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News Water For Parched Field
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District Kutch in Gujarat is a rainless salt desert, a sandy plain plagued by dust storms during the dry seasons. This is in sharp contrast to the wet fertile, plains of Gujarat’s southern coastal fringe. Like the rest of Kutch, village Momaymora of Rapar block was in the clutches of severe drought for the last 4 years. 1500 families live in this village and like all North Indian villages, the community is a heterogeneous mix of people belonging to the higher and lower caste categories. For the higher castes, by virtue of their birth, life is much easier as they own large tracts of land that can be irrigated even during drought conditions. They have bore wells with generators to run the pumps. The vast majority of people, belonging to the marginalized lower caste depend on the vagaries of nature to cultivate their fields. Families starve or migrate during times of drought when fields become unproductive. During the earthquake relief phase in village Momaaymora Discipleship Centre came across a large low lying catchment area where years back the government had started work for water harvesting to irrigate the fields but with the help of the community, DC gave shape to the idea of developing potential water storage area to generate adequate water to irrigate the parched fields belonging to the lower caste people. The area was further dug up to increase its water storage capacity and side walls were reinforced with locally available stones and mud. All this was done with community participation. A check dam was constructed across the area to enable maximum collection of water during the rainy season. The water collected from the occasional showers was now diverted to the fields and as the plants soaked up the much needed moisture it looked as though mother nature was indeed smiling! The fields now yield cotton and jeera (cumin seeds), two cash crops for which the soil is ideal. Last September the area became a natural habitat for many migratory birds. Impact There has been a tenfold increase in productivity and a drop in the cost of farming due to availability of water. "Before we were hardly earning Rs. 2000/- a year but now our earnings touched 30 to 40000/- ". This is what Sodha Bai the community leader told the Tear Fund evaluation team when they visited the village. The community is now empowered to take up more village-based issues and strengthen the village economy. |