“As the world reels under the threat of unrelenting climate change, erratic monsoons and fast depleting groundwater reserves, The Miracle Water Village narrates the inspirational story of impoverished farming community in India that reversed its fortunes through its visionary model of water management.
Lying in one of the worst drought-prone regions of India, the village of Hiware Bazar battled many decades of sparse rain and failed crops. However, 20 years ago, the entire village came together to script a silent revolution by designing a rainwater-harvesting model that saved every drop of the scanty rain they received. Today, the village is literally an oasis in the middle of the desert, boasting of bumper harvests, dairy co-operatives, millionaire families and visionary farmers.
Hiware Bazar still receives the scanty amount of rainfall it used to in the heart of its most trying years, but what has changed is the way it has managed its water and created a miracle with this most precious liquid resource!”
YouTube
From Rags to Riches in Hiware Bazar Using simple water conservation steps boosted per capita income 37 fold from 1995 to 2012, up from just $13/month. The number of wells tripled and the water table rose 50-75 feet. The amount of arable land greatly increased. Milk production increased 10-27 fold. All the liquor stores were closed and tobacco banned. Every house now has a toilet (only village in India?). Now there are 60 millionaires. It took them 21 years to get to where they are today. The village leader says the process can be accomplished in just two years now that they know what to do. What an amazing turnaround from such basic changes. This gives me a lot of hope for India and the world. In many ways people have already figured out what to do to turn things around. It’s just a matter of learning the best practices and implementing them.
Hiware Bazar website
Hiware Bazar’s success is based on the 3S’ – Self – sustainability, Self – governance and Self – reliance. The improvements stemmed the migration of villagers and inculcated a sense of pride within them. Literacy grew from 30% to 95%. There’s been a complete eradication of crime. Their village is now an oasis in the middle of the desert. It’s even been called an ‘ideal village’ and has won numerous awards. There are plans to implement the same changes in five villages of every district in the state.
Water Wars is the name of the film Jim Burroughs produced. Jim’s daughter is a friend of Pepe the Polyp. Rain Burroughs lives in Richmond and is a Green political activist.
http://www.waterwarsfilm.com/index.html
“The nation of Bangladesh is prey to every threat from water known to man. To understand the plight of this downriver delta nation is to understand what all of us will face in the coming years. WATER WARS tells the story of this land at war with not only rising seas, but devastating floods and droughts -from India’s dams dumping their excess in the wet season and siphoning off river water in the dry season. And as Bangladesh sees less and less river water during the dry season it is forced to dig more wells going deeper, encountering arsenic poisoning that is filling hospitals and graveyards.” ….
Vandana Shive bottom lines the plight in 10 minuets with Bill Moyers. She is fascinating to behold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG17oEsQiEw#t=0
Good video. I like her.
Good to hear about success in this manner. There’s a strong belief that future wars will be over water. Let’s hope the bull headed will learn from examples such as this before going to war.
And now a water report in from Brazil. We find that the commercialization of the Brazilian coffee industry is/has ruined their land. Perhaps getting some tips from India wouldn’t be a bad idea.
http://rt.com/news/water-ration-drought-brazil-253/
“Over 140 Brazilian cities have been pushed to ration water during the worst drought on record, according to a survey conducted by the country’s leading newspaper. Some neighborhoods only receive water once every three days.”
BTW because of the low elevation (2,000′ -) the coffee is grown at, and the type of bean used to maximize 3 harvests per year, Brazilian coffee is known as “shit” coffee in the industry. This is as compared to Colombian coffee, which is grown above 6’000′, yielding 2 crops annually useing the Arabica bean, not the Brazilian Robusta.
Yep, same thing is happening in many places over the world.
I enjoy hearing these stories of how rural communities have turned their lives around using enlightened resource management techniques. They serve as inspiration that can be adopted in communities world-wide.
They used simple techniques that have developed far-reaching consequences. Drought continues to be a problem in many areas of my state and in several states in the US. Hopefully we will learn environmental conservation before we reach the irreversible desertification point.
There have been some areas of China that has used similar water conservation techniques, coupled with permaculture, that have restored their environment. It is happening in the nation of Jordan, as well.
Marvelous.
This spirit of common sense and brotherhood has been bread out of the USA population.
This is an important story relating to farming, Remineralize the Earth; in partnership with John Todd of Ocean Arks International, embarked on a visionary mission in the hilly country of Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
http://remineralize.org/costa-rica-remineralization-for-sustainable-living
Thanks, that’s another good example showing how depleted land can be restored with simple techniques. I’ll probably use this in an upcoming blog post.