Khandwa, catching every droplet

The rainfall in this region, for the past three to four years has been 30 to 40 per cent less than usual. Inspite of this people here, have remarkable achievements to highlight like, no drinking water problem, no fodder shortage, soil erosion has reduced by 90 per cent, per capita income has increased two-fold, and almost this entire area is under rabi cultivation. The chief executive officer, zilla panchayat, R K Gupta, and his team has innovatively redesigned the existing strategy for the works done under Pani Roko Abhiyan (PRA), a community-based rainwater harvesting program of the MP government, that has resulted in this transformation.

Gupta’s ‘total water management strategy’ entails that "Rainwater should not walk, it should crawl and creep", that is after every ten meters (m), earthen structures are constructed to store and percolate the runoff. Even five to seven centimetres (cm) of rainfall does not go waste. "After completing the water budget (a detailed assessment of the demand and supply of the water) of the district, it became evident that 90 per cent of the water is used for cultivation – and, most of it is groundwater. Thus, this source needs to be replenished", emphasised Gupta.

The size and kind of the structures is determined by the cost of water that they store. All the structures like, earthen checks, kundis, bunds, bori bandhans, Khandawa hydraulic structures have been redesigned to meet the local requirements.

The program does not attract people with entry point activities (like construction of road or temple) unlike the other watershed programs. "In 2001, we started with the technical training of 14,000 villagers, with the hope that atleast 1,000 of them will actually implement – and, it happened. In one village, a villager diverted the access water used in animal shed to the dried borewell. After 15 days, he found out that a dry handpump about 100 m has started yielding. The villager realised the importance of rainwater harvesting. And, we just shared such experiences to motivate others", shared Gupta.

Following are some of the experiences from Khandwa.

• It took some time for the people of Dhanta village to understand the concept. Initially, with the cooperation of the few villagers, nallah (drain) recharge work was undertaken. The entire catchment area was treated with total water management technique. Three months after the monsoon, the water table in the pond at the tail end of the nallah started increasing. This incident changed the attitude of the villagers. As a result, "The wells that used to dry up in summers even after normal rains, now have adequate water. It just takes four hours for the well to recharge after eight hours of extraction", happily shared a villager.
• The villagers of Dhotakheda collectively constructed a kuccha bandh on a seasonal nallah – Chotapchaad. With this structure not only their annual water problem was solved, but they had enough water to share it with nearby villages.
• Jeevan Singh Pawar, a resident of Attubhikari village, about 16 km from the district headquarters, recharged a nearby well by diverting the leaking water from the air valve of the irrigation pipeline. With the result, the well that used to dry up in the month of January had water at ten feet - enough water to irrigate the rabi crop.

These stories clearly indicate the strength of rainwater harvesting systems in effectively dealing with drought. "We are at the take off stage, as now people start the works and then approach us for financial assistance. This is our achievement," says Gupta.

For further information

R K Gupta
Chief executive officer
Zilla panchayat
Khandwa
Madhya Pradesh
Tel: 0733-23264