Women lead water recharge brigade

Mahbubnagar: It is now women who are actively taking up the cause of water conservation in Jadcherla Mandal of Mahbubnagar district. Realising the severity of drought and water scarcity in Jadcherla Mandal during the past summer, one Lakki Bai of the APHB Colony and Sridevi of Signal Gadda in Jadcherla came forward to dig the sink and soak pits to recharge groundwater and stand as an example to others.

Sink pits are great novel initiatives to recharge groundwater table. However, lack of awareness among the public and no proper effective mechanism to spread the knowledge of conservation of water are the main reasons why India is facing severe drought. “Last year, we faced severe drought and literally struggled to get even a pot of water for drinking.

I came to know from my colleagues about the sink pits and soak pits which are a great source of groundwater recharge. Though the authorities had created awareness about it but not many had taken it seriously. But since I had faced the problem of water shortage, I had a feeling to do something to recharge the borewell I had in my house.

I immediately approached the RDO office and requested them to construct a sink pit at our house. I am thankful to the authorities, they immediately responded and installed a sink pit near my borewell. It is now more than 3 months all the rain water and waste water gets into the sink pit. It has recharged our borewell and now we don’t have water problem,” informed Sridevi, an ANM who works with the Health Department.

Usually, its costs about Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 to construct a soak pit or sink pit and involves digging of a pit of about 3-5 feet deep with a spread of 3X3 square area. Another woman Lakki Bai of the APHB Colony too had come forward to dig a sink pit near her borewell which had got dried long back. Recently she bore all the cost by herself and dug the pit.

“Earlier water used to get logged in front of my house. But after the construction of this sink pit now it is serving two purposes, of recharging the groundwater and helping my borewell, and on the other hand now water logging is not happening,” said Lakki Bai.