Many types of research and discoveries are being done about water in the world, saving water and making it potable is proving to be a big challenge in today’s time. There are many countries in the world where people have to work hard to get potable water. The problem of drinking water is deepening in almost all the countries of the world. Compared to other countries, India is in a better position than others because of its natural wealth and river-valley civilization.
Water is not just a thing in our culture and civilization, but it is one of the five elements involved in the formation of human life. It has been said that “Kshiti Jal Pavak Gagan Sameera, Panch Tattva Milli Banay Shara.” It is also mentioned in Indian philosophy and yoga. To say that about 75 percent of the earth is filled with water, but that water is not potable. Many cities in India are situated on the banks of rivers and many cities are far away from rivers. Many cities are very drought-prone and many are flood-prone.
A large part of the Bundelkhand region between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh falls in the water-stressed part. Until recently, the water level inside the ground was very low. After going 50 to 100 feet down in the well, little water was available. That too often dried up in summer. Due to the severe drought, the condition of humans as well as animals was bad. Animal wealth was being destroyed. Governments had to send potable water to the people by filling them in goods trains. Then the situation was such that due to lack of water and no agriculture, due to water, poverty, unemployment, crime, desertion was spreading rapidly. Even before reaching puberty from adolescence, boys were forced to either migrate to other cities for a living or take the path of crime and take up occupations like burglary and robbery.
Seeing all this and due to the spirit of social concern, we started a new experiment in Jakhni village of Banda district of Bundelkhand. In order to save the rain water, started the undertaking to adopt the method described by the ancestral people. After fencing the fields, planted trees on it and started collecting rain water by the method “weeds on fields, trees on bunds”. First some people joined us in this work, later some other people joined us, later the whole village and people of other villages also adopted it. Today the situation is that according to the Central Ground Water Board, the water level of Banda, a drought-prone area, has increased by one meter 38 cm. To raise the water level, which governments are spending billions of rupees, all of us villagers have done it ourselves without any government grant.
We believe that if the whole country had adopted the method of saving water and farming from the time of ancestors, then the situation like water crisis would never have come in India. When the information of our efforts reached Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he also mentioned this method of bunding in a letter written to the village heads. Our village became the Jakhani role model of Banda district. The Central Ground Water Board itself, NITI Aayog, Government of India and the Ministry of Jal Shakti have recognized the Jakhni model.
We got inspiration from our resolve to conserve water from the struggle of Bhoodan movement of Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Later it was influenced by the views of former President APJ Kalam. Our village Jakhni has been declared as Jal Gram. The peasants and youth of Jakhni converted the mass movement into a water movement. He too achieved this success by conserving ground water by traditional method without any grant on community basis. Our slogan ‘Khet Per Med, Med Per Pede’ has become an example for the entire Bundelkhand. NITI Aayog has stressed the need for adoption of traditional collective water conservation efforts like Jalgram Jakhni across the country.
We all have been Sarvodaya Karyakartas. Gandhians have been influenced by values and ideas. The effect of our austerity and determination was that the farmers of Jakhni in dry Bundelkhand are producing Basmati by making large number of bunds in the fields with their own resources. Many ministers, MPs, MLAs of central and state governments have come and seen this work of ours themselves. Avinash Mishra, Water Advisor, Government of India, NITI Aayog, guided us a lot in this effort. For the last many years, he gave technical information about which crops to plant on the ridge, which trees to plant etc. According to him, “The groundwater level of Bundelkhand has come up due to the bunding experiment, there has been a lot of improvement. Weeding is a very old method of rainwater harvesting which was getting extinct. The villagers of Jakhni have suggested a new way for human society by making it alive.