How 20,000 Women Revived a Dead River in Tamil Nadu
Our story of Vellore in Tamil Nadu has three distinct but interconnected plotlines. The first is the story of a river: Naganadhi River, and its amazing journey of being full and ever-flowing, and then being dead and lifeless for 20 years to now again being back in its prime. The story of how 3500 recharge wells were built to revive Tamil Nadu’s pivotal Naganadhi River.
The Naganadhi River was the lifeline of Vellore district. Once gushing through the plains with full force, it was now dry for the last 20 years. The rainwater ran off the land, depriving her of the water that she once carried with full gusto. The condition of the groundwater was not any better. Farmers were suffering, villagers were migrating and people in some parts of the district did not even have water to drink. The Naganadhi River — the primary source of water for the region some decades ago — was dead.
OVBI started working in the area in 2014. A team was employed to mark the original trail of the river using satellite mapping and then an action plan was created based on the area’s geology, geomorphology and land cover, catchment area, and rainfall data. Our interventions involved building 3,500 recharge wells, several boulder checks (using pebbles to slow down rainwater flow), and plantings thousands of drought-resistant saplings along the river basin through which rainwater can be routed into shallow aquifers which enhance groundwater levels. As most of you know, a river flows above the surface only after the groundwater has been replenished. Therefore, reviving a river isn’t just about its flow, but getting enough water to seep into the ground. In other words, letting rainwater infiltrate the soil by slowing it down. It took four years of hard work to get Naganadhi to flow again in 2018. While the rest of Vellore still reels in water scarcity, the wells in areas of intervention have water at a 40 ft. depth. People in many villages there have sufficient water to drink and irrigate their paddy fields.
The second plotline of our Vellore story is about the people who worked on the project, most of them women, unheard of before in India. The story of how 20,000 women came together to build 3500 recharge wells to revive Tamil Nadu’s pivotal Naganadhi River.
The story of Vellore was all over the news in India specifically due to this plotline. All the big journals of India went to the field to get this story. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about it and congratulated the women. Everyone, for the first time, saw the potential of women for leading transformation, capable of physical labor that involved working long, hard hours on the field, and mobilizing masses.
Here’s the backstory behind this plotline exclusive to this project thus far. In the last decade, much of Vellore’s agricultural labor had migrated to the cities as water bodies had dried up, leaving nothing for irrigation. Those who left, were men seeking contract work, leaving the womenfolk behind with little to do. Most of the other men who stayed were addicted to alcohol and were unmotivated to work. Women were in despair at seeing the depleting levels of river Naganadhi and family life thrown into upheaval with economic insecurity with no steady income and children to feed. But, things began to change with their newfound purpose of reviving Naganadhi. Despair paving way to hope and achievement with rising levels of waters, income, and confidence.
The river restoration project had government approval so women were registered as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) workers, a scheme by the Indian government to facilitate rural employment. Under MNREGA, the women were able to earn an independent livelihood and support themselves and their families.
The story has changed the rural development strategies in India. Many NGOs who are working in rural India have do not work under the same assumptions anymore. Now, when a leader, who’s well informed, enters a village, enters with the plan of creating women leaders as much as leaders who are men. Our project in Jharkhand, Ranchi, is led by a woman leader, Karuna Malhotra, who’s focussing solely on creating women leaders in her region. We call them ‘Jal Sakhis’ or ‘Women Water Friends.
The third plotline of our story is of the person who led and inspired all these women: our Project leader Mr. Chandrasekhar Kuppan. The story of how Mr. Kuppan, a former electrician, united 20,000 women to build 3500 recharge wells to revive Tamil Nadu’s pivotal Naganadhi River.
His story starts in a school in Chennai where he worked as an electrician. Mr. Kuppan had stomach ulcers that had been nagging him for years. So intense was the pain of the ulcers that he’d call his doctor at midnight and shout at him. Life changed when he enrolled himself for The Art of Living program. For the first time, after the six-day The Art of Living course, he found relief.
Via the organization, he got to know about our river rejuvenation projects in Maharashtra and Karnataka. He saw our success stories and it enthralled him. He saw that the Rivers that were dry for decades were now flowing and farmers who once did not have water for irrigation were growing two crops. He decided to take his learnings from these areas and started working on the Naganadhi River Rejuvenation project.
However, his story about inspiring and uniting women, it all started with a chance observation. Mr. Kuppan was surveying the area and was looking for local people to join him. He saw the plight of the womenfolk and thought why not women. He suggested these women to join him on the rainwater harvesting programs to revive the local Naganadhi River. However, his suggestion was met with strange, unconvinced eyes, and not just by the women. There were others who doubted. There was a general impression among government officials that women may not be able to achieve this feat. Once, amused at their vision of reviving the Naganadhi with the help of women, the Project Director, a Government Official of the Rural Development Agency, simply said, “This is not possible. The women won’t be able to do this.” They had no idea that everyone’s belief was about to take a summersault in a few months’ time.
The first time the women were told to dig 20 feet deep, they just could not believe they could do it. But they did. So, when the women, engaged by the project dug the project’s first recharge well, amidst all this doubt, celebrations had to follow. After that, it became customary for everyone to celebrate after the digging of a recharge well. Chandrasekhar Kuppan and the women built 349 recharge wells and 200 boulder checks spread over 20 Gram Panchayats over the course of a year. Their work also included constructing huge cement rings and inserting them inside the well. The Project Director who mocked the vision was surprised and reassured. He became a good friend of Mr. Kuppan and supported him wholeheartedly now.
The year was 2016. The hard work of the 1,000 women who joined Mr. Kuppan from the start was paid off, when the groundwater levels rose. The same groundwater would later run into the Naganadhi. The news spread and soon Mr. Kuppan went all over Vellore. During that time, he traveled 100–200 miles daily to meet villagers, government officials, volunteers, technical experts, and so on. During his travels, he would urge the villagers to see the grim condition of water and communicate the urgency to act. Soon, there were 20,000 women working all over Vellore to revive Naganadhi.
Over the next three years, the women built 3,700 recharge wells and several boulder checks all over the district. Finally, Mr. Kuppan saw the results for what he had been working for: the flow of the beauty called Naganadhi!
Mr. Kuppan is now working in eight districts of Tamil Nadu with the help of 40,000 village folks. 99.9% of them are women. Recently, he was invited as a Chief Guest to address the school where he used to work as an electrician
