Mashal Gram Panchayat in Afzalpur taluk, one of the drought-prone and backward areas of Kalaburagi district, has shown the way as to how Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) can be used to bring smiles back on farmers’ faces through water conservation.
Parts of the taluk are fed by River Bhima, but large tracts of agricultural land are facing drought since the Bhima Lift Irrigation project is yet to be completed.
Groundwater levels here have gone down, with open wells and borewells used for irrigation purposes going entirely dry during summer.
An initiative that has come to the rescue here is construction of farm ponds under the MNREGA, which provides irrigation facilities as well as acts as percolation tanks to recharge groundwater sources.
The gram panchayat has taken up large-scale construction of farm ponds and soil conservation works to arrest the run off of rainwater and washing away of the top soil.
Of 30 farm ponds taken up this year, 26 have been completed. In a few completed ponds, water was stored during the rain in September and October.
“This has helped recharge my dried borewell to an extent,” said Hiragappa Shivalingappa Rugi, a small farmer owning four acres of rain-fed land.
“After the completion of 30 ponds, it would be ready to store rainwater during the next season and help farmers by providing irrigation facility to at least one acre of their land. It will also help in recharging dried up open wells and borewells in the village,” said Panchayat Development Officer M.G. Puranik. He said that in the normal course, the cost of construction of the 30 tanks would have cost Rs. 21.21 lakh but the cost has been cut down to Rs. 13.18 lakh here. This has saved the government Rs. 8 lakh by avoiding middlemen.

Source : The Hindu