The drop of Hope- Reviving water as cultural harness

The project studies the impact of scarce water resources of a semi-arid region in altering livelihood, dependency, and quality of life. Ahmedabad, one of the ten largest cities in India by population of 8.5 million, is highly water-stressed due to irregular rainfall patterns and groundwater overexploitation, and pollution. The primary reasons are a lack of water resource ownership, unmanaged industrial operations, and a disconnected water management system.

Ahmedabad lies in an alluvial bed, with a rich aquifer system that can hold vast quantities of groundwater. Traditionally, it has helped tide over larger cyclical droughts of the Indian monsoon system. However, climate change has made this pattern erratic, and recharge to this system is compromised due to large impervious urban surfaces as well as contamination from industrial wastewater. It has significantly transformed the dynamics of hydrological cycles and their quality.

The project proposes a systemic bottoms-up approach to achieve ‘individual realization of a larger phenomenon’ using village land and industrial water as a medium to balance the complexity. It introduces socio-ecological rituals as catalysts to resolve surface water and aquifer pollution; as well as socio-political disputes, cultural fragmentation, and social inequity. It formulates decentralized water management by the virtue of social agency. The project stabilizes ecosystem by enabling diverse communities to re-conceptualize interactions on land with the dynamics of water as a ‘shared resource’. The framework evolves with time to remediate, recharge, and re-value water that will stimulate stewardship towards surface water (seen) and groundwater (unseen).