Harvesting rain: How one Kerala district is solving its water problem

In Thrissur, 450,000 wells served the three-fourths of its three million population who were dependent on well water, which averages to four people per well

Jawab Valiyadath folded his blue lungi (sarong) around his waist and rolled up his sleeve as he reached to open a plastic tap near the sheet-metal fence that surrounds his house. The plastic pipe that stretched from his terrace to the fence rumbled. “It has been a tough year. Around here, wells dried up or water turned yellow and saline due to scanty rainfall,” Valiyadath recalled. “Recharging my well during the rains helped save water for our daily needs,” he said as water gushed out onto the dry sandy soil.

A construction worker,