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Akola Dev villagers create water success story -Ranjana Diggikar
-The Times of India


AURANGABAD: At a time when all of Marathwada is reeling under a drought-like situation, Akola Dev, a small village with a population of 3,000 in the Jafrabad taluka of Jalna district has set an example by introducing efficient water conservation methods in its periphery.

All the villagers have joined hands to implement water conservation methods, thereby enabling them to sustain on last year's rainfall. Moreover, the farmers in the village have completed 100% cultivation of kharif crops and are also supplying drinking water to the neighbouring villages.

People's participation and joint efforts by the government, NGOs and citizens from Aurangabad has helped solve the water crisis in the village.

"Earlier, the village used to depend heavily on water tankers. But by implementing water conservation methods last year, the village was not only able to sustain the severe drought but also supplied drinking water to the neighbouring Temburni, Pokhri, Ganeshpur and Ambegaan villages," said Suman More, a former tehsildar.

Two entrepreneurs from Aurangabad - Anand S Asolkar and Nischal N Shende - played a major role in motivating the villagers. "We are associated with various NGOs and whenever we find time, we move out to extend help to the needy, especially farmers. When we heard about the water scarcity in Akola Dev despite its small irrigation project, we thought of visiting the village," Asolkar said.

"During our visit, we saw that the capacity of the small irrigation project - Jeev Rekha Dharan - which was about 35 years old, had decreased due to accumulation of silt over the years. The decreasing water capacity led to a water crisis. We also observed that there was a huge scope of water percolation by constructing natural check-dams along the banks of the Jeev Rekha river," he said.

"We decided to contact Avinash Pol, a Satara-based medical practitioner, who has initiated many irrigation projects in scarcity-hit rural pockets. Along with Pol, a group of villagers, reviewed the situation again and prepared a master plan," Shende said.

Pol, along with the NGOs Dilasa and Caring Friends and the villagers, decided to undertake desilting of the river.

"The country's economy largely depends on agriculture. It is the need of the hour to concentrate on finding solutions for scarcity-hit agricultural areas," Pol said.

"The villagers were facing a severe crisis, as the water storing capacity of the dam, which was constructed in 1962, had reduced. But after the NGOs helped remove about 1.5 lakh brass of silt in 2012, the capacity of the dam increased by 10%. Moreover, the silt was utilized by the farmers to improve the fertility of their fields," said, Sachin Suryavanshi, block development officer, Jalna.

"The NGOs and the entrepreneurs also built nine natural check dams, each with a length of 100 meters, width of 25 meters and depth of 20 feet. These dams could not only store around 35 lakh litres of water but have also increased the underground water table level of the neighbouring 10 villages. The total cost of the project was about Rs 2 crore," Suryavanshi said.

"Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the district administration engaged villagers in constructing compartment bunds at a cost of Rs 35 lakh on about 350 hectares of land. The aim was to preserve every drop of rainfall in the village. All these efforts improved the water situation in the village. Today, the farmers have taken up kharif crop cultivation when the entire region is suffering," he said.

Lakshman Sawde, chief of community farming in the village, said, "These projects have solved the drinking water problem. We have carried out about 50% cultivation under drip irrigation, making judicious use of water, despite the village receiving only 172 mm of rain this year. Of the total 1,800 hectares of land in the village, farmers have brought around 1,500 hectares under kharif sowing through the water conserved from last year's rainfall."

The Times of India, 20 August, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/aurangabad/Akola-D
ev-villagers-create-water-success-story/articleshow/404456
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