The temple tanks of Madras, India: rehabilitation of an ancient technique for multipurpose water storage

Ganesan, M.

doi:10.17485/ijst/2008/v1i7.10

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Such harvesting ranges in scale from an individual roof or field, in which rain is collected and used where it falls, to the micro and macro watershed scale where runoff generating areas are distinct from areas of runoff storage (Rockstrom, 2000;Mbilinyi et al, 2005). Rainwater harvesting has been applied extensively for meeting domestic needs (Handia et al, 2003;Kahinda et al, 2007), providing supplemental irrigation (Jayatilaka et al, 2003;Ngigi et al, 2007), and recharging groundwater aquifers, (Kumar, Ghosh, Patel, Singh, Ravindranath, et al, 2006) among many other uses (Ganesan, 2008).…”

Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tanks also add substantially to the wetland and aquatic richness of India (Prasad et al, 2002), and are the nucleus of human-made ecosystems traditionally managed by an association of community members (Sakthivadivel et al, 2004). Moreover, tanks play vital social and cultural roles in communities, especially in rural areas (Ganesan, 2008;Oppen,and Rao, 1987). At the local scale, it is evident tanks are the central hub of village activity.…”

Section: Structure and Function Of Rainwater Harvesting Tanksmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The socio-ecohydrology of rainwater harvesting in India: understanding water storage and release dynamics at tank and catchment scales

Meter

Basu

McLaughlin

et al. 2015

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Rainwater harvesting (RWH), the small-scale collection and storage of runoff for irrigated agriculture, is recognized as a sustainable strategy for ensuring food security, especially in monsoonal landscapes in the developing world. In south India, these strategies have been used for millennia to mitigate problems of water scarcity. However, in the past 100 years many traditional RWH systems have fallen into disrepair due to increasing dependence on groundwater. This dependence has contributed to an accelerated decline in groundwater resources, which has in turn led to increased efforts at the state and national levels to revive older RWH systems. Critical to the success of such efforts is an improved understanding of how these ancient systems function in contemporary landscapes with extensive groundwater pumping and shifted climatic regimes. Knowledge is especially lacking regarding the water-exchange dynamics of these RWH "tanks" at tank and catchment scales, and how these exchanges regulate tank performance and catchment water balances. Here, we use fine-scale water-level variation to quantify daily fluxes of groundwater, evapotranspiration (ET), and sluice outflows in four tanks over the 2013 northeast monsoon season in a tank cascade that covers a catchment area of 28 km2. At the tank scale, our results indicate that groundwater recharge and irrigation outflows comprise the largest fractions of the tank water budget, with ET accounting for only 13–22 % of the outflows. At the scale of the cascade, we observe a distinct spatial pattern in groundwater-exchange dynamics, with the frequency and magnitude of groundwater inflows increasing down the cascade of tanks. The significant magnitude of return flows along the tank cascade leads to the most downgradient tank in the cascade having an outflow-to capacity ratio greater than 2. The presence of tanks in the landscape dramatically alters the catchment water balance, with runoff decreasing by nearly 75 %, and recharge increasing by more than 40 %. Finally, while water from the tanks directly satisfies ~40 % of the crop water requirement across the northeast monsoon season via surface water irrigation, a large fraction of the tank water is "wasted," and more efficient management of sluice outflows could lead to tanks meeting a higher fraction of crop water requirements.

show abstract

Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Structure and Function Of Rainwater Harvesting Tanksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The socio-ecohydrology of rainwater harvesting in India: understanding water storage and release dynamics at tank and catchment scales

Meter

Basu

McLaughlin

et al. 2015

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Temple tanks were built to harvest rainwater during the rainy season and supply it for domestic and agricultural use (Meter et al, 2014; Pandey et al, 2003; Rajan, 2013; Ramachandran, 2006). Today, temple tanks are part of the assets of the temple (Ganesan, 2008). The tank typically exhibits surface areas ranging from 0.4 ha to 10 ha, and can hold 20 m 3 to 600 m 3 of water.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Societal response to monsoon variability in Medieval South India: Lessons from the past for adapting to climate change

Shanmugasundaram

Gunnell

Hessl

et al. 2017

The Anthropocene Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Future climate change will challenge society’s ability to adequately manage water resources, particularly in the developing world. The response of past societies to climatic variability, particularly in terms of water management, can provide useful insights into the timing and scale of response to future events. We present a regional case study from South India to illustrate the influence of climate on shaping the rise and economic prosperity of the Chola Kingdom from 850 to 1280 ce – a period approximately coinciding with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. An investigation of instrumental and proxy climatic data sets between 500 and 2010 ce indicates that the period between ~850 and ~1300 ce, a time of frequent El Niño-like conditions, was associated with a substantial increase in North-East Indian monsoon rainfall (NEIMR), whereas South-West Indian monsoon rainfall (SWIMR) suffered substantial deficits. The spatial pattern and chronology of water harvesting infrastructure development under Chola rule indicate that these features were concentrated in the NEIMR-receiving regions of southeastern India and that their construction peaked during El Niño-dominated intervals. Overall, enhanced NEIMR conditions and adaptation strategies practiced in the Chola’s territory, combined with less favorable climatic conditions over the neighboring kingdoms, appears to have underpinned the well-documented political and economic strengths of the Chola superpower. We infer that the water management infrastructure promoted by the Chola rulers helped to buffer the consequences of climatic extremes in later history, whether droughts (e.g. the El Niño-related mega-drought of 1876–1878) or floods (because the reservoirs can contain surplus runoff). More recently, however, a preference for groundwater irrigation and other landscape changes driven by population pressure has made the region more vulnerable to the incidence of heavy NEIMR episodes, as illustrated by the severe floods of 2015. Future climate adaptation planning in South India should appreciate the merits of restoring and expanding the currently decaying legacy of Chola-style ‘no regrets’ water management infrastructures.

show abstract

“…While it is helpful in retaining rainwater, it does not facilitate its percolation because of which adequate groundwater recharge does not take place. Ganesan (2008) in her study advocates the use of alluvial soil instead of clay lining but this suggestion has rarely been adopted by the state, as clay beds tend to fill the tank up faster with water.…”

Section: /07/2013mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobilising for water: hydro-politics of rainwater harvesting in Chennai

Arabindoo

2011

International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 2003-04, as the Indian city of Chennai faced an unprecedented water crisis, a debate ensued about finding longer-term sustainable solutions, ranging from expensive desalination plants to modest rainwater harvesting schemes. The latter was enforced by an authoritative state and promoted enthusiastically by environmentalists to raise awareness about the city's much destroyed hydrological ecosystem. In contrast to the state's interpretation reducing it to a compulsory hydraulic installation in individual buildings, environmental NGOs made a concerted effort to develop a more comprehensive intervention in the wider public domain. However, as a dizzying array of socio-political actors came together, concerns emerged about the ability of such a mobilisation to generate a uniform material understanding of rainwater harvesting as a common moral goal. Examining in detail one specific case study of a communityled effort-Puduvellam, this paper looks at how, as a grassroots organisation involved in the restoration of a prominent temple tank in southern Chennai, it rallied support amongst the local (mainly middle class) residents to create a new topology of ecological consciousness. Its success however was only partial and highlights the futility of romanticising rainwater harvesting as an indigenous alternative. More importantly and ironically, its ineffectiveness was enhanced by the crisis itself as it triggered a process of privatisation and commodification of water, with rainwater harvesting eventually being absorbed by the agenda of 'bourgeois environmentalism'.

show abstract

The temple tanks of Madras, India: rehabilitation of an ancient technique for multipurpose water storage

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

The socio-ecohydrology of rainwater harvesting in India: understanding water storage and release dynamics at tank and catchment scales

The socio-ecohydrology of rainwater harvesting in India: understanding water storage and release dynamics at tank and catchment scales

Societal response to monsoon variability in Medieval South India: Lessons from the past for adapting to climate change

Mobilising for water: hydro-politics of rainwater harvesting in Chennai

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About