Shama Dalvi, an Aurovilian architect, gave a presentation during the Green Practices Workshop about a rain water harvesting project at Yelagiri. She spoke briefly on different types of rainwater harvesting systems and the system chosen for the project at Amaidhi homes. Shama explained two types of harvesting techniques, the active and passive, and gave various reasons for choosing the latter. Giving more details about the entire structure of the vacation homes, she described the nitty-gritties of how the rain water was harvested. Erosion was the biggest problem and this was stabilised by using granites and creating artificial waterfalls to reduce the water force. Download presentation

Akash Heimlich is a micro-electronics and software programmer, who co-founded EV Future in 2009. At the Green Practices Workshop, he spoke about his experiments with Aquaponics, which is a system of agriculture that involves simultaneous cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a symbiotic environment. The water consumption in this system is less, as the fish tank water is used for cultivation and usage of chemicals can also be avoided. To learn more, download presentation

Kireet from the Canyon Erosion Control Project said since the beginning the Aurovilians have tried to control erosion and fresh water flowing into the sea by planting trees, building bunds and canyons, and using other methods. At the Green Practices workshop, he said the canyons came under the purview of the government and they built the check dams. These dams, Kireet pointed out, were in bad shape. The dams were rebuilt with available materials. He described the efforts involved in building these check dams and the benefits of which Auroville starting reaping slowly. Download presentation

This edition of Towards Sustainability investigates the work of the local NGO Water Harvest through Tlaloc, a part of the Water Harvest team. Talaloc takes us through explaining the solidly sustainable  water conserving and harvesting practices of the Tamil for more than 2000 years of history. Do you ever think that you are using more than your share? Listen to the following interview for some words of Wisdom from Talaloc on how to lessen your impact on our planet.

Dr. Vishal Mehta is a hydrologist and environmental modeler with ten years of experience in water resources, forest conservation and micro-hydropower for rural development. In the talk given by him is presented current work involving the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software system, a scenario-driven water resources software specifically designed for Planning and Policy evaluation. These modeling tools play an important role in providing a Water Resources Perspective on local and regional planning levels and are particularly vital in Auroville, given India’s largely unplanned growth.

Sustainable water resource management  is one of the basis of a sustainable community. Tency, from CSR - Center Scientific Research – give details about the programs Auroville is developing based on studies of  the bioregion aquifer done with the cooperation of the Tamil Nadul government. Reforestation, rain water infiltration and  the conscious use of the resource are the bases of this program. He also explains the devices the communities are using to recycle the waste waters system and  the big project that CSR is developing to  recycle all the waste watter of the city of Pondycherry.