Incredible India - Reflections II

India's Bapu: Water


Reading PJ's comments on his Mongolia experience (previous post) reminded of the situation in India.
In one of the tours we made in Ahmedabad, we visited an ancient step-well that's 6 storeys below ground level. It was a magnificent, awe-inspiring well design...i could sense how sacred water means to the Indians of that time, and perhaps even more so now...for while rainwater used to be stored up to the brim, especially in monsoon seasons, i was told that it hardly even reaches to the 3rd level from below in our era. Hell, when we visited, the water was at the "B6" level...which rendered it unusable. The fact that India did not have a proper monsoon (rainfalls were scarce) in the last 4 years compounded the water shortage crisis.

Elevation & Plan sketch of Stepwell


Bottom of the 6-storey well

Reading a newspaper article a few days later that Ahmedabad is to build another 5-10 nos. of high class hotels (on top of existing 4) in anticipation of its growing tourist value distressed me further. Already, local ground water is being overpumped for hotel use across cities in india, so much so that the locals are granted access to water supply only TWICE a day - once each morning n evening - while tourists like us would have "endless" supply, to support our foreign daily routine: bathing twice a day, getting complimentary drinking water in our rooms, going for laundry service every other day...I was extremely disturbed...how would I feel if i don't have free access to resources in my own land, which foreigners get to enjoy unconditionally? Anger n resentment definitely; Instead, the locals always greeted us with warmth n welcome.

Respect for water runs deep in India's culture

The pristine backwaters of Allepey - people's water

I'm not blaming the tourists per se; part of India IS hot n dirty...expecting foreigners to adapt immediately to the local way of life is like training your horse to be a camel. Moreover, tourism does create revenue for many cities, n tourists are there to relax, not "suffer"...

Sigh, I don't even know who to point fingers to actually...the government? the tourist industry? the natural humanistic behaviour?? The only possible way out of this dilemma is to create awareness amongst the tourists of the value of water in India, and show respect for it.
Still, shouldnt the scenes that lay out before them the minute they step out of the hotel already do that? Yet, i find it quite incredulous how many people's minds can just "switch on or off", looking without seeing, making no effort to reflect upon their consumption behaviour...

Sinful Paradise

Banquet Tonight?

Curious children ran out to greet me at dawn, shivering with cold

In the oasis-like desert camp we stayed in Manvar, we even had modern bathroom facilities in EVERY tent, heated showers in the day. I had asked a staff where the water came from, in which he had assured me it came from a local well that villagers have free access to. When we visited the villagers the next day however, it's apparent they hadn't bathed for days...a child's finger wound was even caked in mud..

Back in the desert hotel, i could only gawk at the pristine swimming pool that's hardly used:

Swimming pool in Manvar Desert Hotel

To be continued...