Villagers in Vadgam raise 45L to solve their water crisis
Faced with years of water scarcity and waterlogging, around 15,000 villagers raised Rs 45 lakh over six months and completed the construction within the next six months.
"We earlier sought help from various govt authorities, but no action was taken due to their lackadaisical approach," said sarpanch Dilip Salvi.
"On one hand, we had issues of drinking water and depleting groundwater, and on the other, we faced waterlogging in the village.
So the youth of our village decided to do something on their own, and they did."
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Salvi explained that Kanodar is made up of "65% Muslims and 35% Hindus," all of whom contributed to the fund. The initiative began with a door-to-door campaign led by village youth. Every household contributed according to its capacity.
Local businessman and villager Yasin Banglawala recalled the motivation behind the initiative. "You can see this area has had a severe water problem for years," he said.
"So much rainwater used to accumulate here that people's homes would be inundated with two feet of water. The village youth thought that instead of wasting this water, it could be used constructively by creating recharge wells."
He added, "They surveyed the village and found seven or eight old, unused wells. As a pilot project, they decided to deepen two wells, hired a team and tried to recharge them."
Salvi said the success of the initial recharge wells encouraged the villagers to expand the project.
"We now have five recharge wells and two water tube wells. It's already helping with groundwater levels," he noted. Looking ahead, Salvi said the village committee is planning to approach local govt authorities. "We will ask them to see if the govt can reimburse the amount spent by the villagers for this public benefit."
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