Ensuring Drinking Water Security – A Case of Dodivada Village, Mehsana

Adivada (IWMP-4) project is located in Bechraji Taluka, Mehsana District of Gujarat state. The nearest town is Bechraji which is about 10 to 15 Km from watershed area which is well connected by pucca road. The project area lies in nearest boundary of Patan district.

Dodivada village of Adivada cluster in which Patel, Thakor, Rabari, Harijan, Darbar and other communities are the primary inhabitants of the watershed village. The livelihood of these people is primarily based on rain fed agriculture, wage labour, animal husbandry. The population of the village is 2111 respectively.

But the major issue in the village was scarcity of water for drinking as well as for life saving irrigation of their valuable crops; especially in the hamlets which are comparatively new settlement which don’t have these established facilities.The village did not had any reliable source for drinking water. There was only one drinking water tank in the village which was in worn-out condition earlier. The height of the tank was short; as a result there was continuous leakage from the tank. As per socially imposed construct the women in the villages had to spend a lot of time to fetch Drinking water for their households. They need to walk down 2km to the next village to fetch water for their drinking purpose. Thus, the availability of perennial drinking water was an acute problem in the Dodivada village. With the inception of the IWMP project, the Dodivada village of Mehsana district was taken under IWMP 4 in Batch-II in year 20010-11 by DWDU-Mehsana.

The project is purely community oriented and local people have a clear say in their resource management, utilization and its conservation. The project is planned, managed, executed and operated through community based institution (Village Watershed Committee).

Community and Participation: As a part of the participative planning process the drinking water availability was identified as the major problem in the village. The solution for the same came across as an outcome of PRA Exercise conducted by the Watershed Development Team during the preliminary phase of project planning. The Watershed Development Committees, PIA and Gramsabha decided to repair the existing drinking water tank to have permanent solution of this problem. The WDT finalized the activity under Entry Point Activity and works were started after approval of Gram Sabha constructed and completed within months at a cost of Rs. 2.84 Lakhs.

The Way Ahead... As an impact of this intervention currently this drinking water tank is the main drinking water source available within the village providing drinking water to the 500 village households round the year.

• Technical Detail: 5.50 Mt. Height Dia. Mt.: 5.80 
• Storage Capacity: 1, 35,000 Lit. 
• Cost of Construction: 2.84 Rs. In Lakhs.

This activity undertaken under EPA helped successfully to gain trust of the villagers for operationalizing IWMP further in the village.

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Watershed is the Solution: A Success Story of Kuda Village Kheralu

Background of the village: Kuda village is located in Kheralu Taluka of Mehsana district of Gujarat. The region is characterized by low rainfall and frequent drought. The total project area of the watershed is about 5727.70 Ha of which 5000 Ha is to be treated while 385.50 Ha area of Kuda village to be treated under IWMP. The project area lies in nearest boundary of Sabarkantha and Patan district. The watershed includes 12 villages. Of which Kuda village is surrounded by Vadnagar Taluka towards South, Visnagar Taluka towards South, Satlasana Taluka towards East, and Unjha Taluka towards west.

The population of the village is 2184 and all the families belong to the SC/ ST community. The topography of the land is even terrain with slopes upto 10%. The most predominant problem of soil in this area is loss of upper fertile soil layer is washed away by intensity of rainfall. Rainfall is scantly and irregular and confined to three months, July to September, Average rainfall in Kheralu Taluka is about 350 mm and it goes on decreasing from East to West, average number of rainy days in the year is 20 to 25 respectively. Cropping is generally followed by crops like Wheat, Fennel, Cotton, Bajri and Castor respectively.

Problems Faced: The project villages are located in an undulating terrain. The soil is sandy clay loam with a depth ranging 30 – 90 cm. The climate is categorized as moderate with an average annual rainfall of 350 mm. Most of the rainwater is lost as surface runoff and the majority of the water bodies have been dry for a long time, resulting in high agricultural costs and poor agricultural income. The area is rainfed and main source of irrigation is open wells, canal flowing nearby the village irrigating the nearby farms.

Project Methodology/ Strategy: IWMP project mobilized local communities into water user group and assist them to build, revive and maintain micro water harvesting structures and carry out soil and water conservation measures to reserve land degradation, provide critical irrigation and raise agricultural productivity. The project component intervened to solve the above problem was that an existing village pond was inter linked via drainage line to a canal flowing through the Kuda village. It was done with respect to increase the water storage in the village ponds in order to avail the water for life saving irrigation.

Impact: The activity done under IWMP project got a grand success and impacted in social, environmental & economical life of the surrounding community. Now after the construction of the drainage line under the IWMP 2009-10 project, the group of farmers is cultivating cotton and castor in the area which was one time cultivable till last year. The 278 meter drainage line is constructed on survey number 206 during 2012. before monsoon. The cost of construction of the drainage line is Rs. 1.68. This year 22 farmers are irrigating a total 80 Ha of land with the available water through the canal which is stored in the village pond. There is a significant rise in the water levels of the wells adjacent to the village pond. Most of the well was used to dried up during summer but presently even in month of April there are ample amount of water which is used for drinking purpose in the village. Also Agricultural productivity has increased. Instead of one crop per year, farmers are able to grow three. Over all agricultural productivity has increased by 1.5 to 3 fold with introduction of low water intensity crops and horticulture.

There are 18 wells near the interlinked drainage line which earlier remain dried up but after the project intervention these wells retain water round the year which is in turn used for irrigation. Total area benefitted is over 80 Hectare and total number of farmers benefitted is 22. Generally crops like cotton, Bajri, Wheat, Fennel and Castor are grown. The storage capacity of the pond interlinked to canal through the drainage line is 1,92,00,000 cmt.

S.No.	Season	Crops	Production Before (kg/ha)	Production After (kg/ha)
1.	Rabi	Cotton	2000	3000
2.	Rabi, Kharif, Jaid	Bajri	2400	3600
3.	Rabi	Fennel	1600	2400
4.	Rabi	Wheat	2400	3600
5.	Rainy	Castor	2000	3000

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“Swachcha Padyatra, ‘Maa’ Ni Saachi Bhakti”

Ambaji is an important temple town with millions of devotees visiting the Ambaji temple every year. It is one of the 51 Shaktipeeths. During Bhadarvi Poonam (in September), more than 17 to 20 lakhs of pedestrian pilgrims and tourists attend this Bhadarvi Fair of Ambaji every year.

Pilgrims from all regions in Gujarat visit Ambaji chanting their way ‘Bol mari Ambe, jai jai Ambe.’ The route towards Ambaji town is decorated with festoons, flags and colourful lights. On the way, all the roads leading to Ambaji from different regions are found with walking pilgrims, singing and dancing with chants of Amba mata.

On the way to Ambaji (Palanpur), Mehsana district also receives lakhs of devotees. Many social and voluntary organizations and individuals put up pandals, tents and kiosks along the roads for the devotees. They make adequate arrangement of free medical facilities for devotees. They also offer food, beverage and fruit juice to the pilgrims. On such occasions, during the past years, the district has witnessed tonnes of plastic waste scattered along the road to Ambaji.

The plastic waste is a permanent hindrance to the green and clean environment. Plastic does not decompose easily, can chocks animal digestive system if engulfed while grazing and pollutes the air when burnt. In addition to these, plastic waste covers the soil resulting in low water seepage during rains. All these factors, mobilized the District Watershed Development Unit, Mehsana employees decided to make efforts towards its solution. In this regard, Project Director, Mehsana, Shri Kirit N. Parekh started an environment sanitation and awareness drive. The drive was named “Swachcha Padyatra, ‘Maa’ Ni Saachi Bhakti” (meaning, neat and clean pilgrimage is the true worship to the Goddess).

As a helping hand, all seva camps were sent a requesting letter from DWDU, Mehsana. In this regard personal continuous contacts by staff were also made to these seva camps.

The 40km roadside way from Kheralu to Satlasana was covered under this drive. The selection of the aforesaid area was also important since it covers a total of 4 IWMP (Integrated Watershed Management Programme) clusters of Mehsana district, namely IWMP-1, 11, 12 and 14. The campaign continued from 12th September to 19th September, 2013. More than 40 members/employees of the DWDU, Mehsana took an active role in the drive. T-Shirts and Caps (depicting “DWDU, Mehsana”) were distributed to the employees as a tool to IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activity. In addition to this, banners and posters were also prepared.

On 12th September (Saptami), banners of four different size (6×3sq.ft, 5×3sq.ft, 4×3sq.ft and 3 × 2sq.ft.) were put up on the higher grounds. The banners depicted an appeal to throw the plastic waste to the bins. Numerous (approx. 170) low cost cartons were used as bins. All along the way of 40km, banners and carton dustbins were kept at an approximate interval of 200-300m. Posters were put up on the cartons too. As per the strategy the cartons were put near the camps and shops where drinking facility (in polythene pouches) was available. Pilgrims were requested to throw the plastic waste to carton dustbins.

The next day 13th September (Asthami), for easy management, teams were formed and spread at an interval of 2km each. In the later half, rain drenched and storm blew the cartons away, making it extremely difficult for the team to stand up to the task. Later, the black polythene bags were put to use. This helped to collect waste in rains too.

14th September (Navami), noticing the fair response of the pilgrims, announcements were made from the camps to throw the plastic waste in the dustbins only. Slowly-slowly pilgrims started following our requests and our staff got a positive response from pilgrims as well as seva camps. The same strategy was followed for the next few days.

Later, the polythene bags were ringed at the top with the Ipomea twigs. These were then tied to the nearby solid structure using ropes. These type of polythene bags played a crucial role in effective management of plastic waste.

16th September (Bharvi), staff witnessed something unexpected. The bins which were unattended were taken off by the pedestrian pilgrims as a shed to protect themselves from rain. This made the staff’s task more difficult. A regular approach was made by the staff in night too to check the process goes smooth and steady.

As the days started passing, the task became more and more difficult to manage. There was a continuous flow of pilgrims. The staff worked in a prompt manner for effective management. In spite of all the best efforts, lots of other waste remained unmanaged. Vans travelling kilometres for distributing water pouches to pilgrims were less manageable.

The last day of the festive, 19th September (Poonam), the whole DWDU staff worked together for the effective sanitation of the area. All means (polythene bags, cartons, iron-rods with one end pointed) were used to pick up the plastic waste. All such waste was collected at a single place. The hard work and dedication of the staff cleared the environment from 1645kg of plastic waste. Almost 6 camel driven cart were fully loaded! Imagine such a huge plastic waste flooded on road! A clear picturesque difference can be seen among the areas where the DWDU staff has worked and where not! Later the whole plastic waste was sold to Bharat Tradus, Palanpur.

The drive was intended to aware people against plastic waste and help in its proper disposal. The staff offered manual labour to this virtuous cause or more precisely to environment. It was more of a learning experience. The staff faced several hurdles during its drive, environmental and human both, for which staff was not prepared. Although, some quick and bold decisions made the drive a successful one. The extent of its success can be accountant to the fact that some social volunteers, local people from project area and police officials supported our drive.

The Bhadarvi Poonam festive has its own importance. It clearly depicts the devotional spirit of the pilgrims. On the same hand, a festive which receives lakhs of devotees, a single plastic dropped from each hand is questionable. DWDU, Mehsana has joined hands against such plastic waste and will continue to do so in coming years, with greater enthusiasm!

Jai Ambe…

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Field Visit - National Conference on Panchayati Raj and Rural Development

17th Aug 2013, 17:00 hours, the National Conference on Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, came to an end. Umiyavadi, 45 km away from Mehsana district, was the lodging place for the delegates. All delegates had a warm welcome in Indian traditional method at Umiyavadi. The 32 delegates (out of 50, allotted to Mehsana and Surat district) from Rajasthan and DWDU, Mehsana staff had an informal introduction to start with. Around 19:00 hours, we had dinner together. The delegates were made comfortable to their respective rooms. The field visit was scheduled for the next day.

18th Aug 2013, after morning breakfast all delegates were requested to be sit in the common hall for general discussion. Meanwhile, local handicrafts crafted and designed by SHGs (DWDU, Mehsana and Mission Mangalam), were displayed outside the common hall, Umiyavadi. Most of the delegates appreciated the work. They had a brief discussion with the volunteers on stall about the cost-benefit analysis. Some of them found the work handy and decided to take similar kind of work in their respective districts. On seeing the smart use of coconut husk for crafting it into beautiful idol of Lord Ganesha, one of the delegate in his own words said, “kya h isme? Kuch bhi to nahe! Bus naariyal ka bachha hua use kar k bana diya. Jyada mehanga bhi nahe hoga. Mushkil se 4-5 rs lage hunge, aur bazaar main 20 rs tak ka bikega. Isme bahut munafa hoga. Apne yahan le lete h, acha chalega!”

Later 180 delegates from three states (under supervision of DDO, Mehsana) also joined the common hall. Officials from district Panchayat, TDO and others were also present on the occasion. DRDA Director, Shri P.B. Rathod, broke the silence by informal speech. He focused on the importance of Rural Development, Watershed, Mission Mangalam and Gujarat Tourism. Soon after, DDO, Mehsana, H.N. Thakkar, also joined the meeting. He too appreciated beautiful craftsmanship of local SHGs.

A short documentary film on Mission Mangalam and Watershed was shown to the delegates. Thereafter, the volunteers from Mission Mangalam and Watershed shared their experiences./p>
As scheduled at 11:00 hours, all 32 delegates were taken for field visit. The delegates were introduced and provided with handouts of all the works to be visited in the next few hours. They were also provided with pamphlets of the successful stories of all projects of DWDU, Mehsana.

Works such as Renovation of Cremation Ground, Afforestation and Water Tank were taken up for visit in Sapavada village. Sapavada, 10-15 km away from lodging place is under IWMP-2 (Becharaji) project. “Afforestation area, covered with vigorous grown local neem, ardusa and lush green vegetation, is a result of close workings with the villagers and DWDU staff. At GPS location N 23.33’0.5” and E 72.00’04.2”, the afforested local neem (Azadirachta indica) is spread over an area of 1 ha”, explained the DWDU team. The delegates were more interested in the successful maintenance of the afforested area. Our Project Director, K.N. Parekh, took an active lead and explained the whole process. “The fencing of the afforested area on panchayat land, timely silvi-cultural operations, aftercare and protection are the main factors governing its success”, explained PD, K.N. Parekh.

Later, works such as Earthen Bunds and Crop Demonstration Plot were taken up for visit in Suraj village. Suraj, 5-7 km away from Sapavada village is under IWMP-2 (Becharaji) project. “Earthen Bunds, taken under work phase, is a result of realization of waterlogged condition in the village. Every monsoon, the rain water used to flood the nearby village. After construction of earthen bund by DWDU, Mehsana, the condition was controlled and rain water was also conserved at the village. At GPS location N 23.33’03.5” and E 72.00’04.2”, the earthen bund has a water storage capacity of 50 lakh liters. A total of 25 beneficiaries has benefitted from the activity with a total irrigated area of around 15 ha”, explained DWDU team. The delegates appreciated the wits of the staff. Some of the delegates even urged, “bahut badiya kaam hai. Aese kaam hum bhi lena chahate hain, par hamare yahan barish bahut kam hoti h”.

As it was a hot day, we tried to keep their thirst in control by regularly providing them refreshments on the way. We also showed them our VWC office. On a cup of tea, we had a healthy discussion about the similarities and differences in working of two different states. We tried to have a two way learning experience by letting them interact with the Suraj VWC members.

Later, we took them to crop demonstration plot. “Crop Demonstration Plot (drip), taken under agricultural activities, is in order to encourage local farmers to take up the drip irrigation to minimize use of water in agricultural farms. As Mehsana is under dark zone, it is of utmost importance that farmers should use more and more of drip. The crop is on its 1st year, and is likely to attract farmers. The drip is installed over an area of 1 ha on cotton field”, explained DWDU team. One of the delegate asked the cost-benefit from such a large project. “We give mere Rs. 24000 to a single farmer for drip. The rest is covered under 60 per cent and 10 per cent subsidy from GGRC and RKVY respectively. The use of drip minimizes the weed growth on the farm, which is vigorous in case of flood irrigation. This ultimately reduces the extra input cost on labor for weeding. Also, before farmer used to irrigate the field for 7 hrs. (flooding) which is paid on per hour basis. Now, the irrigation time has reduced to 1 hr.; that is also on assured irrigation basis to plants, with practically no wastage or fear of water logging”, explained PD, K.N. Parekh. Also, a comparison between the cotton crop grown with and without drip, which showed clear morphological differences, were shown to delegates.

Some of the delegates also tried to talk with some of the villagers about the workings and co-operation of WDT and district staff.

During the long course of field visit, we tried to show and explain them with other watershed works which came along the way. This included protection wall, deepening of pond, new pond, under-ground recharge structure etc.

Since, most of the delegates requested to let them free by evening, around 14:30 hours, we started our journey back to Umiyavadi. On the way, we showed them the nearby famous, Baucharaji Temple. We reached to Umiyavadi for lunch, around 15:00 hours.

At the end of the field visit we decided to take feedback from the delegates in in order to know our sort-comings and improve them in future. The feedback was about the field visit, watershed works transportation, team co-operation, food, management. We received almost excellent remarks and a few feedback/comments as below

All management is very good – Rakesh Kumar, WDT Engineer, Alwar

Veterinary k chetra main kuch sudhar kar unhe visit main shaamil kiya jae. Kisi bhi 1 watershed main nirdharit kaarye-karam banakar puri team 1 saath A.I., Cross Breed and Repeat Breeding karain – Ravindra Singh, WDT Vet. Expert, Bharatpur

Aapne kheto ki maed-bandhi ko nahe liya hua h – Bhagat Ram Baiswa, Sarpanch, Dausa

Aapke watershed main solar light jo EPA main aati hai, k taraf dhyaan nahe diya h, jo k aapko dena chaheye. Apna DPR aap swayam banao, kisi NGO ya agency se mat banvao – Keshav Kumar Bairwa, WDT Engineer, Dausa

Main watershed sacheev, aapki seva, suraksha ka aabhaar prakat karta hun, evum kabhi mauka milega to hamare Rajasthan, Dungarpur jarur padharna – Daulatram Bairwa, VWC, Dungarpur

Hamne aapke kaarya-karam main ad-dhyan mila evum gyaan bhi achaa raha. Parantu samay k abhav main kuch jagah ko batane main doorie rakhi – Babulal, VWC, Dungarpur

Thanks for best co-operation – Roshan Singh Ruhela, WDT Engineer, Jhalawar

Very good. Field work jyada se jyada dikhayain, taaki kaaryo ki jaankaari mil sake – Jagdish Patel, WDC Secretary, Jalore

Thank you – Kailash Kharadi, WDT Agriculture, Dungarpur

Thereafter, on their request we took them to the famous Sun Temple, Modhera at 16:00 hours.

18th Aug 2013, 17:00 hours, we facilitated them to their respective drop-off points leading them back to their districts.

At last, both DWDU Mehsana and delegates from Rajasthan were left with nothing but some memories and a hope to learn more!

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How Tiny Drops changed the life Gorisan, Kheralu

Cash Crop Grown by the Farmer

              

              Under the IWMP project, Gorisana village of Kheralu cluster (Mehsana) has achieved success in augmentation of agricultural and Micro enterprise development practices. The total geographical locale of this cluster is 5000 Ha, out of which 805.2 Ha is taken for treatment of Gorisana village. Soil of this village is of sandy texture yellowish in color and partially porous in nature which naturally is unable to sustain water for longer duration. The ground water table is very low it region comes in dark zone and due to scarcity of water availability for irrigation, farmers are unable to take more than one crops in a year. Thereby the people whose primary occupation is agriculture get engaged in causal labour work during lean seasons.

      The primary reason to promote drip irrigation was to conserve water and use the available ground water judiciously. As most of the people in the area depend on agriculture as livelihood and production purposes, unless the watershed plus approach are undertaken the scope for agriculture development via conserving water seemed meager. In gram sabha, farmer beneficiaries understood the concept of drip irrigation from WDT. Understanding this fact of ground water conservation, 45 farmers of the Kheralu cluster had decided to go for drip irrigation as their source of irrigation.

    Gujarat Green Revolution Company (GGRC), has played a major role in this revolution, making it possible for farmers to adopt drip irrigation methods by offering aggressive subsidies on capital cost. The convergence is like 50% GGRC, 20% RKVY and Rs. 24000 from IWMP per se is provided per farmer beneficiary. A village level meeting had been called in the village in which different irrigation companies like Jain irrigation, Netafim, John deere, and Paragon elicited the farmers about their schemes. Furthermore the farmers are taken for exposure visit to the drip irrigation units of all these irrigation companies. The farmers then decided to operationalise drip with the support of John deere.

The impact of the drip irrigation has been categorized into two broad heading namely human and environmental impacts.

Human impact: Due to the implementation of drip the agricultural production has increased up to 30% -40 % i.e. also the farmers are able to take three crops per year with the help of drip irrigation. The weeding cost had also come down after implementing drip in the farms as per the farmers. Water saving expected with the adoption of micro irrigation motivated the beneficiary farmers in shifting to high value crops.

Environmental impacts: The fertility of the land is maintained via drip irrigation as the distribution of insecticides and fertilizers are equally mixed with water in the irrigation tank this saves time, money and energy of the farmers. The plant attains uniform height under drip in a better way. Importantly the crop receives only the required amount of water not exceeding that which in turn saves water and makes it use judiciously. Major impact of drip irrigation in Kheralu was for Crop diversification viz., from rainfed crops to cash crops and bringing cultivable wastelands to fertile agricultural lands.                             

      
     Dhanji Vagha Bhai is an example of how poor farmers have benefited by adopting modern irrigation methods. Before he switched to drip irrigation in 2012, Dhanji Bhai could irrigate just half of his 1.18 Ha of land. His borewell used to yield water for one hour every seven hours due to low groundwater reserves. Now he only needs 60 per cent of the earlier quantity of water to irrigate the seven acres. A training stint given by John Deere company taught him ways to add new high-yielding varieties of crops. GGRC laid the drip irrigation network at his farm for Rs.62,997.25 . With subsidy, he had to pay only Rs.28,129 only after deducting the farmers contribution of Rs. 10,000 from the IWMP cost.

             

      Today a total of 45 farmers in Kheralu have adopted drip irrigation and today their entire cultivation is done with the help of drip farming. Furthermore, total of Rs. 1089331 is allotted for drip in Gorisana village of Kheralu. Also the farmers here believe that drip irrigation will go a long way in improving the health of land in Kheralu. 

Contributors: Dipali Solanki, Technical Expert and DWDU Mehasana

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