Every drop of rainwater must be saved: Expert

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Saving rainwater is a significant step leading to sustainable use of natural resources in a country like the Sultanate of Oman and adopting rainwater harvesting and recharging groundwater is one of the simplest and best measures in conserving water.

“Every drop of water that falls on its earth should be saved,” said Mayank Gandhi, who pioneered nation-building through rural revival and empowerment of the villages of India.

It is not humanly possible to collect all water, but the construction of check dams is one of the viable solutions. They will improve water conservation in an arid zone country like Oman, he said.

In an interview with the Observer during his visit to address a meeting of the Indian Social Club, he said: “Capturing rainwater and channelling it into the ground will replenish the groundwater level. This stored water can cater to agriculture, household and other needs”.

The increased use of groundwater adversely affects its quality in areas near the sea, and this directly requires reducing the use of fresh groundwater in areas affected by salinity.

In the Sultanate of Oman, salinity treatment is one of the difficult operations. There must, therefore, be appropriate measures to control salts in the soil so that it does not exceed the permissible limits.

Availability of water resources is the most important factor in the agricultural sector as the agricultural sector consumes about 90 per cent of the renewable water resources in the Sultanate of Oman.

“With depleting groundwater levels and fluctuating climate conditions, this measure can go a long way to help mitigate the adverse effects rising water scarcity in addition to reserving rainwater that can help recharge local aquifers”, said Mayank, who launched the Global Parli, a pilot project with rural economic transformation goals.

Water harvesting and conservation is the fountainhead for any agricultural endeavour. Once the fountainhead is established, all agricultural activity will flourish.

“This logically leads to maximising income from land. Horticulture is the answer,” he said.

Water harvesting will make villages drought-proof and then transform lives by increasing social harmony and increasing incomes multiple times, he said.

Sharing his experience with Global Parli and Global Kachchh, Mayank, who is basically an urban planner with experience in a number of counties, said that a severe drought in the Marathwada region of the Indian state of Maharashtra changed his life in 2016.

Kachchh in Gujarat has historically been a water-starved district. To create substantial water storage in all the villages in the next three years, the first phase of the project will be rolled out in 2022 across 160 villages of Abdasa and Mandvi talukas for the integrated development of water storage.

“The situation was so desperate that a feeling of hopelessness prevailed all over the region. Suicides and deaths due to malnutrition were common occurrences. Water became a scarce commodity. It was in this crisis that the first seeds of Global Parli were sown”, he said.

Mayank decided to work with a cluster of 15 villages in Parli despite not knowing the local language. As an emergency relief measure, water through tankers was supplied to 38 villages every day for two months. An average of Rs 5 lakh ($6,585.69 approximately) was spent each week on water supply.

“For the first two years, 2016 and 2017, the focus was on supplying water through tankers and all-around development in the areas of education, water management, healthcare, social reforms etc,” said Mayank.

Although the water supply was adequate to bring temporary relief to the local community, it was not a viable long-term solution. A concrete and sustainable measure had to be implemented to improve the lives of the people.

“In 2018, we created 2.2 million litres of water storage – 70 kms of deepening and widening of the river and its tributaries, 164 farm ponds, 62 check dams. More importantly, the water table increased from around 500 feet to 50-70 feet. All of this was accomplished through voluntary physical labour of thousands of villagers”, he said.

At the beginning of the project, three major gaps were identified to be fixed. First was the quality of saplings, second was capacity building of farmers, and lastly, there was a primary need for cluster identification, which is necessary for cluster marketing.

So far, Global Parli has planted millions of fruit trees in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh with a focus on forward linkages, replication and institutionalisation.