World Water Day –
22 March 2007

World Water Day in Auroville. Photo by Manohar.

Address by Gilles Boulicot. Photo by Manohar.

Community people. Photo by Manohar.

SOLUTIONS FOR PROTECTING WATER RESOURCES
IN THE TIME OF SCARCITY

On 22 nd March 2007, the world over will be celebrating World Water Day.

The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro .

The United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March of each year as the World Day for Water by adopting a resolution. This world day for water was to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

The theme for this year is “Coping with water scarcity”. This year's theme highlights the increasing significance of water scarcity worldwide and the need for increased integration and cooperation to ensure sustainable, efficient and equitable management of scarce water resources, both at international and local levels.

In a village, Kaluperampakkam, just 15 km away from Auroville, the only source of non saline water is from these holes the women dig near the pond. The sand acts as a natural filter for visible particles. But the water needs to be thoroughly boiled before they can consume it.

Water is available only twice a day and there are only 3 such holes for a village population of over 400 households.

On this day, we at Harvest are inviting over 200 participants from various walks of life to come and share their experiences of the life long relationship we have with water. This is the first time, Harvest is organizing such an event where distinguished authorities in the fields of water will interact with farmers and women on how water affects their every sphere of life.

Situated in an area where there is over exploitation of groundwater and extensive usage of chemical farming, leading to catastrophic depletion of the water table and pollution of available water, we have been working for over a decade with villages on protection of groundwater resources.

This day, will be the first step towards interacting with stakeholders at the watershed level in bringing together experiences, stories and life towards the process of consolidating our work and building a network within our operational area to own, manage and maintain the fragile resource balance.

VENUE – Auroville Water Harvest, Kottakarai

TIME – 3 – 6 pm

TIME	PERSON	SPEECH TOPIC	DESIGNATION
3–3:15 pm	Sivasubramanium	Welcome address	Hydrogeologist, Harvest
3:15–3:30 pm	Gilles Boulicot	Welcome address and water scarcity issues in the area	Executive Director, Harvest
3:30–3:45 pm	R. Venkatachallam	Importance of rainwater harvest ing	Dist. Hydrogeologist, TWAD Board
3:45–4 pm	A. Sundaramurthy	Depletion of groundwater	Asst Director, Geology, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts
4–4:30 pm	Sivasubramanium	Presentation of water problems in area
4:30–4:35 pm	Mohannam cultural centre	Dance drama on water
4:35–5:30 pm	Presentations made by community people on solutions for protecting their threatened resources
	Farmer	Participation	Kodur village
	School teacher	Networking and liasoning	Kaluperampakkam
	Farmer	Pollution control	Vilvanatham
	Farmer	Organic farming	Anpakkam
	Farmer	Sharing of water resources	Rayapuduppakam
	Mr. Rajeshwaran	Sanitation, drinking water and solid waste management	Kottakarai, village development committee president
	Farmer	Water management	Olundiapet village

5:30–5:45 pm	Gilles Boulicot	Distribution of prizes to children for poster competition
5:45 – 6 pm	Tiruchelvam / Dhandapani	Closing ceremony accompanied by kolattam	Nodel officer Kolattam by Mohannam centre

World Water Day – 22 March 2007

World Water Day –
22 March 2007