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https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260820-india-is-turning-to-ancient-water-systems-as-modern-ones-run-dry>
"In 2025, water from the Moosi Rani Sagar, a stepwell in the city of Alwar in
Rajasthan, India, spilled over the footpath for the first time in more than 30
years.
The stepwell, a large storage tank where water is accessed through flights of
steps, is part of a historic water-harvesting system built in the early 1800s.
Until 2021, water levels in the stepwell, which covers around 1.3 acres (0.5
hectares), were inconsistent and heavily contaminated. Today, though, it holds
water at depths of up to 30ft (9m). Vijay Sarswat, a 60-year-old Alwar
resident, says it rarely drops below 20ft (6m) even in the driest months of the
year.
The restored stepwell is a testament to the idea that some of the most useful
tools for managing water in a warming, increasingly erratic climate are
millennia old and half-buried in silt.
Across India, hundreds of communities are reaching the same conclusion. Once
viewed as cultural relics, long abandoned ways of managing water are now being
recognised as climate-resilient systems that functioned for over 1,000 years –
and are ready to be brought back into working use."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
