Over recent decades, rainwater harvesting has become a mantra for water authorities, non-governmental organisations and even householders in India. So when British-based oil group Cairn Energy located big oil reserves in Rajasthan, western India, in 2002, it seemed only natural that its commitment to assisting with health and education in host communities should embrace issues of water supply, says David Nisbet, its communications director.
Working with local people and NGOs, the company has helped build or restore 1,200 traditional water-gathering systems. The company’s assistance activities, taken over by Cairn India, which was floated this year but remains 69 per cent controlled by Cairn, are co-located with its mineral discoveries in the Thar Desert, where rainfall varies from 500mm a year to just 100mm. In the Barmer district, Cairn and its partners have concentrated on improving water supplies in villages where women and girls, typically, had to spend a large part of each day walking 10km or more to fetch water in temperatures reaching 50C.
