Nov 17, 2003, District Ahmednagar, Maharastra. The small bus, proclaiming
"Water gives Life" winds its way through the dusty track
that leads to Dharewadi village, where CSE's Pani Yatra is to begin
at Watershed Organisation Trust's training centre. Twenty expectant
faces peer out the windows at the parched drought-scape, a few wondering
perhaps what good was watershed development or rainwater harvesting
when there was no water…
Three years of drought has been unkind to the state; the sky is sullen
and the dams yield little water. Tanker supply of drinking water to
villages is the norm. Yet there are those lucky villages where wells
still have enough water for drinking, and vegetation still covers
the lands. This group of people from different states - AP, Rajasthan,
Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bengal, Delhi, including 2 yatris from the
US and a CSE volunteer from Sweden have come to see for themselves
how this is possible. Most yatris are moderately familiar with the
concept of watershed but many had come specifically to learn. For
example there was a couple who had flown all the way from London for
the Yatra to learn more about watershed because they are planning
to return to India and start their own work in a year.
After an orientation and an introduction to watershed and some issues
involved, the yatris explored the village of Dharewadi. In the evening
we sat with about 20 of the villagers, mostly womens groups to discuss
their views and roles in the watershed development process. The next
day took us to Mahswandi, a watershed area in a higher rainfall region,
also a WOTR-funded project, where the implementing agency was the
Sangamner sugar factory.
The third day of the Yatra was spent in Ralegan Siddhi. Once again
a talk on watershed and the Ralegan approach was organised which was
beneficial to many of the yatris and there were a lot of questions
raised. After a tour of the physical works in the village, a long
session with Anna Hazare ended the day's visit. A few enthusiastic
yatris went on to visit the neighbouring village where women held
the post of sarpanch and watershed committee president.
The next day we visited Chanda, a village where farmer's management
of irrigation systems was introduced for the first time as a pilot
project. The yatris also paid a visit to the local school where yatris
Samiksha and Anoop Agarwal were moved to the point of donating school
textbooks, a gesture much appreciated by the students and teachers.
The last day of the yatra, saw the group in Hivre Bazaar, where
the young charismatic sarpanch Popat Rao Pawar has succeeded in
turning his village from a crime-riddled and alchohol-steeped one
to one that is today a model for others. They have been experiencing
"reverse migration" in the last few years as the apparent
prosperity lured back those who had left. All this because of watershed
management and participation of the village community in improving
their lot, keeping water as a focus.
The yatris had a lot to learn from what they saw and, importantly,
from each other. The watershed community is expanding beyond our
villages.
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