Well Shared

The idea of community wells have changed the face of Pondhe,a drought-prone village in Pune district.

Pondhe wont dread its summers anymore. The summer months brought misery to this village in Purandar taluka of Pune,when water in wells would sink to new lows and neighbours would spar over how deep they could dig their wells. Pondhe,which falls in the drought-prone eastern belt of the taluka,gets a mere 275 mm rainfall on an average during the monsoons. But this summer will be different. The wells are brimming with water and the fields are filled with crops waiting to be harvestedonion and other seasonal vegetables and flowers.

The change happened only a year ago,thanks to the community wells that the village adopted. In 2004-5,the Gram Gaurav Pratishthan,an NGO founded by the late Vilasrao Salunkhe and now run by his wife Kalpanatai Salunkhe,explained to Pondhe villagers the benefits of sharing groundwater. The villagers accepted and even signed an agreement on adhering to the rules of community groundwater management.

The village was divided in 13 groups of 10 to 15 households each. Each group was assigned one or two community wells. Every member of the group gets a chance to irrigate his land with water drawn from the community well,thus doing away with individual wells. Moreover,water intensive crops like sugarcane or banana are banned,whereas cash crops like seasonal flowers or onion,vegetables etc are cultivated, said Subhash Wagle,one of the villagers.

After the villagers agreed to share water,a detailed hydro-geological study was conducted by the Pune-based Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management in 2005. A three-member team from the centre studied the two aquifers in Pondhe,the 16 wells in the village,the rainfall pattern,water quality and other features. After about six months of field work,we realised that the village needed new wells,finalised the location of these wells,increased the depth of a few existing wells and got electricity supply for water pumps, says Uma Badarayani Aslekar,scientist with the centre.

By the end of 2010,the village got 13 new community wells and a three-phase electricity connection for those who participated in the community groundwater project. The funding for the project came from Rohini Nilekanis voluntary organisation,Arghyam,based in Bangalore.

According to Wagle,villagers in Pondhe used to cultivate only kharif crops. Water sustainability has led farmers to go for not just one rabi crop,but also an additional summer crop. With this,our income will definitely double, he says.

The community groundwater system gives every farmer enough water to irrigate up to 2.5 acres of land. Farmers who own more than 2.5 acres are free to use resources other than community wells,says Himanshu Kulkarni,executive director of the centre.

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Until last year,we used to spend eight months away from home,taking our sheep out for grazing, says Sonba Kokare,a shepherd. This year,he has cultivated cluster beans gavar and plans to cultivate flowers,onion and fodder on his 2.5 acres of land and take his sheep out only for four months. Now that we have the resources to cultivate our own land,people from the shepherd community that constitutes 25 per cent of Pondhes population will stay back in the village. Our children will be able to go to school and look forward to a stable life, says Kokare.

Laxman Jadhav owns 2.5 acres in Pondhe but till three years ago,had to work as a farm labourer. We wouldnt get enough rain even during the rainy season. This summer,my field is green with flowers and onion, says Jadhav.

The Pondhe model is similar to Pani Panchayat Water Council,a movement that the Salunkhes began in the 1970s. But that model failed after two decades of their implementation. What makes this project in Pondhe different is that it is based on scientific studies, says Badarayani-Aslekar.