Mandur landfill crisis revisits: Luxury of peacetime over, let’s stop being deliberately callous

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The reality in Mandur. (Pic: The Hindu)

The reality in Mandur. (Pic: The Hindu)

Recently, I made an early-morning trip to some nurseries around Lalbagh with a friend to buy plants for our apartment garden. By forenoon, we had done most of our work but couldn’t resist the desire to step into yet another large nursery studded with beautiful succulents. As we went around enjoying the fragrance of those green little beauties, especially gardenias, the nursery staff got busy loading the green ‘waste’ into a BBMP vehicle. Some 4-5 workers went on feeding the truck for at least an hour.

When we asked, they said it was headed to Mandur landfill. Continue reading →

The end of Persian wheel.

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When I wrote about Persian wheel recently, the headline carried a question mark.

That’s because the wheel was still turning somewhere, keeping a fiction of hope alive. That the last surviving Persian wheel in Kolar in Karnataka would somehow clatter along. That it would somehow continue to draw water slowly while leaving the groundwater table unharmed. That it would continue to remind us that the secret of a water-secure future lies a simple realisation that we have to respect the bountiful Mother Earth as much as we enjoy her generosity.But this time, it’s a full stop.

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Can Bangalore afford private penthouse swimming pools?

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For the last few days, I have been seeing some real estate ads in newspapers with lavish display of a massive swimming pool inside the club house, with a promise of private swimming pools for penthouses!

It’s not about criticising the idea of luxury. All of us want to succeed in life and live luxuriously.

But where is water for all this? Any idea how many Continue reading →

Saving every drop of rainwater

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All of us know that an ocean has an infinite number of drops. But few of us see an ocean in a drop of water.

Chikmagalur-based Farmland Rainwater Harvesting Systems (FLRWHS) is one such organisation out to save the precious rainwater to tackle acute water shortage in various states.  Through its innovative RWH technology, it has helped rural and urban areas with improved yield levels of bore wells which were either dry, or low-yielding.

Safe drops for children at Allampura Government School, Karnataka.

A rainwater harvesting model on the move.

Hundreds of government schools have benefitted through assured drinking water supply and quality water for cooking midday meals. The children have access to fluoride- and iron-free water for four months in a year. So far, the organisation has recharged over 3,000 bore wells and installed more than 10,000 rooftop rainwater harvesting filters.

Contact Vijay Raj at vijay.shisodya@gmail.com; +91 9448130524.

Related articles: The end of Persian wheel.