How Bundhelkhand is Fighting Drought?

Bundelkhand region in central India is suffering from persistent droughts. The water availability in the already drought-prone Bundelkhand has become critical since both numbers of days when the region received rainfall, as well as the total quantum of rainfall, have halved over the past decade-and-a-half.

Fighting Drought in Mission Mode

The Banda district of Uttar Pradesh has undertaken following initiatives under its five-point mission to fight drought:

• Kuan Talaab Jiao Abhiyan: Under this villagers are encouraged to restore and revive wells and existing ponds, most of which had dried up.
• Apna Talaab Abhiyan: This encourages farmers to build private talaabs on their private lands.
• Digging and Restoration of Ponds under the  Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
• Voluntary scheme wherein villagers get together to dig a pond, with rights to sell or donate the soil.
• Roping in wealthy non-residents, often hailing from these villages, to fund the efforts under the voluntary scheme.

The efforts are bearing fruits and now many farmers in the region are harvesting three crops instead of one.

Need for Water Conservation

The water availability per person is falling in India at an alarming rate. The water availability per person stood at 5,100 cubic metres in 1950. It has now reduced to just 1,400 cubic metres, and in the coming years, it is likely to go down to 1,000 cubic metres.

One of the main reasons for the reducing trend is the inability for the conservation of rainwater. India receives 4,000 BCM (Billion Cubic Metres) of annual precipitation whereas the holding capacity of the 5,400 reservoirs across the country is less than 300 BCM. Hence to arrest the slide in water availability India must urgently find ways to not only conserve more water but also improve the efficiency of its use.