How NGO Gravis Helping Rajasthan Villages Turn Water Sufficient In Years To Come

NGO Gravis is using traditional techniques to help arid Rajasthan villages turn water sufficient in years to come

- Naini Thaker

In the 1980s the nomadic tribal community of Bawariya— traditionally known to make and sell local liquor illegally— owned land in Sadawton, a village in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district, but never settled there. As the village was located in a hilly area, rainwater would flow down its slopes, making the region arid and farming impossible.

Around 10 years ago, Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (Gravis), an NGO, decided to work on food and water security in Sadawton by “going back to the basics”; it meant tweaking designs of traditional structures instead of reinventing the wheel. For a region that receives less than 200 mm of rainfall a year, the NGO decided to start by getting the community to save as much water as possible through watershed management.

Step one was to build khadins (embankments to collect surface runoffs for farming) on every farm. “As part of the food-forwork programme, we brought the community together to make small khadins for individual farms,” says Rajendra Kumar, senior programme coordinator, Gravis. Khadins help accumulate rainwater and replenishes groundwater.

The proof of the pudding lies in the five-odd hectare green patch that flanks the newly built brick home of Mansukh Ram Bawari, who decided to take up farming around the time Gravis began its project in the region. “A year ago, there was nothing here,” says Kumar.

Although, in early July, there were no signs of the monsoon in the region, Bawari’s lush farm indicated the success of the khadins. “No one even had mud houses here. But today, thanks to the successful farming, 125 families have settled here,” says Bawari.

Earlier, farming was entirely dependent on the monsoon; but now the soil absorbs enough water for villagers to produce a kharif (winter) crop. “When the organisation first introduced khadins, we used to hear stufflike, ‘Yeh kitna