How a barren Pune village created a lake?

Pune

Sayambachiwadi in Baramati tehsil in Pune district of Maharashtra was, stricken with drought, is now a picnic spot with a large lake and thriving agriculture.

The story of its transformation is inspiring in a time when much of India is facing water shortages.

At the epicentre of this transformation is the village lake, spread over 6 acres of land, and hedged by manicured lawns sloping down the embankment. Before the lockdown people visited the village for a picnic and enjoyed a boat ride in the lake. Besides, one can also see crash guards, drains abutting the asphalted road, fencing, walking track, an open-air gym giving this tank bund a look of a small resort.

Located 60 km from Pune, the village of 1,403 hectares and 1,800 people receives moderate rain during the monsoon and locals grow only Kharif crop. After the monsoon, the villagers had to rely on water tankers even to meet their drinking water needs; four tanks had turned dry.

In 2018, the decision of the village panchayat to participate in the Satyamev Jayate Water Cup organised by the Paani Foundation of Actor Amir Khan was the beginning of the turnaround. However, it hit a roadblock that year.

Thousands of villages from Maharashtra have been participating in the annual competition since 2016. It involves Shramadaan or voluntary labour by the villagers using shared traditional knowledge of rain harvesting.

Sunanda Rajendra Pawar, chairperson, Sharadabai Pawar Girls' College in Malegaon, Baramati, was instrumental in bringing about the attitudinal change in the villagers who were against sending their womenfolk outside for training. For seven years, NSS students from her college had been undertaking camps in Sayambachiwadi where they had constructed seven bunds.

Participation in the competition requires an equal number of women contestants as men from the village who would then undergo six-day training outside the village. This clause was not acceptable to the gram panchayat.

Finally, Sayambachiwadi had to shed inhibitions to bring about this change.

At this stage, Sunanda intervened to counsel the villagers. She held meetings, study tours and workshops, and finally all agreed to send three women on training for the competition.

In 2019, Jaywant Bhapkar and his two friends from the village volunteered. Jaywant told media persons, "We saw it as anafter theyopportunity for an outing and registered our names for the competition.”

"The training was in Bichkool, (a village in Satara district), where the welcome overwhelmed me. Different water conservation structures were built there. They helped us understand how these structures worked through demonstrations. We witnessed how a drought-stricken village was now water surplus. All of this changed my casual attitude," Jaywant said.

After returning home, Jayanti and others shared their Bichkool experience with the gram sabha. Initially, the locals were not impressed and didn't commit to joining the movement. Prithviraj Lad, the coordinator of Paani Foundation Baramati, however, continued to motivate villagers by showing them videos of the transformation of other villages.

 Finally, the villagers started showing interest. Villagers took out a torchlight procession on the eve of starting the work; they also took an oath before the Swayambhu (village deity) to work honestly for the competition.

The villagers built seven continuous contour trenches (CCT) in the barren areas to revive the natural path of water streams. All four defunct ponds were de-silted and the mud removed was dumped in 50 hectares of fallow land. Absorption pits were built in every house to retain water; 11 interlinked farm ponds were created that got filled up during the monsoon.

That year the village team lost the competition yet they could smell their long-term victory.

Bunds to check the soil erosion and flow of the run of the mill water were raised on 250 acres of land. There was copious rainfall in 2019 and 2020, all the old and new water bodies in the village started overflowing

The once water-scarce village was now water surplus. The area under cultivation went up to 300 acres in 2020 as against 70 acres three years ago. 250 acres supported sugarcane, a notoriously water-intensive crop.

 "Living in a drought-affected area, I had never cultivated cash crops. But in 2012, I started planting an acre of sugarcane. At that time I had some water in the well, so I added drip irrigation. All the while I was scared about the scarcity of water. After the water conservation work was done for the foundation, my well is full of water. Now I have five acres of sugarcane crop, in which four acres are under drip irrigation. And I don't worry about water anymore, but I know the value of water," Appasaheb Bhapkar, a farmer from the village, said.

Manohar Bhapkar, a former GP member, said that currently there is plenty of water in the village.” During the competition, he was responsible for managing the suction pits, 260 of which were being constructed in the village. This initiative helped treat wastewater from every household there. 

Suman Suresh Kamble, former sarpanch, said, "Now my village is not drought-prone. In the past, we had to undertake a long trek every day for water and rely on tankers for water. Now our wells are full in summer also. From the gram panchayat fund, we started boating and other recreational avenues in the lake. This now attracts people from Baramati and Pune."

“As part of water budgeting, we are educating farmers to opt for drip irrigation and grow crops with less water. We have drawn up a five-year plan using various sources of funds under which bunds will be constructed on 200 to 250 hectares each year and 2000 saplings planted and nurtured every year,” said Pramod Jagtap, interim sarpanch of the village.

Sayambachiwadi is now a model for other drought-hit villages with villagers come here on study tours. Rohit Pawar, MLA of Karjat Jamkhed, who visited the village said, "I will strive to implement this project in my constituency.”