picture: K Gopinathan: Hindu. Watershed tank filled to the brim on the UAS campus.
The varsity has dredged and cleaned the ponds and tanks across its 1300 acre campus in Bangalore, India. With Bangalore experiencing unprecedented showers in great abundance in 2013, the University has taken the initiative to clean up its six watershed ponds besides the six minor ones. They are all brimming with water with the excess rain. De-silting and clearing the obstacles in the connecting network of storm water drains have helped to direct the rain water into the ponds across the campus." We have 56 bore-wells on the university campus. Of them 20 had gone dry and now have sprung back to life," says MA Shankar, UAS-B Director of Research. " In addition people who live in the surrounding areas have happily confirmed that their dried borewells have also sprung to life."
This is a great lesson for Bangalore, reeling just recently from a fresh water shortage. " Historically Bangalore had hundreds of tanks to collect all the rain that fell across the city. These kept the water table up. We need to go back to that tradition," says Professor Shankar.
The University is willing to help the civic authorities of Bangalore in recharging ground water with the success that they have achieved.
Hope someone is listening!
