Sustainable water cycle management during COVID-19
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, there is an urgent need to understand the importance of water management. Shelwadi, a remote village near Loha block, Nanded, has adopted a mix of budgeting & conservation techniques to tackle its water woes & improve the groundwater table.
Sunita Bahire, an Arogya Sakhi from Shelwadi village came up with the idea of constructing Individual & community level soak pits after participating in an online training on kitchen gardening organised by Swayam Shikshan Prayog. She has helped four other families to create soak pits along with kitchen gardens in her village. Sunita realised that soak pits can help them to improve water management in the water scarce region of Nanded. It costs only Rs 2000 per pit & can be constructed in a day.
“The main benefit of soak pit is that the water can be used for kitchen gardening to grow vegetables during crisis & it is also free of chemicals.’’ says Sunita Bahire.
Until July 2020, the Arogya Sakhis of Nanded have helped to create 99 soak pits in 26 targeted villages. Motivated from the response from communities, Arogya Sakhis have taken up the initiative with their respective Gram Panchayat to connect under MNREGA & they see it as an employment generation opportunity for migrants.