WATER ROAD PROJECT

We have taken water from places where it shouldn't have been, we will have to bring water from where we can't!

The barren lands cannot be vegetated due to unavailability of water. Water needs to be transported to these barren lands from the sea and oceans. This humongous tuff project is Water Road Project.

As described in the Plantathon project, the north Karnataka regions receive scarce rainfall among the rest of the 3 major regions. This is also the region which is low lying. Majority of the rivers are East flowing rivers which originates from the Western Ghats and most of these rivers lie to the southern regions of Karnataka. Hence, the northern parts neither have rivers nor receive rainfall. Most of the rainwater harvesting artificial ponds, created with the help of Govt schemes dries up soon after the rainy season gets over. When all these parameters were taken into consideration, the idea of bringing water from the Sea sounded to be the most obvious way. It wasn't practical, but then it was the only source left from where the water could be sourced. The rain, the rivers and the underground water table, everything had reached its limit.

Since the region close to the coastal stretch is densely covered by western ghat forests it’s difficult to build a separate water line all the way from the desalination plant from the coast to the nearby city, say Hubbali. It would need forest clearances, huge capital to build that infrastructure and a decent amount of time. In contrast, what we have is a Railway line that runs from Gokarna to Hubli, and the stretch is 155km odd.

The plan is to take necessary permissions from the concerned departments and lay a pipe, half meter in dia, along the Railway Line from Gokarna to somewhere just before Hubbli Stn. The desalination plant would be set-up in Gokarna starting with a medium capacity of 500MLD. This way water is ensured for all round the year to one of driest cities of North Karnataka. This water will be prioritized for watering purpose alone and there will branches that would come out of Hubli to other major places like Gadag, Bagalkot, Bidar etc. Water from this place would be taken to the plantation sites either through existing pipelines or water tankers.

Along with this, there will other projects aligned.

• Surveying the Rajakaluvas and underground water canals.

• Building artificial water harvesting ponds and watersheds.

• Building Deep Continuous Contour Stretches.

• Testing and bringing old wells and bore wells to life.

• Lake Rejuvenation project

Water Road Project will demonstrate the way to make a dry land turn green, invite the rains and make the water table rich again.