Drought has reached unprecedented levels in the last 2 years
with devastating socio – economic consequences for our country.
Here I would like to share an amazing story (shared by
someone I truly admire – Amit Chandra, head of private equity Bain Capital and
one of the most active and inspiring philanthropists in india). It is an
incredible story of how some individuals and ngos got together to tackle this
issue through desilting.
What is desilting ?
There are thousands of primarily earth filled dams across
India (about 1845 in Maharashtra). Most have accumulated significant amount of
silt (soil or sediment in water bodies), leading to reduced water storage
capacity. Desilting is the process of reducing the silt in water bodies for
increasing the storage capacities.
Live case study – Jiv Rekha Dam (Jalna)
Facts of the case
- 1,15,000 tractor trolleys of silt excavated from the dam to increase capacity by 10%
- silt transported by farmers and applied to 1500 acres of land
Benefits of Desilting
Water availability
Water availability
- All 7 villages drawing water daily since may 2013 and not facing water issues
- Nearly 40 irrigation wells and 12 drinking water wells recharge
- Farmer income increased due to improvement in farm productivity due to silt application.
- Farmers input costs reduced due to lower fertiliser usage
- Decrease in government spending on fertilizer subsidy and drought mitigation measures (esp no loan waivers required
- Savings on water tankers which are extremely expensive to operate
The cost of desilting was 1.7 cr and the returns in year 1
itself were 6.4 cr !! This is what we call an extremely high social return on
investment J
The team has replicated this successful model in 3 more dams
in Beed this year and post monsoon will share the statistics on benefits. The
team is also working on pitching this model to the government (PMO) so that the
government can make this a national initiative that can be replicated in more villages!!
I know Amit himself has been camping in Latur and Beed for
several days to personally supervise and make sure the work gets completed
before monsoon.
Stories like these give me hope…… hope that smart and caring
individuals can make a difference and may have the luck and ability ......to scale this nationwide…..to
positively impact the lives of millions
of poor farmers who are the pride of our nation !!
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