ABSTRACT
The windward side of the foothills of the Western Ghats of India contain a large number of traditional water harvesting techniques similar to those found in other parts of India, such as the Deccan Plateau and the Eastern Ghats, that are reliant on both surface and groundwaters. Many, but not all, of these techniques are ancient and long lived, and there is a close relationship between traditional surface water harvesting techniques and the recharge of groundwaters in the region dominated as it is by lateritic soils and geology that influence the hydrogeological regimes of the region. All of the traditional water harvesting systems described in this chapter are dependent on the timing and onset of the southwest monsoon for their water supplies in a region where groundwaters are becoming critically scarce because of over abstraction from tubewells and borewells that have expanded rapidly in use since the Green Revolution in India (Balakrishnan and Saritha 2007). This chapter will show that irrigation communities must be adaptable and employ mitigating strategies that reduce vulnerability in order to be resilient to changes in climate and weather patterns over time. It will show that in part environmental conditions provide the rationale for the creation of a relatively new and unique small-scale gallery filtration tunnel system known as suranga that draws on groundwater for both drinking water and irrigation. The chapter will describe the design principles and hydrogeological regimes that support suranga and conclude with a section on the modern pressures to the continued use of suranga and the potential opportunities for the transfer of the technology.
