Palwal (Haryana): Rainwater conservation in recent times has become a bulwark against the depleting water resources. Given the shortage of water in the country, Bhiduki village in Palwal district of Haryana has set an extraordinary example of rainwater conservation. The efforts of the villagers made it to the headlines after it received appreciation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Few years back, people in Bhiduki village were facing immense trouble during the rainy season due to lack of poor water drainage coupled with waterlogging in the region.
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In 2016, Satyadev Gautam, a B.Tech and MBA graduate, was elected as Sarpanch of the village. Gautam installed a water harvesting plant in the government school of the village. Arrangements were made to affix pipes to collect water from the roof-top of the school building while connecting road and the rest of the waterlogged areas through the drains.
Three under-ground water tanks about 8 ft. wide and 10 ft. long were also built to collect the rainwater. These three tanks were inter-connected to each other. The first two tanks act as water filters. Solid waste is filtered in the first tank while slurry and other finer impurities are filtered in another tank.
At the same time, 120 meters deep bore-well has been dug in the third tank. The water is sent back to the ground through the bore-well. Before sending water to the ground, it is filtered through a filtration system for purification. Layers of three types of metal stones have been laid in the tank along with a layer of fine-grained stones so that the water impurities are filtered.
As a result, nearly 40 houses in Harjin Basti of Bhiduki village got a new life due to water harvesting. The result is that water does not accumulate on the streets during the rainy season as all the water gets collected through the drains to reach the tank and keeps slowly dripping into the ground.
Not only this, but the problem of water overflowing from the pond in the middle of the village was also transformed into an irrigation system during the monsoon.
Gautam has connected the johad (small pond) to the fields using the sewerage line. Now, whenever the water of this pond reaches above a certain level during monsoon, water can be channelised to the fields through sewerage pipe by installing a pump-set.
To make water accessible to every field in the village, Gautam has got about 6 feet wide and 10 feet long pits dug at every 200 to 300 meters distance in the village fields for about two kilometres. The sewerage pipe of johad is connected to these pits. Farmers put pipes in these pits and irrigate their fields as and when required.
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Almost one-and-a-half years back, a pond was also excavated in 4 acres of land outside Bhiduki village. This pond is completely crude and un-floored so that the rainwater can get accumulated in it. Water from this pond is also used for agricultural purposes, but its main aim is that the water should be absorbed into the earth naturally so that the groundwater level also gets replenished.
Gautam has also connected these two johads to the rajwaha (small canal) passing through the outskirts of the village using the pipeline. During the rainy season, if the water reaches above the limit, then the water of these two johads can be released into the canal. Following this, chances of flooding in the village and the water released through this rajwaha are eliminated and in turn, become beneficial to other farmers as well.
Witnessing the novel way of development made by the village using technological and innovative ideas, Palwal District Magistrate Jitendra Kumar has also appreciated the local administration.
People of neighbouring villages are getting inspired by seeing the dedication of locals of Bhiduki village towards water conservation and are coming forward to implement the same techniques in their region to over water scarcity.
