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Idkidu, a small village in Karnataka has made an impressive beginning in rainwater harvesting. The effort in Idkidu is unique, since it is a community effort. Here the entire village has come together for the cause of water. People here have successfully joined hands, without any external input and has become a model RWH village.
'Idkidu' means 'thrown' in a local Kannada dialect. This small 'thrown village' has become an ideal rain-catching village in its way to restore the lost groundwater level, CAAM team member Mr. Shree Padre writes.
Idkidu is a small farming village in Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka. It is blessed with ample groundwater. This has turned into a curse; with the shift in cultivation from paddy to arecanut (betel nut) and steep in price-rise of this cash crop, borewells were dug indiscriminately. Of late, Groundwater level is shrinking year after year.
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| MLA & other people's representatives observing
a farmer's borewell recharge experiment.
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According to water status survey conducted by Amrutha Sinchana Farmers' Service Federation (ASFSF), a local farmers' organisation, the 2100-acre village has 1/3 of irrigated crop (676 acres) and 364 borewells belonging to 230 farming families. It has its detrimental effect: Out of 303 dug-wells, only 10 per cent (34) have water round the year, whereas nearly 50 per cent (152) of the dug wells dry for a period of 3 months or more. 10 per cent of the bore-wells (35) have turned completely dry. Yield of more than 50 per cent of the borewells (184) is reduced to the tune of 30 per cent or more in the recent years.
Youngsters of the village realised that they aren't on a sustainable path. In the last two years there were two RWH awareness workshops (slide-shows). ASFSF followed it up with two group Jalayatras, one to BAIF farm at Tiptur and another to Kanavu where a huge percolation tank has done wonders for the hamlet. Idkidu farmers were so inspired that they constructed four new check-dams. Some villagers, who misunderstood the slide-shows for popularity gimmicks, were influenced by the Jalayatras where the results were evident.
Nobody knows the actual water status of the village, why not conduct an in-depth survey, they asked themselves. From June to August this year 15 volunteers did the house-to-house job in their spare time. This unique survey also served as an awareness campaign. All the households are now aware that their water source is dwindling in a rapid way; they suggest different remedial measures starting from economy of water use to construction of more farmers' check-dams, harvesting rain etc.
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| Farmer Subraya Bhat has divereted the run-off from the roof
of his house into a dry well : Quick results |
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Not only that more than 20 households have started catching rain in a small way. In some houses they divert the roof-water to the dug-well / bore-well, in yet others trenching, percolating the water in drying yard, groundwater recharge in several ways have begun. At Shanmukh temple, all the roof water is fed to a bore well as well as a nearby dry well.
Explains KS Vishwanath, the Managing Trustee, "This serves as a demonstration for all the devotees who visit the temple." Krishnanand who is recharging two of his borewells with run-off says, " Rainwater from nearly two acres doesn't go waste now."
In a public meeting called " Peoples' planning for Water Sustainability", they showed all the RWH experiments to peoples' representatives like local MLA, Zilla Panchayath Vice-President, DCC Bank officials etc. The people's report based on the Water status survey was released in this unique function. A photo exhibition containing blow-ups of Rain harvesting experiments was held as a part of the function. The volunteers for the survey and rain harvesters were honored by presenting books on RWH.
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The Water Status Survey being analysed & commented
upon by the author.
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HASFSF has drawn the future coarse of action too. Points out Dr KM Krishna Bhat, the spirit behind these unique achieve-ments, " Ten per cent of the total extent of the village is occupied by our houses, cattlesheds and drying yards. We'll, on the first face try to harvest the rain that falls around our houses to ensure that our dug-wells don't go dry in the future. A dug-well for each house is our next objective. At least in the monsoon, we wont take out water from bore-wells, thereby reducing the load on the borewells .In addition to this, we'll have separate committees to look after areas like roof-water
harvesting, construction of check-dams, spreading RWH education in all of our schools etc."
No doubt, though in a very beginning stage, Idkidu has illustrated as to how a motivated community can take up considerable rainharvesting work sans govt support, if right kind of guidance is given." We want to convert our village into a model for others to come and see different methods of rainharvesting, and of course, the community spirit too", Krishna Bhat hopes. With good media light and many RWH experiments at a place, it has started attracting people from outside.
Contact address:
Amrutha Sinchana Raithara Seva Okkoota
C/o Idkidu Service Co-op Bank
Post : Idkidu, Dakshina Kannada District
Karnataka - 574 220
Contact person:
Dr KM Krishna Bhat
Tel: 0825 - 651441, 641179
E-mail: amruthasinchana@yahoo.co.in
Shree Padre can be contacted at shreepadre@sancharnet.in
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