Introduction to Ooranis
Scarcity of drinking water is one of the most pressing issues of the developing world. None can question the fact that availability of clean and safe drinking water at the doorsteps of the common man is crucial to life. This is a daunting challenge today.
| Scarcity of drinking water On an average an Indian woman walks 3 - 4 hours daily in search of drinking water. School going children are adversely affected because they are forced to miss out their classes in search of water. On an average an Indian woman loses 45 mandays per year in search of drinking water. |  |
In southern India , every village had more than three water bodies that met the needs for drinking, farming and for cattle and birds. Some of these still work or can work if renovated. It is hardly surprising that these water bodies have been mentioned in every Indian epic. Somehow in the last 200 years the technological and scientific priorities overlooked this simple system and today we are in desperate need of reinventing what was once a way of life and is crucial to the survival of the common man in India.
What is an Oorani?
Oorani is a Tamil name for a dug-out pond that traps rain water run-off and stores it for future use. Oorani s are formed in rural areas where ground water is either inadequate or unfit for use. Square or rectangular, they are dug to depths of two to five meters below the ground level. The size depends on the storage needed to meet the demands of the village.
The earth excavated while forming the oorani is deposited as a bund around its perimeter, leaving a ridge of adequate width to prevent the excavated soil from sliding in and settling at the bottom. Many oorani s have another source of water - from a tank close by. This is in addition to the run-off from its own catchment area. The rain water collected in the oorani is not only the surface run-off but also the lateral sub-surface flow from the catchment area. The stored rainwater is used mainly for drinking and often for livestock. In a village there could exist one or more oorani s, depending on the local needs.
Almost all the drinking water oorani s are hydrologically connected to near-by irrigation tanks or supply channels. Even during acute scarcity villagers fill the oorani by pumping irrigation water from the tanks. Studies show that this is done whenever the rainfall is below normal.
Ooranis are the most preferred source of water
Oorani s will continue to be the primary and preferred source of drinking and domestic water needs in rural areas. Although the professional and government agencies have not accepted oorani s as a safe source with reference to the general health standard, people consider them the best available. Domestic water supply from rehabilitated ooranis outscores the other sources in taste, access, adequacy, availability, and convenience.
Some of the important advantages claimed for oorani water after rehabilitation are
- Good taste and color of food
- Availability of water throughout the year
- Time saved in fetching water
- Trekking long distances is unnecessary
- No payment for water is needed
The maximum benefit from using oorani water goes to women who usually fetch water for domestic needs. Oorani rehabilitation of provides water within the hamlet and people have no need to stand in long queues or walk long distances or expect school children to fetch water at noon and late at night. So it reduces the drudgery of women and children. Fetching water from the oorani is less arduous and DHAN has observed groups of women taking water and then chatting with one another. In other words, the level of social interaction has been observed to increase, thanks to the oorani.
Oorani s are common in Tamil Nadu especially in Ramanathapuram district that has no river to supply drinking water. Deep bore wells do not suffice because the ground water is saline. Traditionally, the village assemblies built the oorani s. The local community also maintained these structures. Most villages had oorani s and many of these still work. The people of Ramanathapuram understood well that they had to conserve water, so they created oorani s that could sustain them. They began doing this more than 2000 years ago and communities have thrived since.
Donating land for ponds or assisting in digging a pond was considered virtuous. Traditionally oorani water has been open to all. People never prevented other villagers from taking the water at times of crisis. Normally each village had two ponds, the one for human use and the other for animals. The number of ponds burgeoned with increasing population. After piped water supply took over, village traditions were hit and traditional maintenance of oorani s, particularly the regular deepening, was affected.
How is an oorani now?
Oorani s are in disrepair today. Their storage capacity has been reduced by siltation and blockage of inlet structures. Since oorani s have been neglected for years, they have been encroached upon as well.
Reclaiming an oorani can revive (and has in fact revived) its storage potential, guarantee a source of safe drinking water at a low investment and with no environmental damage. Unlike other sources such as overhead tanks, desalination plants and hand pumps there is no maintenance and management cost involved. Water distribution from a restored oorani can be managed easily by the local people.
Why revive these structures?
The traditional water storage and harvesting structures have waned in importance because they were neglected by the State. The drinking water systems are centralized but they fail in far-away villages.In some villages, water is tapped from riverbeds while in others, desalinated sea or ground water is provided.
Often inadequate understanding of the traditional system has hastened the rot. Traditional water harvesting structures are culture-specific responses to ecological prerogatives. Not only have they stood the test time but also satisfied certain local needs in an environmentally friendly manner. These systems emphasised ecological conservation in contrast to overextraction common to myopic modern systems. Traditional systems have benefited from the collective human experience and local management since time immemorial and in that lies their strength. These traditional systems are ideally suited for semi-arid tracts of India .
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