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Water management changing lives in drought-prone Jharkhand

NGO also organising self-help groups for women empowerment

Madhupur (Jharkhand): Ganesh Yadav of village Birsinghri is a happy man today. Until a couple of years ago, the harvest from his small plot lasted only for three to four months. Now, the yield from the land provides him enough for the year, even allowing him to sell a portion of the produce.

"It is thanks to Lok Jagriti Kendra," he says standing proudly amid a lush crop of wheat, "it was because of their intervention with a lift irrigation project at our village that my plot now yields two crops a year. Before that, we had to buy food."

Until the intervention of LJK, Birsighri, about 11 km from here, exemplified a problem endemic to Jharkhand -- drought. The river Sonwada that skirts Birsinghri remained dry for most of the year, except during the monsoon.

"Therefore, we decided to intervene here with a water-related project," says LJK volunteer Sri Kishun, "we began this project around 2002 with a grant of Rs 30,000 from ICCO, Netherlands. We wanted to develop this as a model."

According to Sri Kishun, the Birsighri villagers were initially skeptical about the LJK initiative. "Many NGOs had approached us earlier with high promises, but they all came to naught," says Ramdev Yadav, another Birsinghri resident. To win over the villagers, LJK appointed an engineer and started working. The villagers later joined in and then there was no looking back. Encouraged by the success of Birsinghri, the LJK took up water management projects at villages Samnalapur and Karudih, both in Madhupur blocks, according to the organisation's executive director Arvind Kumar.

Preventing topsoil

The Samnalapur project entailed creation of mud bunds around farm plots to prevent erosion of topsoil and water running off from the undulating land during monsoon, Kumar says.

A rainwater harvesting project has been taken up at Karudih, involving digging of a tank 250 ft long, 150 ft wide and 10 ft deep for storage of rain water which can be used for irrigation during the dry seasons.

Sitting in the Chanchali village deep inside the jungles of Domnatand, 80-year-old Ledma Soren speaks of another facet of the LJK's various movements - to return the jungles of Jharkhand to their rightful owners, the inhabiting tribals.

According to Jagdish Singh, the LJK's intervention has also given a boost to Chanchali's traditional activity of `Tussar' cocoon farming.

"Earlier, indiscriminate felling of trees, especially `Arjun' was affecting cocoon farming. Besides, the agents used to dictate the prices of Tussar. Now, we quote our price, thanks to the LJK's help in organising us. Earlier, we produced Tussar once a year, now we do it thrice. This has boosted our income."

"We do not want dependency. Big projects cost more and so we always go for small projects involving resources that are readily available," says LJK executive director Arvind Kumar. -- PTI

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Water management changing lives in drought-prone Jharkhand

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