Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

was having potential to irrigate 15-20 ha area. So
every one in the village was concerned to develop
it and to harvest every drop of water from the
source and also to capture additional discharge
resulting from rains during rainy season in tanks
They were also fascinated to install effective
water conveyance and storage system if some
funds were made available to them.
5.3 Execution of work-
Since it was a community asset and every
farmer wanted to develop it. A group of beneficiaries
called User group Sanio was constituted under the
leadership of Mr Partap Chauhan and a Concept
of People participation was introduced.
5.4. Technical Details of water harvesting-
The work was executed by the members of
user group Sanio. The farmers cleaned the water
source and the discharge was taken to a small storage
cum siltation tank. GI pipe ( 3 inch) was selected as
conveyance system by the irrigation expert since the
discharge was comparatively less than the irrigation
demands of command area so other option like open
channels as conveyance system was not preferred.
People also wanted that every drop of water
harvested should reach to the last point (750meters
away from source). Farmers laid out the pipe under
expert supervision and after every interval of 150
meters gate valve was provided to supply water for
the agricultural fields. There were three old tanks
in the fields and after minor repairs they were made
functional. One new tank has also been constructed
from the project funds. Now the water is being stored
in these tanks (2.0 lac liters cumulative capacity)
and is not allowed to go waste during night hours or
surplus period . Since the flow of water is continuous
and the conveyance system is passing through village
Sanio, two another out lets have been provided in
the village and farmers meet out their domestic water
demands from these taps. The topography of the
area also benefitted the villagers as the conveyance
system is running on the top of village boundary and
farmers are getting the water by gravity to their roof
tanks by plastic pipes for domestic needs. The source
of water is clean and is being taken in a covered
pipe line, the farmers are using this water for drinking
also. The work in this module has been taken in three
components
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1. Collection of water in a small storage cum
siltation tank.
2. Conveyance system for water transport from
source to fields.
3. Storage of water from source in big tanks for
irrigation purpose.
The total expenditure incurred to make this
module operational was Rs 3,63,000=00 The tanks
were made of RCC material and GI pipes were
used for conveyance system. The farmers
contributed 10-15 % share in the shape of labour,
time, local material and devoted lot of time and energy
for supervising the work.
5.5. Findings-
By instinct, we tend to protect something, on
which we have invested. The farmers have invested
their labour and time in construction and
maintenance of the system. So they all worked for
the success of this module. This module is now
operational and the farmers are getting every drop
of water harvested and there is virtually no wastage.
The socio- economic effects of water harvesting
module have been studied as below -
5.5.1. Rain water harvesting and its
availability to society -
The day, this module became functional the
water availability in the village and fields is round
the clock as the water is flowing continuously from
the source to tanks and to farmers fields.
The average availability of water is now 2.0
ha-m to 2.4 ha-m. annually as against 0.03 to 0.04
ha-m in the past . The area has also been increased
from merely 2-3 ha annually to 15.0 ha every crop
season under irrigation and the beneficiary families
are now more than 50 as against 2-3 in the past.
Earlier the water losses were more than 85 % which
are now below five percent.(Table 1.) The resource
poor and weaker section farmers were having no
access to this water but now they are comfortable
and getting water for irrigation and other needs.
The sowing of crops which used to be dependent on
rains is now at the wish of farmers. The availability
of irrigation has improved the crop stand and growth.
The farmers are getting higher yields .The rain
water harvesting module has turned out to be a
social asset to the farmers of Sanio Village.