Rain water harvesting case study

ORGANIZATION INTRODUCTION:

Sankalpa Rural Development Society (SRDS) is a non profit, voluntary organization established in 2008 in Kotumachagi of the Gadag district. The main objective of SRDS is “To create awareness on natural resource management in the community by ensuring the people’s participation and community ownership of the structures”. SRDS strongly believes in two parts of rain water harvesting projects: rooftop rain water harvesting in urban areas and bore well recharging in rural areas.

SRDS spreads throughout the North West Karnataka region. Today the organization has reached 25 beneficiaries through bore well recharge in 5 villages of the Dharwad district. In urban Hubli, SRDS successfully promoted 36 roof top rain water harvesting structures for households and constructed a pond which holds 50,00,000 litres on BVB CET’s campus in Hubli. SRDS constructed 6 rain water harvesting structures to be used as a drinking water in educational institutions in Hubli’s urban area.

In the present case study, we are discussing success stories of the farmers and how the water resources were rejuvenated with SRDS intervention through bore well recharge.

PROGRAM BACK GROUND:

Depletion of natural resources is one of the root causes of the poverty in rural India. There is a direct link between the environment and poverty. Due to population growth and demand for food production, underground water is rapidly depleted through the digging of more bore wells. Ground water is one of the contributing economic factors for rural farmers. Recognising this fact, SRDS implemented the rain water harvesting project for bore wells, in 3 villages of Hubli and 2 villages in Kalghatgi Taluk of the Dharwad district.

Kamplikoppa is one village among the villages selected for the program. SRDS executed 9 bore wells in this village. Kamplikoppa is located at 18 Kms away from Hubli. The project village belongs to the southern transition zone, with 934 mm as annual rain fall. The project launched in April, 2010 with the objective of rejuvenating the existing bore wells by recharging with rain water which automatically leads to improvement in crop yield and water availability throughout the year.

The farmers in this village are facing an irregular availability of ground water which affects their livelihood and economic condition. They have invested a bulk amount on their bore wells. Due to shortage of underground water availability, they were only able to grow erratic monsoon crops. In April,2010 SRDS initiated the rain water harvesting project supported by the Deshpande Foundation.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE:

The project was implemented for a one year period. During that time, SRDS focused on creating awareness on rain water harvesting through orientation, exposure and cross learning training programs for the farmers. To enhance the community participation, SRDS executed the rain water harvesting by recharging the bore wells with a 50% contribution from the community to ensure the active participation and sustainability of the project. The contribution may be in the form of labor, obtaining input materials or cash. Here are some successful stories of the beneficiaries who underwent the project intervention.

1. Devendrappa Basanthappa Basti: Aged about 57, holding 7 hectares of land in the survey no. of 64/69, agriculture is his main source of income. Paddy, maize, soya bean and sugar cane are his main crops. In his land he has 160 mango horticulture species, 116 bamboo species and 120 teak forestry species. In 1990, the first bore well was drilled at a depth of around 180 ft. Again, in 1994 he decided to drill another bore well with a depth of 150 ft. The water from both bore wells was not enough for the irrigation of his entire land. As a result he dug out another bore well. But he failed in getting water. In his land he has a total of 15 bore wells, and out of them, 13 failed leaving only 2 that are functioning.

From 2004 onwards the second bore well eventually decreased the water delivery to only 3 to 5 hours per day in the post monsoon period. It is even hard to get water in summer. So, eventually he thought of closing the bore well. In June 2010, Devendrappa took up the bore well recharge activity and made sure all the drainage rain water diverted to this bore well.

He expressed his opinion on this bore well recharge by saying “now this bore well increased the out flow of ground water and I am even extending it to irrigate the field”. In the month of February 2011, he adopted the sprinkler irrigation method for sugar cane crop and he gradually gained confidence about the bore well recharge. For bore well recharge, he contributed Rs.11,665.00 and the project contribution from SRDS Rs.11665.00. The total expenditure was Rs. 23310.00.

2. Basavaraj Sivappa Unkal: Aged about 45 years, holding 1.2 hectare of land in 17 survey no, his major crops are maize, soyabean and paddy, of 95 horticulture species. He dug a bore well in his land in 1986 with a depth of 240 ft. That bore well functioned in good condition initially, but from 2006 onwards, the bore well out flow decreased. Eventually it became difficult to get water flow for 6 hours in a day. He realized the importance of rain water harvesting and executed the bore well recharge in his field in June, 2010. For the recharge, he needed runoff water from his land. So, he diverted all the runoff water to the bore well location through a diversion channel across the slope. He realized the positive impact of the bore well recharge during the last monsoon soon. Now the bore well out flow has increased to 16 hours/day. For his bore well recharge he contributed Rs. 10363.00 and the SRDS project contribution was Rs. 10363.00. The total expenditure was Rs.20727.00. He is very confident and humbly saying “I percolated rain water in to the bore well through recharge pit than I took out from the bore well”.

With these successful stories, we can clearly say that the project is very useful to the farmers. Within a short period of time, we were able to recharge 15 bore wells with a 50 % contribution to the farmer. Although, it’s quite hard to provide quantifiable data on the growth/yield of the water/crops, SRDS is confident that in two more years, we will have enough date to measure a quantifiable impact.

Date: 31/03/2011

Prepared by : Sankalpa Rural Development Society

DCSE building, BVB –CET campus

Vidya nagar, Hubli -31

Email:sankalpa2020@gmail.com