FOR A CHANGE, SAVE A DAM

• Appeal
• Introduction
• What You Can Do
• Sample Letter

Dear Friends,

The Govt. of Rajasthan has deemed local rainwater harvesting illegal. The Rajasthan irrigation minister Kamla Beniwal claims that "every drop of water that is received through the rains comes under the irrigation department." As the article below shows this is nothing but a cynical attempt by the state to appropriate the resources of the people, while squelching their initiatives and creativity. The work of Tarun Bharat Sangh in rain-water harvesting has been acclaimed nationally and internationally. And yet the bureaucracy of Rajasthan ridicules their efforts.

The villagers of Lava ka Baas are determined to fight this bureaucratic high-handedness and protect their resources. They need our support to to stop the state that stakes claim over the rain that falls in our backyard. Please read the article below and act on the suggestions.

Sincerely,

Friends of River Narmada

The detailed case can be followed at http://www.cseindia.org/html/extra/dam/index.htm.

As recent as March, Lava ka Baas village in Thanagazi tehsil of Rajasthan was like many other water-scarce villages in the country: facing the devastation caused by drought for the third year. With a population of about 500 and only one water source, agriculture was a distant dream. Many hectares of farmland lay bare.

But on March 12, 2001, the villagers started work on what they thought would change their destiny. They began constructing an johad. The villagers were optimistic and united in their intent. They had been convinced of the wisdom of building a johad or check dam on a tributary of the Ruparel right on the top of its watershed by the workers of Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), a non-governmental organisation based in Alwar. It is because of this faith that the poor villagers contributed Rs 3 lakh of the Rs 8 lakh that was required for johad construction purposes. The remaining Rs 5 lakh was donated by a businessperson from Churu district.

The 80-metre long and 12-metre high johad was completed in a record time of less than four months. Gopal Singh of TBS, a veteran gajdhar or rural engineer, with many johads to his credit helped design the johad. And then the irrigation department landed up at the johad site with the objective of demolishing the structure. Why? Since the johad violated an agreement on water sharing signed between the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur in 1910. The modus operandi: That the structure is unsafe.

The villagers were up in arms and gathered at the site determined not to let the government destroy what had given them something so precious as water. Sensing the mood, the officials changed their tactics. They declared the structure unsafe and asked the villagers to reduce the height of the spillway to a point that would make the structure redundant. The villagers are standing vigil over their structure.

CSE has been consistently promoting the paradigm of community rainwater harvesting as the paradigm to fight drought and alleviate poverty. So when on July 1, a disturbed Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh called up, CSE chairperson Anil Agarwal and director Sunita Narain, CSE decided to intervene. Attempts were made to reach chief minister Ashok Gehlot and send newspaper and TV journalists to the site and CSE staffers to get a first hand. The story has also been covered in the 31st July issue of Down to Earth.

Other articles:

Infuriated Rajasthan government comes down hard on rainwater harvesting Tehelka.com; July 12
Villagers build check dam, Govt wants to demolish it ; Hindustan Times - July 3, 2001

What you can do

Fax letters to (or call) the Rajasthan CM, Mr. Ashok Gehlot voicing your displeasure at the behaviour of the Rajasthan government and bureaucracy. Also copy it to the Rajasthan Irrigation Minister, Ms. Kamla Beniwal and to the Secretary of Tarun Bharat Sangh, Mr. Rajendra Singh. A sample letter for faxing is provided below.

SAMPLE LETTER

Respected Sir,

It has come to our notice that your government plans to demolish a johad in the village of Lava-ka-Baas, in Alwar district. This traditional water harvesting structure has, for the first time in many years, provided the residents with water for cultivation in this drought-prone district, a feat that no government in recent years, including your own, has been able to accomplish.

The irrigation department of your government claims that the structure is unsafe. But not one of the 4,500 water harvesting structures built in 850 villages, by the Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), has broken in the last 15 years.

Shrimati Kamla Beniwal, Minister for Irrigation, has gone so far as to declare that every drop of rain belongs to the government, and that anybody who transgresses this right of the state will be severely dealt with. We find these statements objectionable, as also the irrigation department's assertion that the construction of water harvesting structures by the people is illegal.

Community-based water harvesting is a major solution to the problem of thirst, drought, poor productivity of rain-fed agriculture, and ultimately for India's rural poverty itself. Allowing the dam to be demolished would not only be a major setback for the efforts of the villagers, who have built it at a cost of Rupees 8 lakh, but a setback for democracy itself.

Water is everybody's right, as is the right of communities to harvest it locally and use it for their survival. No government can afford to assert its autocracy over every raindrop that falls within its geographical boundaries. To do so would be unlawful and anti-people. The government is meant to serve people, and to ensure, not usurp, their rights to natural resources.

We support the rights of the villagers of Lava-ka-Baas to their water resources, and ask that your government do the same for them, and for the thousands of villages in Rajasthan, which have decided to take steps to ensure their survival. We also request you to ensure that these rights will be protected by future governments.

Sincerely,