KJ Antoji, a resident of the coastal village of Chellanam, Kochi in Kerala, was working as a wire technician in 1988. In the ‘place where no one goes’, the unreliability of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) concerned Antoji. He had already spent a considerable amount of time to devise a technique to reduce his dependence on the municipal water supply.
Yet to no avail.
One fine day, while watering his garden, Antoji was lost in thoughts about securing the water supply at his home when the hose in his hand slipped. The water pressure was at full throttle, and the hose was quite heavy. And as soon as it hit the ground, the high water pressure drilled a 30 cm hole in the garden floor where the water started pooling.
This accident was Antoji’s eureka moment.
He conceptualised a water harvesting system that could store fresh rainwater several metres below sea level for future use.
This Rainwater Syringe Technique, eventually, would not only go on to help several resorts, hundreds of farmers and independent houses harvest and conserve water, but also garner the irk of the local government and draw students from IISC, Bengaluru to study the system.
“The accidental water syringe that I had created that day, some thirty years ago, wasn’t deep. It was just a few centimetres in the surface, but I started experimenting so that it could help me store water in the ground and ensure that it doesn’t become saline,” the 67-year-old tells The Better India (TBI).
In coastal cities like Kochi, the penetration of saline water into groundwater has been a cause for worry for the citizens and farmers alike. Around four years ago, in 2015, the chloride concentration in groundwater, in several parts of Kochi, had gone up to 1,000 mg per litre due to saline water seepage. The permissible limit of chloride in water that makes it potable is 250 mg/l.
With the level of groundwater steadily depleting, the high concentration of salinity was making it unfit to drink. This spelt doom for a State whose economy depends on agriculture and fisheries. Both the issues were adversely affecting poor farmers who could neither rely on wells for their year-round supply nor afford to purchase water needed for the fields.
The abundant rainfall that is characteristic of God’s Own Country was flowing back into the rivers and eventually in the seas without getting utilised by those who needed it the most.
Antoji’s innovation thus showed immense promise.
“Potable fresh water obtained by the rains, if stored well below the sea levels, can be used throughout the year. The Rainwater Syringe System that I developed uses the pressure of the temporarily collected water to seep into the storage tank about 6 metres below the land surface. No machine is required to let it seep into the ground. A motor pump is used only to procure this water,” the innovator explains.