation losses.