BEL to Celebrate Environment Day by Creating Awareness Among Students on Water Resources

Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) plans to celebrate World Environment Day tomorrow (June 5, 2015) by involving over 3,500 school children in mapping water resources in the Doddabommasandra area, which is near the BEL factory in Jalahalli.

BEL is part of the CII Water Task Force 2015-16. One of the objectives of this task force is to create Water Sustainable Zones in and around Bengaluru City. One such zone identified is the BEL Water Sustainable Zone, which also covers the Doddabommasandra watershed region. There is an increasing demand for ground water which has resulted in a falling water table and some of the borewells have gone dry. As a first step, there is a need to measure the water table and water quality of this region.

To measure this, Friends of Lakes, a citizen group engaged in creating awareness about the conservation and revival of lakes in Bengaluru, has come up with the idea of mapping the aquifer by taking the help of school children. These children will gather information about the borewells and quality of water in the Doddabommasandra watershed region.

There are 42 schools in this region. Of this, 15 schools including the BEL Educational Institutions are participating in the programme to map the aquifer. Over 3,500 children in the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th standard will participate in this programme as a part of their curriculum. The programme started on June 2^nd and will continue throughout the month. The data gathered by the students will be analysed after mapping to determine the aquifer.

The school children are being provided with tips for water conservation at home and a questionnaire to collect the information related to aquifer mapping. The programme aims to create awareness among the children and their families about water conservation measures. The data gathered from this exercise will be used for assessing the water table and to plan future strategies to make BEL a water sustainable zone. This data will be shared with all the participating schools.

This programme is being highlighted by BEL at its Environment Day celebrations tomorrow (June 5, 2015) at the Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Kalakshetra at Jalahalli. With the aim of creating awareness on water conservation and revival of lakes, the celebration will include a skit on water conservation by Parikrama, a school supporting street children; a First Aid demonstration by Dr M V Sreenivasan, Chief of Medical Services, BEL; and distribution of mementos by Mr Manmohan Handa, Director (Bangalore Complex), BEL, to the Principals of the participating schools.