A TALE OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Out of the rain shadow


Depleting water tables in Maharashtra’s drought-prone villages get a new lease of life with rainwater harvesting


By PRONOTI DATTA, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Wankute village in Ahmednagar district is a sight for sore eyes. The tanks here are brimming with water, hundreds of lush trees break the landscape’s arid monotony and there’s a pond surrounded by palm trees that resembles a desert oasis. The twist in the tale is that this is one of the most drought-prone regions in western Maharashtra.
So, what’s its secret? Rainwater conservation, a pursuit into which it was initiated by the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR). WOTR is an NGO that helps villages with measures to save the scanty rainfall they receive, and it’s literally turned their fortunes around: in Wankute itself, the cultivation of onions in an area whose soil is good only for millet has made several families richer.
Success stories of rainwater harvesting from this region, such as Hivre Bazaar, which was turned around by an enthusiastic sarpanch, and Ralegan Siddhi, revolutionised by veteran social worker Anna Hazare, are well known. WOTR’s work isn’t — surprisingly so, given the extent of its operations. Since the time it hit the field in 1996, the NGO has carried out 747 watershed projects primarily in Maharashtra, but also in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. As of 2009, the total area that has benefited is 567,065 hectares.
Ahmednagar is severely disadvantaged, as it lies in the rain shadow of the Sahyadris. As a result, the area gets an average rainfall of just 450 mm. According to studies on the semi-arid regions of the Deccan plateau, it suffers a deficit of 800 mm to 1,000 mm. Most of the usable rainfall, that is rainfall that’s more than 10 mm, occurs in bursts across just 15 to 20 days. This means that farmers can grow crops for very brief periods. During the dry months, many farming families leave their villages to work as debtridden labourers in sugarcane fields, brick kilns and farms in higher rainfall areas, says Marcella D’Souza, WOTR’s executive director.
The idea of watershed development is to capture rainwater instead of allowing it to run off into rivers and streams along with the fertile top soil. In order to do this, contour trenches are carved out in hillsides so that the flow of water is arrested. It then sinks into the soil and enriches the water table. WOTR’s model watershed project is Darewadi village. The catchment area has been sculpted into continuous trenches that picturesquely cascade down the slope. Hundreds of trees have been planted to hold the soil in place. It’s quite obvious that the area didn’t have much vegetation before WOTR started work in 1996. The trees are young and have been strategically planted along the edges of the trenches. Previously, villagers had to depend on water for drinking and irrigation brought by tankers once or twice a week. Tanker water is now history and when we visited, we noticed that the village wells and percolation tanks had enough water to last till the monsoon. Ground water levels have been steadily rising, and data collected by the NGO over the years shows that the water table was higher in 2005 than in 1998 even though there was much more rainfall in 1998.
Water has brought much-needed income to these villages. Vishnu Sasane, a 75-year-old farmer, owns 23 acres of land in Wankute, where WOTR spent four years on a watershed project that was completed in 2007. Despite owning so much land, Sasane worked as a vegetable vendor during the dry months to feed a family of 27. Today, his fields are lush with wheat and he grows enough onions to waste a few kilos. In the four months when onions are cultivated, every family in the village earns between Rs 100,000 and Rs 200,000, says the farmer. He, personally, has used his new-found wealth to reinforce his house, which was once an earthen structure, buy a motorbike and start a side business of raising chickens.
Right inside the village are the Handes, who had migrated to neighbouring villages in search of work, as their fields were fallow. After the success of the watershed programme, they returned. Their backyard, full of cows, goats, beds of freshly picked onions and grain, speaks of the family’s prosperity. Their neighbour, a sprightly old man wearing aviators even after the sun has set, wants to show off his good fortune too, and leads us into a room in his house piled high with potatoes.
After transforming so many villages, WOTR finds it easier to convince farmers of the benefits of water harvesting. But there was a time when they were wary. “They were afraid their land would be taken away,” says D’Souza. And they were less than thrilled about the NGO’s three non-negotiable conditions: a ban on free grazing in the watershed area, a ban on cutting trees, and shramdaan, a contribution of 20 per cent of the total cost of the project in the form of manual labour. The villagers are also expected to form a Village Development Committee, which means that those from the upper and lower castes have to mingle. “You will always have friction between higher and lower castes,” D’Souza points out. “But common needs like water security will bring people of different castes and communities together.”
WOTR’s agenda extends beyond water and soil conversation to sanitation, medical health and empowering women. The NGO gets women to form self-help groups to discuss the problems of their households. According to Rohini Hande, a teacher in Wankute, the women’s groups have made them more confident. The women of Darewadi, for instance, got together to ban the production of liquor to stem the rise of alcoholism among men. In Sattechiwadi, WOTR has been following a development model in which water conservation is one component in a set of activities. This small village of 83 households, located at the bottom of a valley, is entirely composed of Thakar, Hindu Mahadev and Bhil tribals. Apart from farming, they hunt birds and animals such as rabbits. It seems a poorer village compared to Wankute and Darewadi but food and water are no longer scarce. They’ve been given solar lamps, hot water chulhas, toilets and durable farming equipment. As health was a major concern — villagers would have to travel 20 km to the nearest hospital for minor illnesses — two volunteers have been trained to provide medicines. Wamanbhau Jadhav, a member of the Village Development Committee who looks far older than his 45 years, says happily, “People don’t leave the village any more.”

THE HOPE HARVEST: Thanks to rainwater harvesting in Wankute, Vishnu Sasane (left), a farmer, is now able to earn upto Rs 2 lakh during the harvest season; the soil is now moist enough to grow cash crops like onions. Last year the farmers sold about 20 trucks of the vegetable

Courtesy Times Crest dated 30.01.2010, a weekly supplement of Times of India.