Newsletter No. 60;
have towards the cause.
IRBMS
Joseph consulted with experts in the field and also
did
ii) Joseph, from Udupi, had dropped out from
his
own
research
regarding
rainwater
harvesting.
school after having completed class 10 to become a
bus driver. He continued with the profession for 10 iii) In Kerala, 700 People Worked 70 Days to
years when in 2010, he fell off a tree and was Revive a River Considered Dead for over a
bedridden for a year having damaged his spinal Decade. The operation, involved 700 labourers
cord. When he recovered, his employer, a private including men and women from Budhanoor
player in the industry, gave him a job as the bus panchayat, who were employed for the task under
driver for Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of the MGNREGA scheme.
Technology and Management in Udupi. It was here
that he found his passion for environmental causes Kuttemperoor River, after being subjected to years
and conservation while attending gram panchayat of severe pollution and illegal sand mining, had
meetings in his free time. Encouraged by the almost vanished into obscurity until last year,
panchayat when
development
officer,
he
began
an
initiative
vehemently
led
by
the
attending a number of training programmes and Budhanoor gram panc hayat in Alappuzha district
was even appointed the convener of the Church did the unimaginable!
Social Development Commission.
The river, which is a tributary for both Pamba and
While a convener, he came across an empty Achankovil rivers, was once known to be close to
borewell and quietly started working on a method 12km in length and almost 100m in width, and had
to revive it. Speaking to the Bangalore Mirror, he been the source of drinking water for the residents
explains his method saying, We dig a pit that is 10 of Budhanoor. Apart from providing irrigation for
feet deep and 10 feet wide around the abandoned acres of paddy fields, the river had also been a
borewell. To make it safe, it is then covered but route
only in a way that water can percolate through a 5 transporting their goods. Interestingly, the river
mm hole in the casing and a mesh is placed that has donned the savior role many times during the
acts as a filter. The rainwater that trickles down monsoons when Pamba and Achankovil rivers
brings up the water table. The method, that was overflowed, by taking in the excess water and thus
that
was
used
by
local
traders
for
officially inaugurated last year, was developed after
8
Integrated River Basin Management Society