How much of the earth consists of water? A chorus of 70, 73, 75 percent follows. He tries again. Give me an exact figure.
This time, albeit a few mumbles and shuffles among the students, a number is agreed upon 70 percent. And land is 30 percent.
Exactly! beams Darryl. How blissfully unaware these young children are, that this minute revelation will be the explanatory basis of several other theories to follow. Darryl refers to it as the 70: 30 principle.
The human body comprises of 70 percent water, 30 percent mass.
An average human generates 1.2 Kgs of waste, of which 30 percent is organic.
There are 15 players in a football or cricket team, but 70 percent are on field while 30 percent warm the benches.
So you see the principle works in a variety of areas. It may not always be this accurate. May be 29 here and 72 there, but it is foundation, clarifies Darryl Pereira, Managing Director of Reira Eco Ventures, while also adding that water being such a necessity, whether in terms of consumption (minimum two liters a day) or other forms of usage, ought to be conserved. In Goa we barely receive rain for about 30 percent of the year, and only 3 meters of rainfall annually. See how necessary it is to conserve that water to tide us over the remaining months?
In a classic case of setting an example for all to follow, Darryl constructed a tank of no more than 3 meters deep, wherein the rainwater from the previous monsoons was allowed to collect. Using agricultural HDPE pipes, the harvested water was then piped to whichever field that required irrigation.
The arithmetic involved is a staggering eye-opener.
A 1000 sq. meters pond yielded 2.8 million liters (560 truck tankers) of water. The capital cost was about Rs. 2,00,000. The life span of the plastic, (UV resistant), is estimated to be five years, thereby the average costing equals 40,000/- per year.
At this rate, the water cost us Rs. 14/- per 100 liters of water.
Considering that a tanker of water is sold at Rs 100/- per thousand liters. This whole process thus got us a saving of Rs. 2800 x Rs. 86 = Rs 2,40,800/. A very profitable outcome indeed.
A friend of Mother Nature, before being its business associate, Darryl has ever since he can remember, made it a point to be involved in several societies and organizations dealing with botany and wildlife. Perhaps it was something to do with the green thumb inherited from his mother.
But later, as plastic campaigns got stronger and the need for eco friendly folks increased, this Saligao based individual got down to landscaping projects and then budged to agriculture. I realized when I was cultivating rice in my fields, that the yield was hardly any good. So I get several people like Prabhu Dessai to speak to me about the treatment of organic waste, and set about studying and more importantly, understanding the whole process.
Once I got to know of solutions such as EM and earthworms to generate Vermicompost, I began to use all of this, to help convert household waste into effective organic manure.
There was not a whiff of stink at the Vermicompost pits.
On the contrary, the children were having a gala time, standing around and fiddling the worms. The boys, of course, using it to the best of their advantage to annoy the girls.
But it was in all probability the most startling fact, was that Darryl had managed to involve 40 other neighbouring houses' waste, to generate 12,000 Kg (valued at Rs. 10/ Kg in the market) of Vermicompost annually. It was difficult initially, to convince them, no doubt about that. But as always, actions speak louder than words. When the neighbouring farmers began to fathom, that myself, an engineer and real estate developer could speak that language of farming, by obvious increase in my yields, they had no choice but to finally believe in me.
Currently processing close to 45 tonnes of garbage, Darryl strongly feels it is not enough if only adults are involved with such causes, but the younger generation should be kept equally informed. That would explain, him taking time out to conduct workshops and interactive sessions for students from various schools namely, Lourdes Convent, Saligao, King's School, Navelim, Red Rosary, Miramar, GMC, Communicare and others.
The children are undoubtedly fascinated.
A huge ancestral plot and the area has been reused immensely successfully.
There are open Bisleri bottles buried in the ground to allow deeper penetration of water, tiny saplings covered in reused milk packets, funnels and copper bowls making beautiful decorative items but most importantly, onion, rice, corn, ladyfingers, tomatoes etc are thriving and abundant.
The organic waste generated from eating all this will amount to how much percentage of mass and water? he tests.
70 percent of water, 30 percent of mass, they holler back collectively.
|