Biome Environmental Trust in partnership with ACWADAM, and support from Wipro implemented an exploratory “Participatory Aquifer Mapping” program in Bengaluru.  The area of focus covered 8 micro-watersheds in southeast Bengaluru, where the city utility’s water supply had not yet reached.  The objective of the program was to drive an exploratory process by which the city could understand local aquifers / sub-aquifers based not only on hydrogeological expertise, but also on people’s lived experiences and narratives of engaging with the aquifers through their wells and borewells.  It aimed to synthesize these narratives along with formally collected data to evolve actionable knowledge that people have both contributed to and could use.  It aimed, therefore, to catalyse social responses to groundwater problems, that are reasonably informed by science and are shaped by values of ‘public good’ and responsibility towards common property. As a result of the exercise we learnt that aquifer characteristics can vary greatly within very small boundaries, that yielding open wells (shallow aquifer) may coexist with drying borewells (deep aquifer), and that people are willing to invest their private monies in tools such as recharge wells, the benefits of which are not limited to the investor but shared more widely.  

Biome organised a workshop to share the learnings from this project with all the stakeholders and also put out a detailed technical paper on it.