Last month, Latur district in Marathwada faced its worst-ever drought and water wagons had to be transported to the parched area. However, in August, Latur is in a comfortable position as its rivers have been rejuvenated.
Rena river, which is almost four km long, is seven meters deep and has adjoining fields of around 50 acres. It is here that the process of desilting was carried out, which has increased the height of the water table in the river and helped percolation of water, which in turn keeps the borewell and wells of the district full.
Desilting is a process where silt, which is earthy matter and fine sand, gets deposited in a river and chokes the flow of water is removed with a help of a machine.
Talking to The Hindu, Achyut Marutikotde a farmer said, “The rent of one machine for an hour was Rs 1950 for rent and Rs 1000 was given by Art of Living (AOL) under its programme. It was carried out by two machines which worked for almost 24 hours a day for four months.”
The programme by AOL is called Jal Jagruti Abhiyan, taken up under the leadership of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to create awareness among villagers and also make monetary contributions in rejuvenating the rivers of Maharashtra
Mahadev Gomare, an agriculturist and a volunteer at AOL said about 40 per cent or around 9 lakh cubic metres of silt was removed from the river, giving it a new life. The silt in turn is used in the fields to help level the adjoining farm where sharecropping was taken up and soyabean, corn, turn and urad dal were sown. He also said around 150 families benefit from the river and that even if it doesn’t rain anymore in Latur, they are still in a comfortable position till the next monsoon.
Villagers and AOL has also revived the Manjara river, the lifeline of Latur. It is about 143 km long and provides water to around five lakh people in 20 villages. Mr Gomare said that about 43 lakh cubic metres of silt was removed by going three meters deep. The entire process took two months and cost around Rs. 6 crore. He said that around Rs. 3 crore was collected by villagers, around Rs 1.5 crore by AOL and the rest by other groups and organisations.
Makrand Jadhav, another volunteer with AOL said, “The process is simple, it is ‘lift and lead’. We remove the silt which is ‘lift’ and provide it to the field, which is ‘lead’.” And since it is a social activity that benefits the villagers we get the machines and other logistical requirements at half the rate.”
