Before I begin posting, I’d like to introduce myself.
My name is Arun, and I am a second year student from Ambedkar University Delhi, where I am doing my bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and Humanities. For the last two weeks I have been interning with Biome's water team, which studies Bengaluru's growing water problem and comes up with ecologically viable solutions at the household and community level. My task, as an aspiring social scientist, has been to visit some of the places in the city that have sustainable systems of water management - specifically, rainwater harvesting (RWH) and open wells -, interact with the owners, and provide estimates of how successful these setups are in the long run.
Since I study neither engineering nor architecture, my focus has not been so much on technical details. Instead, I've been looking at the issue as a sociological problem, with one basic question: can ecological awareness be built into the consciousness of a city as diverse as Bengaluru? In the past decade, rapid urbanization and commercialization in the metropolis have attracted a lot of attention from corporate entities, whose activities have completely changed the once-green garden city into an IT and business hub. The quiet, peaceful "pensioner's paradise" is dying, but can its values survive the onslaught of globalization? I don't have an answer yet, but after each site visit, I feel I've gained a new perspective on the situation.
In the upcoming posts, I will be narrating my experiences with the people I meet and the interesting things I see every time I go on field. I will try to do so in as much detail as possible, while at the same time bearing in mind the larger picture and the purpose of this research project. I hope that by engaging with and discussing the growing water movement, as well as by collecting data that can be used later, I am spreading some awareness about the severity of the issues and the desperate need to solve them.
- Arun Rams
My name is Arun, and I am a second year student from Ambedkar University Delhi, where I am doing my bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and Humanities. For the last two weeks I have been interning with Biome's water team, which studies Bengaluru's growing water problem and comes up with ecologically viable solutions at the household and community level. My task, as an aspiring social scientist, has been to visit some of the places in the city that have sustainable systems of water management - specifically, rainwater harvesting (RWH) and open wells -, interact with the owners, and provide estimates of how successful these setups are in the long run.
Since I study neither engineering nor architecture, my focus has not been so much on technical details. Instead, I've been looking at the issue as a sociological problem, with one basic question: can ecological awareness be built into the consciousness of a city as diverse as Bengaluru? In the past decade, rapid urbanization and commercialization in the metropolis have attracted a lot of attention from corporate entities, whose activities have completely changed the once-green garden city into an IT and business hub. The quiet, peaceful "pensioner's paradise" is dying, but can its values survive the onslaught of globalization? I don't have an answer yet, but after each site visit, I feel I've gained a new perspective on the situation.
In the upcoming posts, I will be narrating my experiences with the people I meet and the interesting things I see every time I go on field. I will try to do so in as much detail as possible, while at the same time bearing in mind the larger picture and the purpose of this research project. I hope that by engaging with and discussing the growing water movement, as well as by collecting data that can be used later, I am spreading some awareness about the severity of the issues and the desperate need to solve them.
- Arun Rams
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