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BCC – Bharathiyar Community Center

A Model Learning Village for Water Harvesting and Sustainable Development

Contents

1 Water harvesting
2 Water Quality testing
3 Solar energy to pump the water
4 Drinking water distribution
5 Dry region
6 women's empowerment
7 Layout of the BCC plot - 2 roads
8 Map of India - Tuticorin district - Vilathikulam region
9 Renewable energy
10 Raising agricultural productivity
1. 10.1 By Madhavan in Padapai and Ullundhai areas
11 Current village outreach efforts
12 Visitors

Water harvesting

1.0 Digging the large pond - Combination of machine and manual labor

We have dug two large ponds - approximately - 150 ft long by 50 ft wide by 14 ft deep (the second one is 18 ft deep). The NE monsoon starts and usually ends in October. We 'harvest' the rain falling on the 13 acre lot and it drains to the lowest point in the lot, where these ponds are located. We hired about 30 local villagers over a period of 1 week or so to perform the last 5% of the work. Their daily wages are around Rs 65-80 per day.

2.0 JCB machines do the bulk of the digging

They rent for Rs 650 per hour. We also need to rent about 3 trailers (seen to the left) to take away the dug-out soil. These rent for about Rs 350 per day. We can complete this digging in a week or so.

3.0 INSAT satellite image

The best rain came on Oct 24, 2007. Shown above is the image
captured by the Indian INSAT satellite parked over the Indian Ocean.
Given below is the link .

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/indian/images/xxirmet5.GIF

4.0 Pond 1 : Constructed in 2007 : Dimensions - 150 ft long by 50 ft wide by 14 ft deep

5.0 Picture above: Pond 2: Constructed in 2008. Picture taken on Dec 31, 2008. Dimensions: 150 ft long by 50ft wide by 18ft deep

Water Quality testing

6.0 Picture above: A two-litre sample of the turbid (yellow) water was taken in a 2-litre bottle (shown on the right).

At IIT Madras, by addition of alum and one more compound, the same water in the beaker (shown on the left) became

clear in just 10 minutes. Right: test results from IITM lab

Solar energy to pump the water

7.0 Between the two large ponds, we have around 7 million litres of water. We hope to
install a solar pump using an elevated storage tank to gain gravity. The solar pump
will run all day long, quite slowly. Then as the sun goes down, using a light sensor,
we will release the water for use in agriculture.

Drinking water distribution

8.0 The water from the pond will be purified further to meet strict drinking water
quality standards, stored in 10 and 20 litre, PET plastics containers. These
water containers will be distributed for 3 nearby villages. There will be a
returnable deposit fee of Rs 40, to ensure that these containers are returned
and not thrown away by roadside. Water itself will be sold at Rs 0.50 per litre.
It will be delivered to the 3 villages (as a start).

Dry region

The soil in this region is black clay soil. When mixed with water, it becomes
gooey and you cannot put your foot into it. Given that it usually rains for mere
9 days in this region, the soil gets parched with large cracks.

These thorny bushes grow everywhere in this region. The goats eat the
seeds and they spread them all around. These bushes are called "prosopis
juliflora" (known as "veli kaathan" inTamil).

These bushes suck up all the ground water, leaving nothing for any meaningful
agriculture. However, they develop nitrogen-fixing nodules in their roots.
When we get rid of these bushes with difficulty, the soil is good for agriculture
for at least 3 years. (if you have water)

Here is a close-up view showing the thorns.

women's empowerment

We work with many SHG (Self Help groups) in this region. Shown above
is one of our first group "Chembaruthi" that worked in our Vermi-composting
projects.

Number of women opted to receive tailoring machines and learn to stich.
A sewing machine in India costs about Rs 2500

Layout of the BCC plot - 2 roads

Drawing above shows the 13-acre plot. We kept the image at a large scale to make it readable.

Map of India - Tuticorin district - Vilathikulam region

The BCC is located in the district of Tuticorin in tamil nadu. Quite close to
the southern tip of India, known as 'Kanya Kumari".

The RED arrow points to the Vilathikulam region, which is located on the
northern part of the Tuticorin district, bordering on Ramanathapuram
district.

Map above is a real clos-up map showing the exact location of BCC and the various villages surrounding ir.
On the right "Gulf of Mannar" is part of the Bay of Bengal, the gulf that separates India and Sri Lanka.
BCC is about 15 miles from the sea.

Renewable energy

bio-mass

Using the thorny bushes (shown in the earlier picture sections), we can
convert them to Electricity. The unit above from Ankur Company in Baroda
is capable of producing 11KW of energy.

Solar Energy

Vilathikulam gets around 12 hours of sunlight everyday and no one
bothers to tap this energy. The barefoot college in Tilonia founded
by Bunker Roy trains village women to make, install and maintain
solar panels. We plan to set up a small workshop to train women as
well as high school graduates and help them make a living.

Jatropha Plants

We are testing Jatropha plants in our BCC to see how they grow, how much water is needed. The 2 pictures above show few Jatropha planted 2 years ago.

Raising agricultural productivity

By Madhavan in Padapai and Ullundhai areas

Madhavan - a resident of Chennai - has been working on precision
farming for the last 4 years. Using the correct methods, he has demonstrated
how to 'triple' the average yield by Indian farmers these days.

Picture above shows a rice seed transplanting machine that can help
the process and yield better results.

Madhavan - an alumnus of IIT Madras - is looking into simple tools to improve
the methods. Most Indian farmers own 1 acre or less. Hence, full scale
mechanization is futile.

Here is a 'seeder' machine purchased in Holland, Michigan

Current village outreach efforts

RTI Program - Right to Information

helps to inform the villagers about Government grant programs

Villagers are unaware of the Right To Information Act (RTI) that provides them
the right to obtain information related their rights. One key area of interest
to the older villagers is a scheme called 'Old age pension". This gives them
around Rs 300-400 per month. After they apply for this pension, they never
hear back on the status of their application. Armed with the power of RTI, now
they can 'insure' that they receive their pensions.

Taking the RTI message to another village

Water pond projects in nearby villages

Working in to assist a leakage in the inlet channel bringing water to the drinking
water pond. [Vadalakarai village]

See graphic below.

Health Camps

Health Camp in March 2009 was held in the village of Soorangudi. This is our 3rd camp. These camps offer the Siddha form of medicine. We added a new focus on Children's health.