The time has come to encourage biodiversity and environmental protection to reduce the impact of drinking water crisis and climate change, says Dilip Bidawat
The environmental imbalance is slowly pushing the earth into becoming a hot furnace. This year’s summer has created a new record in differnt cities. The capital itself has seen the hottest day in history when the mercury touched ..... on ..... And not just the country, even Europe is experiencing an unprecedented heat wave.
In such a situation, deserts are the worst affected. The delay of monsoon and the possibility of a less than normal one is adding fuel to the already burning fire. In any case, raindrops in Thar are considered to be more expensive than oil. It may be only a matter of time, that in the desert when people ask for drinking water, they will be offered ghee, which will easily available. It may be a mistake to believe that this time will also pass. Even today, people in desert see Indira Gandhi Canal water and feel a sense of pride but in the future there will be days when there will be money in pocket but no water.
Our ancestors developed a culture of saving even one droplet assuming it to be more precious than pearls and handed a precious treasure of traditional water sources to the next generation. But the government, politicians, land mafia, mine mafia and the water mafia in perpetuation of their selfish aims have been plundering these priceless treasures that were developed over thousands of years. On the other hand are organisations which are saving water by combining traditional techniques with new ones in Thar desert.
One such example has been presented by the Urmul Frontier Institute attached to the Urmul Trust, a non-profit organisation working in Bikaner district for the last several years. The campus of Kolhapur block, located in Bajju village in Kolayat tehsil of Bikaner, is the best example of water conservation. Every single drop of rain which falls on the rooftop of staff quarters, mess, hostel and office buildings in the campus of Urmul is saved in large reservoirs and used in organic farming and horticulture. With this system, about 400 fruit plants have been grown. In addition, a vermicompost unit too has been set up.
On the other hand, Rathi cows, an important milch breed of cattle, found in the arid regions of Rajasthan is being raised here. The milk is used in the campus mess and the cow dung is made into compost and used for the plants. Green fodder and Ajola grass for cows is also grown from the water conserved from the rain. Harbansh Singh, project in-charge of Urmul Frontier explains that an attempt was being made to develop such a model of mixed sustainable farming, which would motivate the local farmers to adopt this method where rain water is not wasted but used for farming and cattle rearing.
Secretary of the Urmul Trust, Arvind Ojha says, “Even though our campus of Bajju is near the canal we have never used canal water to green the campur. The idea of making this model was inspired by the water storage tradition of the desert.” He shares that after the Indira Gandhi Canal came to western Rajasthan, people started thinking that the water crisis was over. Leaving aside traditional crops, they started producing cash crops.
Through the canal, the government has provided more than enough irrigation to the system. During a canal tour undertaken by the Urmul Trust in 1991, the problem of waterlogging was also noticed. Urmul shared their experience with the government of Rajasthan to improve the irrigation system. Fountain irrigation was promoted by digging in the farmers’ fields but the government forgot to set up methods to save rain water. While getting water from the canal is good for the area but ignoring conventional water sources was what led to the problem. In urban areas, the drinking water crisis was more than in the areas where the community is still engaged in traditional water harvesting. It is necessary to present such examples to motivate the community.
This is the same area where people saved every drop of water. But after the canal was dug, everything changed. A model where the traditional coexists and is maintained is the way forward to reduce the impact of climate change and get over the drinking water crisis as well as the one in agriculture. Today the government lacks resources. There are a lot of traditional examples in the desert by which water is preserved. In different areas, communities and institutions have set up models from which learning the traditional and contemporary methods can solve the water problem in the deserts forever. There is a need to expand the work plan of MNREGA, Border Area Development Project, Finance Commission, Watershed, Agriculture Extension Department, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Nidhi Yojana and more. All of them need to extend such models in the field of agriculture and horticulture and establish their distinctive identity. The time has come to encourage biodiversity and environmental protection so as to reduce the impact of climate change. As they say every drop of water adds up to form an ocean.
—Charkha Features
