Meant to be a shot in the arm for water conservation in Jharkhand after two-year-long dry spell, the ambitious State-sponsored project of constructing farm ponds (dova) seem to be proving perilous to children in the rural areas.
Government intends to complete construction of 4 lakh farm ponds by the end of this financial year. Meanwhile, reports of several people, aged between six and 30 years, drowning to death came within the last four months. These unfortunate deaths were reported from Giridih, Gumla, Koderma, Dumka, Khunti and Ranchi.
Seven-year old Chhatu Mandal slipped and fell into a farm pond on his father’s fields, while his mother Reeta Devi (32) lost her life trying to save him. Gini Murmu (25) from Jama Block in Dumka drowned in the dova he was bathing in.
Vrindavati Devi of Banagutu village in Gumla lost her 10-year old son Subhash Kumar after he fell into the recently dug dova in her fields. Anuj Kumar (10) from Shali village in Giridih, son of Panchayat Samiti Member Ashok Vishwakarma, fell into a farm pond on Monday evening and passed away on his way to a hospital.
Asmul Ansari (10) from Phuljori village in Giridih fell into a dova after he took a toilet break during his classes. Additionally, two deaths due to drowning in dovas were reported from Namkum and one each from Bero and Chanho blocks of State capital. In most cases, the deceased people had gone to the fields to defecate and fell into the farm pond while trying to draw water.
The dovas sanctioned by the Government are based on five separate models, all of them with a depth of 10 feet. Despite the depth of the farm ponds and considering the fact that the wet soil along their edges in days of monsoon provides little footing, much-needed measures to prevent or break one’s fall into them are hard to come by.
“Usually a makeshift boundary using the mud excavated while making the dova is erected around it. We are also planning to plant creepers or small plants to utilise this mud. These plants will act as a demarcation line for the farm ponds,” stated Paritosh Upadhyay, Special Secretary of Rural Development Department.
“In the farm ponds constructed by us, we are following the practice of making stairs along the sides of the farm pond. These stairs are carved at a distance of 2 feet each and increases the chance of survival by delaying the fall even if someone steps over the edge of a dovas,” said Virendra Kumar Singh, Deputy Development Commissioner, Ranchi.
The two recent deaths registered from Bero and Chanho involved farm ponds constructed by Directorate Soil Conservation, Singh added. Some of their dovas have steps while others do not, he said.
Despite all these measures, there is still no foolproof measures to prevent accidents related to dovas, said Singh.