To support the Wetskills initiative, I visited last week the rapidly growing mega-city Ahmedabad, West India (7.2 million inhabitants) and visited the Adalaj Stepwall.
When the city was founded, the climate was arid as nowadays, so people decided to build water storages underground to collect rain water during seasonal monsoons. Dependent on which period, people had to climb more or less stairs to reach the water. In wet periods the whole building, all floors, were filled with water. My walk down was an Indiana Jones experience!
Besides a miracle of contruction, all walls and columns are decorated with beautiful ornaments. Art and Engineering, hand in hand.
A continued dry spell in the current monsoon season has driven Gujarat to the brink of drought, while the capital Ahmedabad grows yearly with 350.000 people.
People in Gujarat have to design new stairs to cope with their increasing water demand – same like they did in ancient times.