Author: Aditi Pai
Publication: India Today
Date: September 18, 2006
Introduction: Thanks to the ingenuity of a retired cop, five villages end dependency on tankers by collecting rainwater
Not one to spend his post-retirement years relaxing in an armchair, reading stories to his grandchildren, Suryakant Jog has instead directed his energies towards devising and implementing ingenious ways of storing rainwater to address the problem of water shortage. Towards that end, the 75-year-old former DGP has already succeeded in raising water levels in the Yerla, Chikhalsavangi, Warul and Kharapur villages of Amravati district, bordering Satpura range in Maharashtra.
In 1997, Jog had, for the first time, installed corrugated sheets and pipes on a school building in Chikhaldara to collect rainwater. The 3 lakh litres of water collected in six tanks was found to be potable even eight months after the monsoons. Taking into account the expenses involved, the water cost villagers Rs 2.25 per litre-cheaper than tanker water. "This water meets the needs of 2,000 people of two villages during the critical 100 days of summer," says Jog.
Bolstered by the success, Jog set his sights on collecting rainwater which would drain off the narrow village roads. Armed with the requisite permits, in 2002 he erected 100 gabion structures (short walls constructed with stones and held together by black soil) along a 15-km stretch between Morshi and Warul. "With average rainfall, these structures can collect 22 crore litres of water. Leaving a margin for evaporation, about 10 crore litres can be collected every season," says Jog, who shelled out most of the money for building these structures which cost Rs 2,000 each. In the very first year, the groundwater level in 82 wells rose by almost 9ft. "The 11,000-km-long road in Maharashtra can be effectively used for this," says Jog.
In Morshi, he constructed small bunds or vasundharas across streams and nullahs to make rainwater seep into the ground. The results proved miraculous for orange farmers. "The orange orchards had gone dry because of indiscriminate digging and deepening of bore wells," says Jog. Each vasundhara, costing Rs 75,000, can help store up to one crore litres of water and Jog plans to build these in 15 more locations. "Mission Jal Jagruti" in Lakhar, a tribal village with a population of 300, is the latest in line. "I want to make it a tanker-free village," says Jog, evidently retired from work, but not from life.