They compete to capture water in their townships, as part of “the biggest permaculture project on Earth”. This is India’s Water Revolution

For grassroots-led political, economic and social innovation, we are receiving many examples from India at the moment - communicating straight out from empowered localities, mixing tradition and modernity in inspiring ways.

Something we picked up this week goes under the title (as a YouTube channel) of “India’s Water Revolution”. Made by Oregon State academic and permaculturalist Andrew Millison, the films’ describe the outcomes of a “Water Cup”. This is a competition between townships (or “takulas”) across the Indian state of Maharashtra, where you win the game by installing as many water harvesting structures as you can, in a 45 day period.

In an optimistic and energetic way, the films celebrate the astounding outcomes of this application of permaculture-like local mapping and then engineering. These techniques release supplies of ground-water from below, and ensure that their three-month monsoon rains efficiently sustain the villagers (and their livelihoods) for the remainder of the year.

An Indian foundation, Paani, which seems to have leapt into life from the activism of the film star Amir Khan (see first video), runs the Water Cup (which ends up in a huge ceremony, where categories of volunteer-led initiatives win cash prizes). Paani’s recent figures claim that by 2019, 550 billion litres of water storage capacity has been created, with over 51,000 trained in these techniques.

The video embedded above - titled “The Biggest Permaculture Project on Earth” - is a great place to start, with Paani’s chief advisor, Dr. Avinash Pol, talking through how one takula, called Velu, were shown how to use their landscape (and deploy effective tunnelling) as a container and holder of their years’ supply of water. Their plan carefully managed the excess flows from monsoon weather, and steered it into ground capture, able to be drawn on from wells throughout the remaining months.

The energy and enthusiasm involved is very affecting: these may be new forms of eco-engineering to the villagers, but it addresses their perennial battle between drought and flood, as well described by the Indian-American hydrologist Ashok Mishra here:

Mishra lived close to the Hirakud Dam, built across the Mahanadi River and India’s largest dam.

“As a child, I was fascinated by how this reservoir stored and managed water during droughts and floods,” says Mishra. “This is a vitally important and complex task, as we see drought and flood in the same year on the Indian subcontinent.”

That childhood curiosity has led to a lifelong focus on water security, especially during extreme climate events such as drought.

“Drought is often considered the most complex and least understood of natural environmental hazards, with an immediate and serious threat to water security, food, energy and infrastructure that impacts the lives of millions,” he says.

“Persistent droughts can force foundational changes in how communities use the land; for example, water-intensive industries potentially relocating, and agricultural production shifting to other regions.”

The four videos are available on this playlist.