One of the organizations that we met in Chennai was the CP Ramaswamy Foundation (CPR). CPR helped the Wooster community manage the allocation of funds to rebuild Wooster Nagar. CPR is still actively involved in Woo Nagar, helping Wooster’s Rotary club build a water tower, installing rainwater catchment systems and also encouraging market or home gardening programs for women. They are also very supportive of Wooster visitors and were the ones that took us to Wooster Nagar. While CPR is involved with many different types of projects, such as cultural conservation, the promotion of the arts, environmental research and education, and has its own school, in this post I will focus on their environmental center and projects because it has relevance to current news.
Waiting for the monsoon? A Rajasthani farmer during a drought. (Source: Water enyclopedia.com)
“Nearly half of all food grains in India are grown under rain-fed conditions, and hundreds of millions of poor rural people depend on rain-fed agriculture as the primary source of their livelihoods.” Because of the weak monsoon, India expects a food deficit this year. India has grown from its food crisis days in the 1960s. Most of the advances in agricultural productivity in the past three decades in India has occurred as a result of irrigation. Little of this irrigation however has penetrated the lives of very poor farmers or tribal dalits, and little of this irrigation uses rainwater catchment a simple technology that arguably can do much to provide decentralized irrigation solutions.
CPR has installed many rainwater catchment systems in Wooster Nagar and tribal areas to help with small scale farming. They have also targeted urban areas. Installing in urban areas is smart because it decreases the demand for groundwater leaving more for rural agriculture. Developing long-term sustainable rainfall water catchment systems can go a long way to satisfying the increasing demand for water in India with minimal environmental impact.
CPR’s environmental goals are to increase awareness about the environment and the major environmental problems facing India. The problems are many and are evident for all to see. For example, on our ride to Wooster Nagar we saw examples of waste mismanagement and wetland/habitat damage, examples of saline water seeping into the water table — which is why Wooster Nagar water has to be piped in from 2km away! (Our Chennai pictures chronicle some of this). The center has conducted a variety of programs to spread awareness and interest among teachers, NGOs, women and youth, on all aspects of the environment and ecology, with the purpose of promoting conservation of nature and natural resources. Their environmental education curriculum is noteworthy with textbooks and teacher training programs.
In my opinion CPR is a non-profit that fundamentally understands SE. Revenue for its projects comes from multiple sources, such as fees, lease arrangements, and for-profit enterprises that are located on its bequeathed landholdings. Its troubling news to hear that India may have trouble feeding itself this year. I am happy that CPR has been so successful in providing effective environmental solutions to address some of these problems. We have a capable partner in for Wooster Nagar.
