Hand In Hand India
- Location : Kancheepuram, India
- Community Served: General public
- Focus: Environment
Organization background
Hand in Hand India (HiH India) is a not-for-profit, public charitable trust which works
to alleviate poverty through a unique Integrated community development approach. The organization's
initial focus was on the elimination of child labor through education, but their
activities have since expanded to address the multidimensional factors that foster poverty.
Their Five Pillar Programme aligned to UN Millennium Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs),
addresses key areas of Health, Child Labour Elimination (Education), Women Empowerment,
Microfinance & SHG, Environment and Skill Development.
As part of the Environment and Skill Development programs, they have a Natural Resource
Management program.
This program combines climate action and water conservation initiatives with
livelihood opportunities, ensuring sustainability.
Project Description
Rapid urbanization, water scarcity, climate change, and population growth are global driving forces
that have significantly impacted the provision of safe water supply and sanitation in frontline cities,
including Chennai, India. Negligence in developing and managing water infrastructures and
governance, coupled with the worsening effects of climate change, has resulted in severe water stress
conditions in Chennai. The city's flat topography and three rivers (Cooum, Adyar, and Kosasthalaiyar)
along with the Buckingham canal face numerous challenges such as encroachments, pollution from
industrial and residential sources, and the dumping of garbage.
The connecting waterways, particularly the channels linking these water bodies,
are often blocked and diverted, leading to water stagnation and flooding.
As a result, Chennai experiences
acute water shortages during summer and flood impacts in monsoon seasons, leading to the loss of
assets and livelihoods.
The goal of this project is to enhance water resilience and promote sustainable urban development in Chennai, India,
by addressing the water challenges caused by rapid urbanization, water scarcity, climate change, and population growth.
Urban Lakes are an important feature in the landscape. They are vital in hydrological severe conditions like
drought and floods; they influence the micro-climate.
The stored water is used for consumptive purpose
as well as non-consumptive use like irrigation, fishing, ecotourism, etc. These are also sites of artistic,
religious and spiritual pursuits.
As they are an essential part of the whole ecosystem,
restoring, conserving, managing and maintaining the lakes is of utmost importance.
Steps for eco-restoring an urban lake are as follows
- First, water body cleaning measures like cleaning debris, solid waste dumps, de-weeding, scrub jungles,
aeration, removal of floating elements and other invasive aquatic plant-species.
- Second, desilting, deepening and strengthening the bund of water bodies, in order to enhance their water carrying capacity.
- Third, clearing the linking channel to other down stream water bodies to facilitate draining of excess water during
monsoons, thus preventing flooding.
Part of this step is to ensure that the inlet and outlet of the water bodies are clear of debris, vegetation and encroachment.
- Fourth, construct groundwater recharge or injection wells/structures if needed. These are
subsurface groundwater recharge techniques used to directly discharge water into deep water-bearing zones,
compensating for declining groundwater levels due to excessive withdrawals from acquifers.
- Fifth, establish plantations for biodiversity conservation, that also help in soil and water conservation
and carbon sequestration.
- Finally, conducting a public awareness campaign to motivate the local populace to maintain the water body,
once it has been restored.
GKF contributions to HIHI
- 2023: Funding for the eco-restoration of Tondiarpet lake in the Chennai neighbourhood.
- 2024: Funding for the eco-restoration of Sathankadu lake in the Chennai neighbourhood.