Beside planting and nurturing trees, another major project in Sadhana Forest is water conservation. Because Sadhana Forest lies on a watershed of red earth and clay, in which ravines and canyons are easily formed by heavy monsoon rains, a major problem on the land is water-flow control and conservation.

Our aim is to achieve, as close as we can, zero water “run-off”. We are working towards this by building checkdams (8 built so far), bunding (over many kilometers so far), re-contouring, and directing of any remaining run-off to areas of forest where absorbency is high. Wherever a natural or “created” hollow exists in the area it is being dammed off to act as a holding pond or lake, while the water percolates into the soil.

One of our most outstanding achievements has been the dramatic raising of the local water table, at a time when water levels are falling throughout the Auroville area. Our system of trenches and earth dams store over 15,000 cubic meters of rainwater.

As a result of all this work the underground water level (the water table) has risen by 6m (20 feet), from an average of 8m (26 feet) deep during 2003, before Sadhana Forest was started, to an average of 1.8m(6 feet)in 2008; this after five years of intensive water conservation work.

Conseqently, water in local open and bore wells is much more accessible to people, a great benefit for all the local population.

As part of our sustainable way of living, we practice various things to minimize our water wastage and maximize our awareness of the water we do use. In our kitchen we have a hand pump rather than a tap with running water. This very greatly reduces wastage and makes us more aware of the water we have to arduously pump to use. We wash our hands with water that flows from a pot with a hole near its base, that we top up with a cup. This is something that can be done anywhere and tremendously reduces the amount of water wasted.