Mukhyamantri Jal Swalamban Yojana : All you need to know about this innovative scheme

Making pits under Raje’s Mukhyamantri Jal Swalamban Yojana; a great initiative for Water conservation

Rajasthan, a desert area, has now become a water sufficient area. The face of the whole region is completely transformed with the availability of the water. Earlier, life was extremely difficult for farmers in Rajasthan. But, the execution of scientific approach and ancient traditional practices under Mukhyamantri Jal Swalamban Yojana has brought changes in hundreds of villages. In fact, many pits have been made for water conservation.

How this change came in Rajasthan?

Well… it is the impact of Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje’s effort towards making state self sufficient in water. Mukhyamantri Jal Swalamban Yojana (MJSA) is proving a magical scheme for a desert state like Rajasthan. This scheme brought UN consultant on conservation of water, T. Hanumantha Rao, and the Rajasthan River Basin and Water Resources Planning Authority came together. A serious of simple practices were designed and implemented to bring changes in drought-prone areas.

Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Yojana

Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje had launched Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan on January 27, 2016 in Jhalawar district. The main aim behind launching this scheme is improving water availability and making every village self-reliant when it comes to water while also increasing productivity of land.  With this scheme, Raje’s government will resolve the water scarcity permanently across thousands of villages

How water is being conserved?

Under this programme, pits are dug up which are 10 to 15 feet long and one-and-a-half feet wide in the hillocks surrounding the villages. Apart from this, several ponds were dug near the villages to conserve water. These are like neat pattern of unlinked canal which have resulted in the water table rising.

Read more: Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Yojana (MJSA) has touched numerous lives and How?

This scheme has made rainwater to be stored. Earlier, this water is used to flow down from the hillocks into the villages used to wash away, leaving little for later use. But these pits have ensured preservation of water for later use.

To bind the soil and conserve water, thousands of saplings of local trees have been planted around the trenches and ponds.

Farmers’ report

Kishan Lal Ahir, a farmer in Ummedpura village of this district in southern Rajasthan, is a happy man. With the help of this scheme, he is able to sow two crops a year to due to water faciliity. “The water level in our village used to fall below 50 feet. During summer months, most of the wells and the handpumps went dry and we remained dependent on the water tankers for our daily needs,” Ahir said.

This scheme is emerged as a blessing to many farmers like Kishan Lal Ahir.  Another farmer, Suresh Kumar, said that due to lack of adequate water many of the villagers had sold their cattle as they could hardly get green fodder for them. But now this problem has been resolved.

 Progress of project

According to the Chairman of the river basin authority, Sriram Vedire, more than 225,000 water conservation structures have been set up in 20 months since the launch of the programme in Rajasthan.

Rs 3,000 crore have been spent by the state government in the first two phases of the scheme and Rajasthan government will cover 21,000 villages in four years of the programme.

As per the sources, MJSA has resulted in additional collection of over 18,000 TCM (thousand cubic metres) of water in two phases.

One of the officials said that earlier farmers denied making pits and ponds on portion of their barren land in the hillocks and plain ground. But they are also supporting.