SHAlINI SAKSENA travels to a village in Sawai Madhopur to bring you a report on why it is important for the farmers to conserve every drop of rainwater
Water is one of the most important commodities of the 21st century. Hence it is important that we use it judicially. But, we have been wasting water for decades. So much so that there will be a time for water wars. In order to prevent this from happening, over the years, many initiatives have been undertaken in India to ensure that the ground level water is recharged regularly. This is being done by check dams, which are a type of structure that dams up a small river or nallah in order to break the flow of water during the monsoons, and allows it to seep into the soil.
In a country where farmers depend on monsoon to irrigate their fields, in a country where droughts are a common occurrence, a check dam is necessary. Keeping this in mind, a water conservation project was recently handed over by the Coca-Cola India Foundation (Anandana) and its partner —Action for Food Production (AFPRO) — to four villages — Bhadlav, Padli, Ulliyana and Kundera, in Sawai Madhopur.
The project with its two dams, 22 farm dams and 34 well recharge structures spread over around 300 hectares, will benefit around 2,500 households.
The average groundwater level in these four villages stands at around 50 metres. Come summer and it drops. Considering that Rajasthan has not seen rainfall in the last four years, the ground level water had fallen drastically. The check dams will not only help address the issue of water recharge, it will benefit the farmers in many ways.
First, the farmers who were able to only grow two crops — rabi and kharif — now have the opportunity to grow a cash crop. “This means that we can earn extra money. This in turn means that we don’t have to hire ourselves out as labour and can send our children to school. The precedent has been that once a child has studied till Class VI or VII, his parents withdraw him from school because they need an extra pair of hands to work. This will change, Batti lal Meena, a farmer from Ulliyana who has around four beeghas of land says.
Second, since the ground level water will get recharged, wells and tubewells will have water and women will not have to walk miles to fetch it.
Third, water means trees and grass. Since cattle rearing is common to these parts, it will provide fodder for cattle around the villages and they will not enter the Ranthambore National Park. Run-in with the tiger and leopard will be less.
“The project has just been handed over to us. But we are hopeful that whatever rain that we get in the future will get stored in these earthen structures instead of flowing away and carrying with it top soil which is so necessary for agriculture. It will also mean easy availability of water instead of depending on monsoons. Since cattle rearing is common, cattle grazing will become convenient. More people will keep cattle and increase their household earnings,” Ram Singh Rajawat, who owns around 40 beeghas of land in Badlav says.
“The premise behind the check dam is to improve the water management and the daily life of the villagers. Through this watershed project, there will be a rise in groundwater table post monsoon this year,” Ishteyaque Amjad, vice-president, Public Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia tells you.
Praveen Singhai, regional manager of AFPRO tells you that one of the two dams required repair work and the whole project in Badlaav took them a year to complete at an investment of around `5 lakh. “With the construction of this dam, water will percolate around two km underground.
The project was inaugurated by Diya Kumari, member of Rajasthan legislative Assembly from Sawai Madhopur constituency and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Congratulating the villagers and handing over the project to the villagers, Kumari said: “The dwindling water scenario in the village has always been an area of concern for the villagers affecting the agricultural productivity and their livelihood. I appreciate the efforts of assessing the needs of Sawai Madhopur villages and addressing the issue of ground water depletion. This watershed management initiative will help the local farmers to yield better output and will improve the socio-economic state of the region.”