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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Saurashtra woes: Policy change on check dams leads to water deficit -Shagun Kapil

Saurashtra woes: Policy change on check dams leads to water deficit -Shagun Kapil

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published Published on Apr 23, 2019   modified Modified on Apr 23, 2019
-Down to Earth

In the 1990s, non-profits and farmers themselves built check dams; today, the government does it, without proper research or site selection

Fifty-four-year old Dineshbhai Babariya has just harvested a 20 quintal cotton crop, his second harvest in the last one year in his four bigha (1.6 acre) farm in the Jasapar village of Gujarat’s Saurashtra region.

August 2018 was the last time the village in Rajkot district received around 228 mm (nine inch) rainfall and thanks to a check dam constructed under a UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) funded project in 2017, Babariya could cultivate his crop even in April.

Small water conservation structures like check dams essentially catch rain water and keep it at the source itself. A check dam prevents water from flowing away during the monsoon and it can be pumped to irrigate fields. A drainage line makes way for more areas where water can be stored. The process also re-charges groundwater, which can then be utilised through hand pumps and wells.

“If rainfall is not adequate, water in check dam lasts through the next monsoon and helps me get through at least one cropping season,” says Babariya.

Except rainfall, there is no other irrigation source for the 400 farmers of this village, which is located upstream of the dam built on the Fofal river. Rainwater from here flows to the river and benefits the downstream villages. The villages’ drinking water needs are met from the dam and the underground tanks people have made in their homes to store water.

Water conservation structures like check dams, percolation tanks and farm ponds have played a key role in turning around Saurashtra’s drought conditions by increasing groundwater levels and adding to the agricultural growth in the area.

Babariya says though he doesn’t expect any profit on his cash crop, he is assured and relieved that he won’t incur any loss either in the drought-like conditions of Saurashtra.

However, not all farmers in Saurashtra are as reassured.

Please click here to read more.

Down to Earth, 19 April, 2019, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/water/saurashtra-woes-policy-change-on-check-dams-leads-to-water-deficit-64073


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