500-year stepwell: secrets of love and conserving water

In these days of global water stress and the urgent need to harvest water, a 15th century stepwell in Gujarat offers some tips on how to conserve the precious resource.

Built in 1498, the Adalaj Ni Vav stepwell in Adalaj village in Gandhinagar district, about 10 km from here, can, in fact, be a lesson in architecture for the modern times.

The five-storey stepwell, made of locally available sandstone, has various small gullies and channels all around so that no water is spilt when a bucket is carried up. Any spillover is either directed back to the well or towards a garden nearby. This ensures that the water is used and not wasted.

"It is designed in such a way that not a single drop is wasted while one takes water from it. There are two ways to take water from this well - go down with steps and get the water or pull it up with a rope pulley. Either way, the designer has ensured that water is not wasted," Bhailal, a local tour guide working in the area, told

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