Sapna Kotwal
There is no second thought water is a very vital component for the survival of all kind of living beings on earth, be it human beings, animals and plants. Nobody in this universe can survive without water and we require different quantity of water with respect to time and space. People have said rightly that water is the driving force of nature and ‘food grows where the water flows’ so ‘Save a drop of water today to reap an ocean tomorrow.’ ‘Save the water here and there, don’t waste it anywhere’ ‘Save water-it doesn’t grow on trees’ ‘Save water-it’s not just a drop in the bucket’ ‘Save water secure the future!’ ‘Some conservation today much happiness tomorrow.’ ‘Think outside the sink’ ‘Wait, stop and think what if we didn’t have water to drink!’ ‘Waste water today, live in desert tomorrow!’ ‘Water is life and its conservation is future’ Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir considered to be falling in a high rainfall region.
However the rainfall is seasonal, erratic and its distribution in time and space is not a happy situation and drought condition are experienced in some or others part of the country year after year resulting in acute scarcity for drinking water and the failure of crops. About 70 to 80 percent of the annual rainfall occurs during about 90 days of monsoon months. During the remaining month it is generally scarce. This peculiar situation calls for the need for conservation and storage of water for lean period.
To overcome these problems the solution is Watershed Management Planning. In the development of watershed all the activities related with various disciplines goes simultaneously. The most important task in the development of watershed program is always starts treating the areas from top to bottom as concentration of runoff is minimum at the top and keep on increasing as one moves downwards so unless the watershed are treated from the top, the management practices adopted in the lower region can hardly bear any fruit as everything is likely to be washed away with high current of water.
To overcome the above mentioned problems, Govt. of India had sanctioned Pilot project on Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) during the year 2012-13 and subsequently whole of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into micro and macro watershed and subsequently the work was allotted in phased manner based on funds availability.
The Gantwal watershed has been sanctioned as pilot project in IWMP works in district Udhampur in year 2012-13. Under Batch IWMP-IV River Tawi-B. The proposed area for treatment under IWMP is located in Chennai block of Udhampur district UT of Jammu & Kashmir.
‘Rooftop Rain Water Harvesting Model Gantwal Watershed Conservation’ Udhampur District is one of 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir UT in Northern India. Interestingly, this Rooftop rain water harvesting scheme has been accorded tremendous respose and rural people are making proper utilization of rooftop rain water. District lies in between 32°34′ to 39° 30′ north latitude and 74° 16′ to 75° 38′ east longitude. Since block Chenani comprises of 91 villages with 49 Panchayats. The gross area of block is 48,889 hectares and cropped area is 11,427 hectares.
The population of the block is 46,936 males and 42,518 female. The whole block is backward and predominantly leads by schedule caste and schedule tribes’ family. The economic condition of the people is very poor with marginal landholdings and situated on steep slopes.
The project area of Gantwal watershed comprises of seven villages, viz, Gantwal, Champari, Kurd, Kither, Narsoo, Cheunti and Chirdi. The total geographical area of seven villages is 3,813 hectare, out of which about 800 hectares area has been approved for treatment. Because of steep slopes and degraded forest, surface water moves quickly down slopes and causes flash flood in the downstream and drought like situation in the catchment.
The soil of the areas are very productive and farmers having source of water are raising vegetable crops and earning good profit through cultivation of tomato and other seasonal vegetables crops. Few farmers have already raised fruit plants on the bunds of the field and earning good income from fruits also. The success story of two farmers of watershed already stands published. Since no rainfall data of the area concerned was available, rainfall data of Katra Reasi district with similar altitude have been taken for analysis purposes.
Keeping the above mentioned problems in view, it was decided that roof water harvesting system should be installed in the Gantwal watershed and the harvested water should be used to recharge ground water through recharge pits which will increase water level in adjoining natural springs/ Bowlii and simultaneously reduce flood peaks, decreased level of soil erosion, conservation of water resources, increased level of crop production and ultimately increased level of livelihood security which are the major objectives of any watershed project.
The first most important task in the development of watershed project is to formulate watershed committee. It has been formed and the same is depicted in Table 1 to start with the project, 20 farmers as listed below in Table 2 were selected by the watershed committee and roof water harvesting system along with recharging pit were given to them for demonstration purposes.
By constructing these twenty percolation tanks, it will recharge ground water to the tune of 2635.51 m3 or 2635510 Liters of water which will protect both soil erosion as well as water erosion, Protection to flood, Increased level of water in natural springs and neat and clean water for human, animals and for crop production and ultimately leads to increased level of livelihood security of the watershed community.
(The author is Project Manager (IWMP), District Udhampur).