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DAM-L rainwater harevesting/ reservoirs INDIA - important
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From: webadmin <webadmin@cseindia.org>
Organization: Centre for Science and Environment
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Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 18:37:26 +530
Subject: We need your support
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The ultimate tyranny: The government claims it owns the rain
THEREFORE, RAINWATER HARVESTING IS ILLEGAL
What do you say when the state declares that it has a
right over every drop of rain ? That every nallah(drain),
dry or otherwise belongs to the state? That you can be
arrested without a warrant if you so much as capture a
raindrop that may fall in the catchment of a nallah?
IT DOES NOT MATTER IF THE STATE CANNOT GIVE YOU WATER.
YOU, HOWEVER, HAVE NO RIGHT TO HELP YOUSELF.
UNBELIEVABLE? Read On.....
The Rajasthan state government is bent on destroying the
earthen check dam built on the river Ruparel by the
villagers to capture the rain. Their strategy is
simple: Rather than risk the backlash of actually
demolishing the structure, the irrigation department engineers are
forcing the villagers to reduce the height of the spillway to an extent
that it will effectively render the structure redundant.
Terming the efforts of the villagers as illegal, the state irrigation
minister, Kamla Beniwal, has gone so far as to declare that every drop of
rain belongs to the government.
As recent as March, Lava ka Baas village in Thanagazi tehsil of Rajasthan
was like many other water-scarce villages in the country: facing the
devastation caused by drought for the third year. With a population of
about 500 and only one water source, agriculture was a distant dream.
Many hectares of farmland lay bare.
But on March 12, 2001, the villagers started work on what they thought
would change their destiny. They began constructing an johad. The
villagers were optimistic and united in their intent. They had been
convinced of the wisdom of building a johad or check dam on a tributary
of the Ruparel right on the top of its watershed by the workers of Tarun
Bharat Sangh (TBS) , a non-governmental organisation based in Alwar.
It is because of this faith that the poor villagers contributed Rs 3 lakh
of the Rs 8 lakh that was required for johad construction purposes. The
remaining Rs 5 lakh was donated by a businessperson from Churu district.
The 80-metre long and 12-metre high johad was completed in a record time
of less than four months. Gopal Singh of TBS, a veteran gajdhar or rural
enginneer, with many johads to his credit helped design the johad. And
then the irrigation department landed up at the johad site with the
objective of demolishing the structure. Why? Because the johad violated
an agreement on water sharing signed between the princely states of Alwar
and Bharatpur in 1910. The modus operandi: That the structure is unsafe.
The villagers were up in arms and gathered at the site determined not to
let the government destroy what had given them something so precious as
water.
Sensing the mood, the officials changed their tactics. They declared the
structure unsafe and asked the villagers to reduce the height of the
spillway to a point that would make the structure redundant. The
villagers are standing vigil over their structure.
CSE has been consistently promoting the paradigm of community rainwater
harvesting as the paradigm to fight drought and alleviate poverty. So
when on July 1, a disturbed Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh called
up, CSE chairperson Anil Agarwal and director Sunita Narain, CSE decided
to intervene. Attempts were made to reach chief minister Ashok Gehlot and
send newspaper and TV journalists to the site and CSE staffers to get a
first hand. The story has also been covered in the 31st July issue of
Down to Earth.
We need your support to fight a bureaucracy that stakes claim over the
rain that falls in your backyard. That makes rainwater-harvesting
illegal. We urge you to tell us how you can help. Can you
a) Write to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot?
b) Visit the johad site and stand vigil with the villagers?
c) Send us your suggestions or what else we can do or you can help us to
do.
The issue is gathering support. 102 year old Balwant Singh Mehta of
Udaipur has written to Chief Minister Gehlot that he will sit on the
johad even at his age if the government were to try and destroy the
structure.
To now the complete Story click the link below:
http://www.cseindia.org/html/extra/dam/index.htm
Sucheta Sharma
Website Unit
Centre for Science and Environment
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