We struck water at 20′ and went on to drill down to 200′. There’s a 6.5″ bore well at pointReturn now. So, the hiatus has been broken and there’s some action at last. One line of decisions can be taken: the windmill is now on order.

One of the chosen challenges at pointReturn is to restore the land, making do with what water is available. This is to be a statement against the practice of considering as useless, all land that is not flat, level ground fed by a perennial fat well and pump running on free electricity. Water management as a farmer’s skill is being given up everywhere.

When you approach restoration work with a limited water reserve, a new thinking begins to dawn and leads to a creative, pleasing adventure. The first step, is to know that every drop of sweet water on earth is from rain. Either you save it or mine it from nature’s stores or tap it from rivers, which are in fact discharges from overflowing stores. Within the parameters of known rainfall, all lands in a local geography are equally endowed with rain water fall. [Of course some parcels are luckier than others- because of how and where they lie- in terms of natural flow and storages]. The design goal should be to engineer economic means of water harvest, storage and sustainable use of water. It is unwise to envy or emulate a neighbour with a bountiful well nor give up on your land as hopeless.

pointReturn is probably the worst parcel of land in Jamin Endathur. I plan to use underground water as initial capital. And then over a period of time, the sloping ground will be shaped, so that it impedes rainwater run-off. Water capital would then begin to grow under the ground. If this is combined with sensible practices like appropriate tree and crop selection, correct time of planting and treating biomass as resource, the land will smile again.

Sustainability is not a word that can ever be over-used in any aspect of life. To treat resources as a responsible man would treat money, is the right way to go. Life is possible at all levels of capital. For each location, there is a specific solution to be put together from a basket of choices. With that, we may enter the dug well vs. borewell debate.

The argument in favour of a dug-well is that it doesn’t exploit deep aquifers and that it encourages rain water recharge. Borewells on the other hand have come to stand, with much justification, for greed for water. But if you do not over-pump the aquifer then the issue of over-exploitation goes away. If additionally, you have a plan to recharge the borewell [-as I do], the case is handsomely won by the borewell.

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