. (a) Find out as to how the methods of water conservation have evolved in present India. (b) How has technology contributed towards saving and conserving water? (e.g drip irrigation etc) 4. A major problem with water storage is water contamination . A major need post Nepal earthquake was the water cleaning tablets. How do they function ? List one more method of water cleaning. 5. At an individual level how would you contribute towards saving water. Draft a ‘Save Water Pledge’ ’It should have tips on reducing your water footprint.(in not more than 50 words) Support your research with data, statistics, interviews, pictures and/or drawings / photographs by visiting any one baoli / stepwell in India ( like Agrasen ki baoli, Loharehri Baoli, Hazrat Nizamuddin Baoli, Rajon ki baoli, Ghaus Ali Shah's Baoli, Lalquila baoli, etc) Tankas Tankas(small tank) are underground tanks, found traditionally in most Bikaner houses. They are built in the main house or in the courtyard. They were circular holes made in the ground, lined with fine polished lime, in which raiwater was collected.Tankaswere often beautifully decorated with tiles, which helped to keep the water cool. The water was used only for drinking. If in any year there was less than normal rainfall and thetankasdid not get filled, water from nearby wells and tanks would be obtained to fill the householdtankas. In this way, the people of Bikaner were able to meet their water requirements. Thetankasystem is also to be found in the pilgrim town of Dwarka where it has been in existence for centuries. It continues to be used in residential areas, temples,dharamshalasand hotels. KhadinAkhadin, also called adhora, is an ingenious construction designed to harvest surface runoff water for agriculture. Its main feature is a very long (100-300 m) earthen embankment built across the lower hill slopes lying below gravelly uplands. Sluices and spillways allow excess water to drain off. Thekhadinsystem is based on the principle of harvesting rainwater on farmland and subsequent use of this water-saturated land for crop production. First designed by the Paliwal Brahmins of Jaisalmer, western Rajasthan in the 15th century, this system has great similarity with the irrigation methods of the people of Ur (present Iraq) around 4500 BC and later of the Nabateans in the Middle East. A similar system is also reported to have been practised 4,000 years ago in the Negev desert, and in southwestern Colorado 500 years ago. Vav / vavdi / Baoli / BavadiTraditional stepwells are calledvavorvavadiin Gujarat, orbaolisorbavadisin Rajasthan and northern India. Built by the nobility usually for strategic and/or philanthropical reasons, they were secular structures from which everyone could draw water. Most of them are defunct today. The construction of stepwells date from four periods: Pre-Solanki period (8th to 11th century CE); Solanki period (11th to 12th century CE); Vaghela period (mid-13th to end-14th century CE); and the Sultanate period (mid-13th to end-15th century CE). Sculptures and inscriptions in stepwells demonstrate their importance to the traditional social and cultural lives of people. Stepwell locations often suggested the way in which they would be used. When a stepwell was located within or at the edge of a village, it was mainly used for utilitarian purposes and as a cool place for social gatherings. When stepwells were located outside the village, on trade routes, they were often frequented as resting places. Many important stepwells are located on the major military and trade routes from Patan in the north to the sea coast of Saurashtra. When stepwells were used exclusively for irrigation, a sluice was constructed at the rim to receive the lifted water and lead it to a trough or pond, from where it ran through a drainage system and was channelled into the fields. A major reason for the breakdown of this traditional system is the pressure of centralisation and agricultural intensification. Source:Making Water Everybody's Business Ahar PynesThis traditional floodwater harvesting system is indigenous to south Bihar. In south Bihar, the terrain has a marked slope -- 1 m per km -- from south to north. The soil here is sandy and does not retain water. Groundwater levels are low. Rivers in this region swell only during the monsoon, but the water is swiftly carried away or percolates down into the sand. All these factors make floodwater harvesting the best option here, to which this system is admirably suited. Anaharis a catchment basin embanked on three sides, the 'fourth' side being the natural gradient of the land itself. Ahar beds were also used to grow arabi(winter) crop after draining out the excess water that remained afterkharif(summer) cultivation.Pynesare articifial channels constructed to utilise river water in agricultural fields. Starting out from the river,pynesmeander through fields to end up in an ahar. Mostpynesflow within 10 km of a river and their length is not more than 20 km. The ahar-pyne system received a death-blow under the nineteenth-century British colonial regime. The post-independent state was hardly better. In 1949, a Flood Advisory Committee investigating continuous floods in Bihar's Gaya district came to the conclusion that "the fundamental reason for recurrence of floods was the destruction of the old irrigational system in the district."ANSWER NO 0NE. (a) Find out as to how the methods of water conservation have evolved in present India. (b) How has technology contributed towards saving and conserving water? (e.g drip irrigation etc) 4. A major problem with water storage is water contamination . A major need post Nepal earthquake was the water cleaning tablets. How do they function ? List one more method of water cleaning. 5. At an individual level how would you contribute towards saving water. Draft a ‘Save Water Pledge’ ’It should have tips on reducing your water footprint.(in not more than 50 words) Support your research with data, statistics, interviews, pictures and/or drawings / photographs by visiting any one baoli / stepwell in India ( like Agrasen ki baoli, Loharehri Baoli, Hazrat Nizamuddin Baoli, Rajon ki baoli, Ghaus Ali Shah's Baoli, Lalquila baoli, etc) Tankas Tankas(small tank) are underground tanks, found traditionally in most Bikaner houses. They are built in the main house or in the courtyard. They were circular holes made in the ground, lined with fine polished lime, in which raiwater was collected.Tankaswere often beautifully decorated with tiles, which helped to keep the water cool. The water was used only for drinking. If in any year there was less than normal rainfall and thetankasdid not get filled, water from nearby wells and tanks would be obtained to fill the householdtankas. In this way, the people of Bikaner were able to meet their water requirements. Thetankasystem is also to be found in the pilgrim town of Dwarka where it has been in existence for centuries. It continues to be used in residential areas, temples,dharamshalasand hotels. KhadinAkhadin, also called adhora, is an ingenious construction designed to harvest surface runoff water for agriculture. Its main feature is a very long (100-300 m) earthen embankment built across the lower hill slopes lying below gravelly uplands. Sluices and spillways allow excess water to drain off. Thekhadinsystem is based on the principle of harvesting rainwater on farmland and subsequent use of this water-saturated land for crop production. First designed by the Paliwal Brahmins of Jaisalmer, western Rajasthan in the 15th century, this system has great similarity with the irrigation methods of the people of Ur (present Iraq) around 4500 BC and later of the Nabateans in the Middle East. A similar system is also reported to have been practised 4,000 years ago in the Negev desert, and in southwestern Colorado 500 years ago. Vav / vavdi / Baoli / BavadiTraditional stepwells are calledvavorvavadiin Gujarat, orbaolisorbavadisin Rajasthan and northern India. Built by the nobility usually for strategic and/or philanthropical reasons, they were secular structures from which everyone could draw water. Most of them are defunct today. The construction of stepwells date from four periods: Pre-Solanki period (8th to 11th century CE); Solanki period (11th to 12th century CE); Vaghela period (mid-13th to end-14th century CE); and the Sultanate period (mid-13th to end-15th century CE). Sculptures and inscriptions in stepwells demonstrate their importance to the traditional social and cultural lives of people. Stepwell locations often suggested the way in which they would be used. When a stepwell was located within or at the edge of a village, it was mainly used for utilitarian purposes and as a cool place for social gatherings. When stepwells were located outside the village, on trade routes, they were often frequented as resting places. Many important stepwells are located on the major military and trade routes from Patan in the north to the sea coast of Saurashtra. When stepwells were used exclusively for irrigation, a sluice was constructed at the rim to receive the lifted water and lead it to a trough or pond, from where it ran through a drainage system and was channelled into the fields. A major reason for the breakdown of this traditional system is the pressure of centralisation and agricultural intensification. Source:Making Water Everybody's Business Ahar PynesThis traditional floodwater harvesting system is indigenous to south Bihar. In south Bihar, the terrain has a marked slope -- 1 m per km -- from south to north. The soil here is sandy and does not retain water. Groundwater levels are low. Rivers in this region swell only during the monsoon, but the water is swiftly carried away or percolates down into the sand. All these factors make floodwater harvesting the best option here, to which this system is admirably suited. Anaharis a catchment basin embanked on three sides, the 'fourth' side being the natural gradient of the land itself. Ahar beds were also used to grow arabi(winter) crop after draining out the excess water that remained afterkharif(summer) cultivation.Pynesare articifial channels constructed to utilise river water in agricultural fields. Starting out from the river,pynesmeander through fields to end up in an ahar. Mostpynesflow within 10 km of a river and their length is not more than 20 km. The ahar-pyne system received a death-blow under the nineteenth-century British colonial regime. The post-independent state was hardly better. In 1949, a Flood Advisory Committee investigating continuous floods in Bihar's Gaya district came to the conclusion that "the fundamental reason for recurrence of floods was the destruction of the old irrigational system in the district."