Thematic Area: Water & Sanitation
Project Guide(s): Dr. Soundharajan,Civil Engineering Department
International Partners: Mireia Lopez Perez, Universitat Politecnica de Canalunya (Barcelona, Spain)
Amrita Partners: Deepak Suresh Varma, Sidharth KA, Aswin R. Raj, Vishakh Raja PC
Village: Kerkatta, Jharkhand
Project Duration: 5 months
In recent years the summer months have become extremely hot in the village of Kerkatta. All water bodies go dry. Neither local sources nor rivers can be used. The villagers are not able to practice agriculture during that time and have to migrate to urban centers to get some income. This project aimed at better understanding the situation, and to develop technical solutions to address this challenge. It did so following a community-based participatory approach, involving co-design to find new avenues for the community.
Based on this, they were able to identify a solution that would be efficient and acceptable for the community. It is based on the principles of rainwater harvesting but enhanced and scaled up to cater to the needs of the whole farming community. Several reservoirs will collect the rainwater during the rainy season and will be used for irrigating the fields in the dry season. Hydraulic and electric systems have been added to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
This project was presented as Ms Mireia Lopez’s Master Thesis, and can be consulted here: https://upcommons.upc.edu/handle/2117/184305
