Capital flow

摘要

Thanks to the annual monsoon, India receives large quantities of rain. But capturing and storing it so the water can last through the year is a major challenge - and one that's becoming more urgent given the increasing volatility of rainfall patterns. As Unilever's Meeta Singh puts it: "Water security is one of the biggest challenges facing India. Without water security, you have no food security, and that means no livelihood security." It's a point reinforced by the International Finance Corporation's Raj Ganguly: "When we export rice, we export water. Five hundred litres of it for every 50g of rice." Part of the solution involves less thirsty growing methods, such as those being developed by PepsiCo [see p4]. But more broadly, it also means reviving a tradition of communal water conservation which is in danger of being neglected. Historically, many rural communities maintained communal water tanks, formed of earth banks with impermeable clay linings, to help capture and store rainwater.