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Walking through the streets of Chennai you can hardly make out any white people. However, when I started to search for Germans living and working in Chennai I was really surprised that I am not at all the only stranger in this pulsating city, but that there are in fact many of us.

One amongst these is Dirk Walther, a German. The geologist decided to come and work in India after having taken part in the postgraduate study programme 'Water Resources Management in Tropical and Subtropical Regions' at a technical college of higher education in Suderburg, which is in the north of Germany.

Not only his college's specialisation in the difficulties of water resources in foreign countries but also its close cooperation with the Centre of Environmental Studies (CES) at Anna University in Chennai decided his course of action. Since 2003 Walther has been employed at CES and he is now involved in three environmental projects in Tamil Nadu.

One of these is the 'Renovation of Traditional Village Ponds' - the so-called ooranis - in Edaiyur (close to Thirukkazhukundram).

"Although the water-supply system of Tamil Nadu's villages is one of the best throughout India, there still is one serious problem: Because of the population growth as well as of the increasing irrigation, the groundwater level, which all modern water-supply systems are based on, constantly goes down," said Walther.

"Thus, we had to find another water source to guarantee water-supply in the villages."

"We" includes not only employees of CES, who are especially responsible for the technical know-how, the Indian Rural Development Department has made available the funds and enables important contacts with the local authorities, while the DHAN-Foundation (a non-governmental organisation) contributes to the success of the project by bringing in its experiences in dealing with the local people.

Initially, the villagers were rather skeptical about the idea of building a new, modern oorani in their village as this not only meant some of them would lose their houses (those which would have been too close to the new oorani) but also that they would have to help in building the oorani, of course without being paid for it.

Finally, after Walther had patiently explained the usefulness of the oorani (which looks like a small lake with several filter systems and a closed well) the villagers agreed.

"The advantage of the ooranis, which have supplied most villages with water since the 12th century until the modern supply systems were installed, is that they obtain their water not from the ground but from the rainfall. And even in dry years, with a weak Monsoon, there will be enough water to supply the whole village!"

However, the engineers of the 12th century had made the mistake to build a very huge but shallow oorani. As a consequence, the hot sun made the water evaporate very fast during any dry period. Furthermore, the people did not keep their oorani water clean by using it for drinking purposes and also for doing their laundry and letting their cattle wade in it.

Thus, the new oorani was made as deep as possible, several filter-systems were installed and a fence will be build to keep away the animals. In addition, Walther wants to establish a water-protection-zone. In this zone, farmers would not be allowed to use pesticides, nor could there be any graveyards, for example. "In Germany, this is a common thing. But, in India, it is not yet very well-known and it will take some time to convince the Indian government as well as the affected landowners."

However, the return to the traditional water-supply systems is not the only extraordinary aspect of the project: "The fact that the Rural Development Department is in charge of our project shows that the problem of water-supply should not only be of nationwide interest. As it affects every single village, the local authorities should be responsible for it as well and should try to find appropriate solutions for their regions."

The almost completed oorani project in Edaiyur is supposed to be only the first step of the project. If everything goes smoothly, the pilot scheme will be extended to about 6,000 villages throughout Tamil Nadu.

But what about the German contribution to the so-called 'Indo-German Project'? Is it only personified in Dirk Walther? "No!" he answers with honest humility. "It may be true that I am the only German who really takes part in this project. But this would not have been possible without the education and thus the knowledge I had the chance to gain in Germany. I was given the necessary tools and now I am trying my best to use them to help. The success of our project proves that Germany does not always have to spend large amounts of money to help solve the problems in other parts of the world. Our very modern knowledge in some fields often is worth more than what most of the German people can even imagine."

Ania Zymelka

(Ania, born in Poland, now lives in north Germany with her family. She has just completed her schooling and is waiting to go to university. In the meantime, she decided she would also visit a country and learn about it. She will be exploring the economic, political, cultural, social and other links that Chennai has with Germany during her three-month stint in Chennaionline. Ed)