Small Efforts Make thousands Happy

Dr. Utkarsh Sinha 

Many unsuccessful or partially successful efforts have been made to conserve water in Bundelkhand region for many centuries, but failed to address to conserve the structures built for it. Be it Chandeli-Budenli ponds or small and big check dams built by the government, all the existing structures are in a dilapidated condition due to lack of maintenance and hence are losing their importance.

One such check dam was in village Shahpura of Lalitpur district, the repair work, which was done before a couple of years by Parmarth Samajsevi Sansthan.  This check dam that was built before 12 years resulted in the access of water by the farmers on one hand apparently and latently resulted in the recharging of ground water table but due to lack of maintenance of the structures, seepage occurred in the first check dam resulting in the wastage of not only water but further damaged the check dams.

The succeeding rainy seasons further aggravated the damage in most of the check dams. The amount of water that these check dams used to hold declined due to seepage. The shortage of water in the check dams enlightened the farmers about the importance of check dams. The Kharif crops did not erode their income but due to lack of water Rabi crops were difficult to harvest. They had to struggle for water to irrigate their fields. Said Sanjay Singh, Chief functionary of Parmarth Samajsevi Sansthan

Even increase in the depth of their wells did not solve their problem of the shortage of water. This year, the farmers where enlightened by Parmarth Samajsevi Sansthan about the importance of the water conservation. As a result they themselves proposed to repair their check dams. Today the result is visible in smiles of the farmers because of the repair of this check dams.

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At present in these structures more than 80 lakh liters of water is getting accumulated resulting in the maintenances of the land moisture in this area. Describing the repair work, Hardev Yadav says that till the time these structures were there, we did not pay much attention to its importance, but when it stopped holding water, our wells also had no water. Now, with the repair of the check dam, there will be water in the wells again. Where we used to do farming in half the agricultural area during Rabi crop, with the availability of water, we will be able to do farming in the entire agricultural area again.