journal d'une transition

1138

infiltrated during the monsoon season if, for example, the side reservoirs are found insufficient. There is no saying, however, the effects such an unnatural event – an enormous amount of water being directed in one spot of the underground at a time when the entire area is water-logged – would have on the configuration and behaviour of the sub-layers and of the aquifer, as no study has been made. - Assumption No 4: The proposal assumes that there is going to be no question raised as to the water rights. Yet not all the gullies and canyons run towards the sea: a number of them run inland and have for generations served to fill the village shallow tanks. The proposal nonetheless assumes that Auroville is in a position to catch and collect all the run-offs near the heads of all the gullies that are situated on its territory, thereby depriving the neighbouring villages of an important source of water. The proposal claims the villagers can be made to appreciate that the entire water-table will be replenished for everyone’s good, contradicting one of its own assumptions that the aquifer flows seaward and away from them. Technically, this proposal also assumes that: a) All the existing wells that reach deeper than the higher aquifer can and will be sealed. b) All the side reservoirs can be built and sealed simultaneously and equipped with appropriate pumping systems connecting them to the main reservoir uphill. c) The main reservoir, a ring-shaped lake more than 100 metres wide and 10 metres deep, with an outer circumference of 1,800 metres, can be sealed with pre-moulded plates of clay (to be imported) in one go, and immediately filled up (how?), since the clay plates must be kept wet if they are to remain waterproof. But we have discussed with the author of the proposal, H.K, the appropriateness of locating this main reservoir all around the Inner Gardens of the Matrimandir and thus preventing the full manifestation of the Park around them and destroying its existing parts. Our objection in this regard is simply that it does not reflect the Mother’s stated and recorded wishes, made most explicit in Her own sketch dated 1965, which shows: a vast area of large trees, as a transition from the city to its centre; a circular lake; an oval area enclosing the Matrimandir and its inner gardens. The proposal thus ignores and dismisses the fact of all the work done during the last 30 years, which was based on that understanding and vision: a Park or Outer Gardens as an isolating zone, leading to a circular body of water that marks the passage into the inner area of the silent inner gardens around the Matrimandir. We are not broaching here the topics of other, social and financial, assumptions. There are other assumptions implied, in essential terms as well as in technical terms. Essentially, for instance, this proposal assumes that there is simply no other way to ensure Auroville’s existence: no other option is deemed worthy of study.

Another area of concern was also discussed with H.K, that of the status and feasibility of desalination plants.