Villagers turn water warriors, tackle drought with rainwater harvesting Switch From Rain-Fed Crops To Cash Crops

PARCHED STATE Hiware Bazar: For those who wonder if Maharashtra can tide over the current drought situation, Hiware Bazar, with its 'yes we can' spirit, is the answer. Notwithstanding the fact that Ahmednagar is facing its worst drought since Independence, Hiware Bazar in the same district has no water scarcity.      It's not that Nature favoured Hiware Bazar with a special bounty. In fact, the village had received a normal rainfall of 199 mm last year, just like most regions that are hit by water scarcity today. But the 1,300 residents of Hiware Bazar scripted their destiny differently.      Change began in the early 90s when Popatrao Pawar (51) took over as the sarpanch and sensed the potential of rainwater harvesting and tree-plantation. "At that time, water scarcity and lack of employment were the chief concerns of villagers," said Pawar, recalling that women were forced to walk over 2 km for water and farmers had to scrounge for work in neighbouring villages. He realized that he could solve both the problems at a go if he employed farmers to build water-saving assets for the village.      The gram sabha started out with a van kshetra (local plantation) initiative wherein farmers were paid through the state's employment guarantee scheme to plant saplings of lemon, custard apple and tamarind. Motivated by the success, the gram sabha then systematically involved villagers in building trenches and earthern bunds, which transformed over 1,000 hectares into a watershed of sorts. All the initiatives were funded through various government schemes.      As farms began to be infused with water, community camaraderie swelled. In 1994, the villagers decided to ban private borewells, a measure that helped conserve the groundwater table. Three years later, they charted a mutually beneficial cropping pattern, banning water-intensive crops such as sugar cane and bananas.      The strategic move enabled the villagers to slowly switch from rain-fed crops such as bajra and jowar to cash crops like onions and potatoes. "We have a 1.5 acre farm and our annual onion yield earns us enough profit to keep us going through the year," said Vimalbai Vithal (55), a farmer. At a time when drought-hit villagers elsewhere are struggling to make ends meet, Hiware Bazar boasts of an annual Rs 1-crore yield of onions, a daily milk collection of 3,000 litres and two percolation tanks brimming with water.      Similar conservation efforts have proved successful in villages like Kadvanchi in Jalna and Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar.      Experts believe the soil and water conservation initiatives implemented in villages like Hiware Bazar need to be replicated across drought-hit regions. A delegation of farmers from Hiware Bazar will, in fact, tour 20 parched districts in the Marathwada region from mid-March on a mission to spread water literacy.      Former member of Maharashtra State Planning Board H M Desarda said there is scarcity, even in areas with normal rainfall because groundwater is not adequately recharged. "Indiscriminate sand mining has further depleted the water table," he said, adding that the state needs to shift its priority from medium and large dams to multiple micro-watershed development and in-situ rainwater harvesting projects. "If the soil is kept well, it can hold up to 40% of rainwater."  RPI chief donates over 50k for relief I n a veiled attack on the NCP, Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athavale on Tuesday blamed incomplete irrigation projects for the water scarcity in the state. "This drought is government made," he claimed. The NCP has controlled the irrigation department for the last 14 years. The former MP said that he will donate the Rs 52,585 he receives in monthly allowances to the chief minister's drought relief fund.      Athavale demanded that water from water-sufficient areas along the Konkan coastline be tapped and diverted to parched areas wherever possible. TNN SCRIPTING SUCCESS: Hiware Bazar in Ahmednagar district boasts of an annual Rs 1-crore yield of onions, a daily milk collection of 3,000 litres and two percolation tanks brimming with water