Jubilee Post News & Views
Dr. Utkarsh Sinha
The nearly thousand years old ponds built by the Chandela kings helped in protecting Bundelkhand from drought for a long time and these ponds were the main source for maintaining the wells and ground water reserves of Bundelkhand too. But due to their continuous depletion in the last several years, this area is now facing water crisis.
Surrounded by the forest land and hilly area, Kaudiya, is a village of Darganya Kala Gram Panchayat, 35 kilometers away from Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. The only source of water conservation and management in this area is a pond made in Chandela era. The area of this pond is 22 acres. As per the Bundala Design and Engineering, the pond has been built in the upper part of the village so that water source is available in the lower area of the village.
This Chandela pond was designed in such a way that it provides water to the farmers for irrigation in summers. For this, a canal has also been taken out from its bund and this pond is also the main source for the hand pumps of the village.
Lack of proper conservation of this Chandela pond, there was problem of seepage and silt in the dam of the pond. Whatever water was collected in the pond during the rainy season would slowly drain out within a month or two. The farmers who used to take water from the pond through canal for their farming also no longer had the availability of water for irrigation.
Many farmers dug their wells and did some farming with the water that came out of them, but there were many farmers whose lands started growing only Kharif crops.
The whole village was in trouble due to lack of water, in summers people used to survive with one or two hand pumps for drinking water, for which many hours of hard work had to be done. Due to shrinking of farming in the village, some families were forced to migrate to cities.
For the revival of this Chandela era pond, Parmarth Samaj sevi Sansthan started silt cleaning work in the pond through public advocacy with the help of Welthungerhilfe, and 65 meter long concrete wall was built to prevent seepage.
As result, the water coming out of the bund through seepage was stopped. It ensured the availability of water throughout the year. While farmers did not do farming due to water problem, they did Rabi farming through the supporting canal coming out of the pond. The cost of farming also reduced. The farmers who used to migrate to cities due to lack of water, did farming in their villages this year.
On the demand of farmers, Parmarth worked to revive this pond with the help of Pani Panchayat. Dam repair work has been done by Parmarth for the stop seepage from the pond. This year the structure was filled to its full capacity in the first monsoon rains.- Sanjay Singh, Parmarth
After completion of the repair work, more than 14 crore liters of water is being stagnant in this Chandela pond. This Chandela era pond is not only ensuring water availability for the entire village but is also working to balance the temperature in the area, and helping to maintain the soil moisture and ground water level.
Local farmer Sanjeev Sharma says that the livelihood of about 45 farmers of the village is directly linked to this pond. The 80 acres of land which was completely dependent on the water of this structure, were now able to grow only Kharif crops.
