|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Case Study
Elders Called It Unbelievable
He continues, " …We were at a loss to deal with the situation. We tried to get the drain excavated and knocked at all possible doors from the Drainage Division of the Gandak Project, the local Block Office to the collector of Saran for help. Everywhere, there were assurances but no work was done on the ground. It was not done even when Daroga Prasad Rai became Chief Minister of State in 1970. Our village was a part of his constituency. When he could not do anything to drain this water out, we lost all hopes and resigned to our fate."
JJVSS then decided to put earth before the canal head and block the canal. This was easy and was accomplished with Shramdaan . The first phase was thus over. The canal water would not enter the Chaur anymore. The pre-canal situation was brought back. But the agriculture operation had to be resumed. The elderly people could not believe this that the canal could ever be closed. The old practices of Dhenki, or Done irrigation were shunned and wells were outdated but, nevertheless, irrigation was needed for the Rabi crop. It was also needed for the Kharif crop in case of the failure of Hathia (October) rains. Water was available in the Chaur that could be used for paddy as well as for Rabi crop. The problem was how to lift this water into the fields and whether that is possible at all. Where was the money to do all this? Should the Samiti take loans from somewhere or should it approach the Government to do something for the village? Earlier experience on both the fronts had not been very happy. End of a Century Old Woe
That Little Push Indo German Social Service Society (IGSSS), a development group based in New Delhi showed interest in the drainage of the Puraina Chaur for two reasons. One, most of the project applications made to IGSSS from this part of the country comprised of relief support to the local people but here was a proposal that talked about income generation and food security. If the project succeeds, it will encourage people to self reliant and the demand for relief will cease, and two, it will set a chain reaction and induce other NGOs and their donors to look differently at the flood and water logging problem of Bihar. The project report aimed at making use of available water in both the seasons, i.e., the Kharif and the Rabi. Nav Jagriti planned to sow the traditional and also improved variety of paddy in deep waters during the Kharif season. It also proposed to intensify the Rabi cultivation by providing irrigation with the help of Diesel Pump of 10 HP rating and laying a 1250 meters long PVC rigid pipe line of 15 centimeters diameter. This irrigation system would have its source in the water collected in the Chaur and the command area would spread beyond the wetted area. This idea was to provide irrigation in the uplands of the village first by the Chaur water so that more and more land emerges from the Chaur and is prepared for the Rabi crop immediately. The nallah leading to the Gandak drains the water at its own slow speed but lifting of the Chaur water by the pump would supplement the process and emergence of the dryland fit for agriculture would be accelerated. IGSSS was convinced of the proposal and decided to support the venture. There was a mood of festivity in the Chaur villages as the news spread that resources were available for taking up a scheme that would not only help in draining the Chaur but will also provide irrigation. Thanks to dynamic leadership of Nav Jagriti, everything looked so bright for the village. Our Boys did it
The road connecting Shitalpur to Maker passes through the middle villages Anjani and Sikati and the pipeline extended beyond this road. Most of the command area of the lift is located on western side of the road where no irrigation facility was available. The pipeline fills this gap now.
Growing Confidence
Changing Face of the Village
(This case study has emerged following the implementation of a series of projects funded by GEF UNDP Small Grants Programme CEE.) |
|||
"I could never imagine cultivating these fields in my life since I was forced to stop it in late 1970s. This Puraina Chaur (depressed land), spreads over an area of 365 hectares, had its drainage to the Gandak through the nallah that used to pass through the villages of Banauta, Mukund, Patti Mujauna, Bhabhangama, Sirhapar, Balaha, Bhikari Chaora and Baligaon. Over the years, this nallah got choked and the drainage time was on the rise but agriculture somehow continued. This Phulbaria distributary that you see here is taken out from Saran Main Canal of the Gandak Project and was constructed between 1977 and 1980. This canal used to breach frequently and that made situation worse for us as all the canal water used to get collected in the Chaur. That made the already crippled drainage impossible. Our agriculture came to a standstill then since the water would only come. It would not go," says Ashrafi Sahni (75) a resident of village Sikati, block Parsa, District Saran.
Ashrafi Sahni did cultivate his fields in 2002 and grew maze, paddy and sugar cane on it after a lapse of about 25 years. His dreams were realized when a group of young men and women in the village, who had heard the story of their forefathers cultivating the Chaur, came together under the banner of Jal Jamav Virodhee Sangharsh Samiti (JJVSS), in 1990, to do something with the accumulated water there. Some of these young men and women had seen the canal functioning in their childhood, which had fallen into disuse since 1985 or so. The Gandak Project was in doldrums and there was neither money nor the intention to make the canal functional. The control gate at the distributary head works was left open. All the request to shut this gate fell in deaf ears. This involved no money but the gates could not be lowered. Water used to enter the Phulbaria distributary through this gate and fill the Chaur. JJVSS members decided to close the gate of the canal to prevent water entering it but failed because the gate was rusted and jammed. It could not be lowered. This meant that the canal water could keep bothering villagers.
In fact, the Puraina Chaur is located on the fringe of another big Chaur called Hardia Chaur which is spred over an area 32,000 of hectares encompassing 28 villages of four blocks, namely Sonepur, Dighwara, Dariyapur and Parsa of the Saran district. The major portion of this Chaur is located in the Dariyapur block. W.W. Hunter, in his book, Statistical Account of Bengal, had mentioned about this Chaur and said that a scheme for draining the water from that Chaur was likely to be taken up shortly. That was in 1877. Unfortunately, only proposals were drafted in past about 125 years but the drainage of the Hardia Chaur is still reported to be taken up shortly. The people of the Chaur area are still waiting for some miracle to happen. If this Chaur Scheme had taken up by the Government in past, the lot of the farmers in the area would have improved significantly. The Puraina Chaur would also have been drained along with Hardia.
Nav Jagriti, a voluntary organisation based in Sikati, came to the rescue of the village. It knew the past history of this Chaur and it also that resource crunch within the state would delay the drainage scheme further. The choice, thus, was very limited. One had to wait for the Government to muster enough resources so that the work on the Hardia Chaur could be started which had been kept in abeyance for the past 125 years. To hope that the work would really start soon was unbelievable. Nav Jagriti took the services of an engineer to advice whether such lifting is possible and if so, what would be costs involved? Being told that lifting of water was feasible and the costs manageable, it took the initiative to find some source that would undertake the funding of such a project, be it a loan. Its volunteers prepared a project report that could be presented before some of the donors for funding. It was found out after a detailed surveys that the drainage of the Hardia Chaur was not very easy to handle, for an organisation like Nav Jagriti but it was far more cheaper to lift the water for supplementary irrigation in Kharif season and reclaim, at least, 120 hectares of land for Rabi crops. Farmers own this land that was likely to be reclaimed and should that happen, 300 families would be supported by the reclaimed land.
Shankar Rai (60), the president of the Anjani Panchayat observes with utter dismay, " …We could never imagine the speed at which the pump was sucking the Chaur water. We had a feeling that a small pump and the 1250 meters long pipe line would be grossly insufficient to remove water from the Chaur but seeing the water emerging at the tail end in the Harijan Tala of Sikati was a pleasant surprise. Nav Jagriti had put tapping bends at different points along the length of the pipeline and each one was functional. We could tap water wherever we wanted. That was an unbelievable sight but our boys had done it."
2002-03 was the first crop season when the project became functional. The villagers could cultivate their fields this time after a lapse of 25 years. The farmers in the area have a very small land holding. Hardly anybody would posses more than a bigha of land. The normal land holding ranges from 10 decimals to 40 decimals. Some 225 farmers came forward to cultivate Rabi crop but the land under the plough was only 16 hectares. That shows the availability of land per family. The crops grown were potato, maize, wheat, mustard, other oil seeds and some vegetables.
Jiuti Kunwar (50), an issueless widow residing with her nephew, his wife and two children in Mallah Toli of Sikati village says, " …I have a small patch of land near my home in the village. There was no irrigation available and hence barring some rain fed crops, nothing would grow on my field. There is a hard crust of stone under the ground in this patch. Attempts were made by some farmers to install a boring here in the past but without any success. This pipeline laid in the village has turned our fortunes. An outlet is taken out from the pipeline just near my field and I can irrigate my field now. Rabi was not known in this area because irrigation was not there. I grew potato and pea on my field. Most of my family needs were met by this produce and I could also make some money out of selling the potato."
The case of Chandreshwar Singh (40) is bit different. He has two brothers, one of them has moved to Delhi with his family to look for employment. The younger one lives with him. Between two brothers, the family owns 2.5 bighas of land that includes half a bigha homestead land and orchads. Of the remaining two bighas, one bigha was located in the Puraina Chaur and, thus, was useless for the family. The other one bigha was upland without any irrigation. For all practical purposes, Chandreshwar Singh was landless. With the installation of the pipeline, his one bigha of upland started getting irrigation and other bigha of land, that used to remain submerged in the Chaur, emerged out of water and was fit for Rabi cultivation. He could take green gram in the Rabi season and has sown paddy now. On his upland, located in the Haijan Tala of Sikati, he grew potato, peas, tissi and wheat. Thus where his yields were nil until last year, he gets all these crops now. This, not only meets the family needs but has also given fodder base for the cattle that he had been keeping for his livelihood. Some initiative, some help and some enterprise has changed the face of the village.