Ground Water

The groundwater team permanently monitors the water levels and quality parameters over a 120 sq. km area, covering the Auroville plateau and the bioregion.

The corpus of hydrological data is incremented by an automatic meteo station, and compiled in a database that includes all informations of the other teams (social workers, engineers, agriculturists…). The data & mapping section uses softwares such as Surfer, Modflow (hydrology), MapInfo (GIS) and Vertical Mapper (3D maps).

3D view of the Irumbai tank waterspread area
The data & mapping section provides up-to-date instruments for watershed management.

The Groundwater Team has run the following projects

Industrial wastewater management, Anglo-French Textiles:

A Pre-feasibility study on wastewater management and sludge disposal for Anglo-French Textiles was conducted in collaboration with Cynergy (Centre for Scientific Research). The solutions advocated tertiary treatment for the reuse of wastewater and power generation by sludge incineration in a gasifier.

Salinity threat assessment, E.I.D Parry (I) Ltd:

A preliminary study was carried out for the E.I.D Parry sugar mill at Nellikuppam to assess the upcoming salinity threat to the cane growing areas.

The study covered an area of 491.4 sq.km for the quantification of groundwater extraction and water quality parameters.

People’s participation in hydrological research, Tamil Nadu Council for Science & Technology

On grant by the Tamil Nadu Council for Science & Technology, Harvest has developed a participatory methodology in hydrogeological Extension. The outputs of the project are the involvement of village youths in hydrological surveys, and the creation of a network of rain monitoring stations in the villages.

Auroville Water Survey

To assess the way Aurovilians manage water, 50% of the communities have been surveyed. It appears that the level of environmental awareness is extremely variable, as well as the ways water is handled. The data acquired is being analysed to devise the adequate actions, in terms of awareness, information packs, training, further studies, etc.