People across Chhattisgarh’s urban and rural landscape are now taking keen interest in water conservation initiatives while taking up projects in joint association with Government officials to deal with the effects of climate change.
The State Government had already made it mandatory to install rainwater harvesting system in all Government buildings as a first step towards its water conservation initiatives.
Works such as pond construction, deepening, and repairing of canals is also going on at a war footing, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had directed officials to conduct ‘Jal Suraaj Abhiyan’ along with ‘lok Suraaj Abhiyan’ during the summer season.
Significant works are being undertaken in this direction by departments concerned with public participation, under the leadership of concerned district Collectors, officials informed.For example, The district administration in Jashpur in the north of Chhattisgarh has initiated ‘Jashpur to Jalpur’ Campaign for realizing the objectives of ‘Jal Suraaj Abhiyan’. Under this campaign, cleaning and deepening of ponds are being done with ‘shram daan’ i.e. public participation since last two months.
Moreover, rainwater harvesting systems have been installed in government buildings. Collector Priyanka Shukla informed that rainwater structures have been constructed in total 968 buildings of the district and construction of the same in underway in 446 more buildings. Soak pits are being constructed around handpumps.
In Monora block of this district, rainwater harvesting system structure and soak pits have been constructed in all 243 Government schools.
In 58 Gram Panchayats of Farsabahar block and also in 159 out of 200 hostels of Tribal Development Department, rainwater harvesting structures have been made. Target to construct soak pits around 15000 handpumps in entire Jashpur district has been set up, against which soak pits have been constructed near 3253 handpumps till date.
People of two Gram Panchayats Rede and Bahna Tangar of Patthalgaon block of the district collectively participated along with panchayat representatives to clean ponds there.
For water augmentation, 879 ponds have been cleaned and deepened in the entire district. Moreover, 4986 works have been approved in entire district under MNREGA. This includes 28 works of canal repairing, 576 works of well construction, 2229 works of small pond construction and 245 works of pond construction, 109 works of pond deepening and 1797 works of land repairing. More than 2500 works have been completed till date.
In the same sequence, more than 400 government buildings in Balrampur-Ramanujganj district have been equipped with rainwater harvesting structures in a short span of last one-and-a-half months. This includes 72 in Balrampur block, 59 in Kusmi, 57 in Rajpur block, 82 in Ramchandrapur, 49 in Shankargarh, and 82 government buildings of Wadrafnagar.
According to District Collector Avinash Sharan, construction of rainwater harvesting structure in nearly 100 other buildings of the district is underway at fast pace.
The District Administration organized a number of meetings of women self-help groups and Gram Panchayat-level gram sabhas for creating awareness among villagers regarding groundwater conservation and rainwater harvesting.
These collective efforts have begun to yield promising results. Villagers of the district are now engaged in ‘dabri’ construction under schemes like MNREGA of stopping village’s water in village and farm’s water in farm.
According to Mungeli District Collector Kiran Kaushal, soakpits have been constructed around nearly 6000 handpumps of the district.
In the current fiscal year 2016-17, target of constructing soak pits around 6000 handpumps and 650 recharge pits has been set for Dhamtari district. District Collector Bheem singh informed that till date, 3000 soak pits and 300 recharge pits have been constructed, which has led to significant improvement in water-level of handpumps.
In Janjgir-Champa district also, this save water campaign is yielding significant positive results. The Pamgarh block of this district has sacred confluence of three rivers namely Mahanadi, Shivnath and Jonk, where famous pilgrimage spot of Chhattisgarh- Shivrinarayan is situated. Near this place, there is a village called Devarghata (Gram Panchayat Kamreed). People of this village were facing trouble as there was no pond there.
Construction of pond was also a tough task because of the rocky surface of the village.
People of the village then pledged to do this tough task in order to solve the problem. They worked hard and constructed a pond, under MNREGA. It not only gave them employment but also solved the problem of water supply.
In the Sukma district of South Chhattisgarh, villagers did ‘shramdaan’ on April 21, under the leadership of Jila Panchayat member Dhaniram Barse and District Collector Neeraj Kumar Bansod, for beautification and deepening of pond under ‘Gram Uday se Bharat Uday Abhiyan’.
As per the announcement of Chief Minister Raman Singh, an anicut was constructed at Machhli River at the cost of Rs92 lakh in village Padauli (lundra block) of Surguja district, which has helped in improving groundwater level in the area and has enabled irrigation facility for cultivation of paddy, wheat, corn, masoor, grams etc.
As a result, farmers are earning additional income. The anicut constructed in Gram Panchayat Sarga (Sitapur block) of Surguja district at the cost of Rs 2.86 crore is filled to the rim in this summer season.