Drinking water crisis overcome with support of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme

To fight salinity ingress, here women harvest rainwater

Sibte Husain Bukhari

Mangrol, December 31: Thanks to the innovative rainwater harvesting scheme launched by the Rural Support Programme of Agha Khan Foundation, more than two dozen villages in this taluka of Junagadh district have managed to overcome the drinking water crisis. The scheme is being implemented in coastal areas where salinity ingress has been a perennial problem.

And the agents of change in these villages are none other than the women. Volunteers of the Foundation are tapping the potential of women, who are known to appreciate the day-to-day domestic problems better than men.

The Foundation, with the help of village women, till now has built 2,500 underground rainwater storage tanks. The storage capacity of each tank is 20,000 litres and is enough to meet the drinking water needs of a family for a whole year.

The building of the tanks has now saved the rural folk of the strenuous job of fetching water from a distance of two to three kilometre.

According to Daxaben Vadher of Farangta village, the new way of getting drinking water is a welcome relief. ‘‘Earlier, we had to walk about three km to fetch water…our men were not ready to understand this problem, but the Foundation’s workers helped us,’’ she says, adding that they now get clean drinking water.

To make rainwater conservation a regular affair, the field workers of the Foundation have mobilised women to form groups, who are given the mandate of carrying the message forward. And with the help of these groups, the Foundation’s workers organise street plays, cultural programmes and rallies to create awareness about the importance of rainwater conservation.

Agha Khan Foundation’s community organiser V K Jogal says they have now mobilised hundreds of women in 30 villages in Mangrol taluka for implementing the rainwater harvesting scheme. ‘‘We provide them technical support and they are now able to get drinking water round the year from a resource that is their own,’’ he said. Besides the rainwater harvesting campaign, the Foundation is also undertaking the task of helping farmers to recharge farm wells. ‘‘More than 200 wells in the area have been recharged with rainwater,’’ said Jogal.

Nazabhai Bharda, a farmer in Shil village, says recharging the farm well has given them a new lease of life. ‘‘Our farm is the only means of livelihood. Now, in addition to monsoon crop, we can also reap winter crop,’’ he says.

Foundation’s area manager M S Vora says mobilising women power is what lies behind the success story. ‘‘Ahmedabad-based NGO ‘Jan-Path’ and ‘Save Gir-Save Nature’ movement have also been lending their helping hand to us in preventing salinity ingress in the costal belt of South Saurashtra region,’’ Vora says.

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