Build johads, make villages water secure: Waterman of India

Johad, an earthen pond.

Everywhere one turns around there are ponds brimming with water. Herds of cattle - cows, buffaloes and goats - are seen grazing in the pastureland that’s verdant. There’s buffaloes relaxing in the ponds and enough water to slake its thirst. Men in bright-coloured turbans, women clad in long embroidered skirts, a shirt and radiant veils covering their heads and youths listening to music in cell phones while tending the cattle is a sight to behold. This is Gopalpura village. A beacon of hope in times such as now.

The scene right out of a picture-postcard is common in most of the villages in and around Bhikampura, Thanagazi tehsil in Alwar district, Rajasthan, one of the most arid states in India.

It was here in Gopalpura the waterman of India, Dr Rajendra Singh, constructed the first johad (the traditional earthen pond).

The Ramon Magsaysay awardee and the 2015 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Dr Rajendra Singh came to Gopalpura in the 1980s to provide healthcare in the village, as an Ayurvedic doctor.

Dr Rajendra Singh, the waterman of India.

But he soon discovered water was the most important issue. There were good rains earlier and thick forests too surrounding the region. But rains that flowed from the mountains was not stored and hence lost.

As time passed rains declined, forests started to disappear and soon there was no water. Due to water scarcity people migrated to nearby cities and outside of the state in search of jobs. While the women, the children and the old were left behind.

The cattle quenched its thirst in ponds of neighbouring villages. And agriculture came to a grinding halt. With the young gone to the cities in search of livelihood, no water for the people and the cattle alike, and the old unable to act, Gopalpura was a lost village.

“It was then Rajendra Singh at the behest of an elderly man Mangu Lal Meena of the village entered the scene. Together with the grand old man, he convinced the villagers to construct johads.”

“Johads are community-owned and traditional water harvesting tanks that collects and stores rain water throughout the year,” recalls Prakash Meena, a resident of Gopalpura.

The villagers agreed to build the johad that changed the face and life of the people of Gopalpura forever.

In his early twenties, Prakash Meena preparing for his railways exams is articulate. He is aware of his village’s journey from being distraught to now when life is smooth.

Before Rajendra Singh’s intervention and the creation of johads, all our wells were dried up. With the johads, groundwater improved, grass, shrubs and trees came alive and the forest cover improved, water wells recharged and we could grow wheat. Catching air of the change, people started to return to the village, he said.

“Agriculture was back in swing, as the villagers knew there will be water in johads. We grew wheat, bajra, makka, til, sesame, channa,” recounts Prakash with a beaming smile.

Now things are riding in the saddle here.

Prakash, however, quickly added: “The buck doesn’t stop with building of johads. We have to continue to create awareness about its importance, conserve water, strengthen the forest cover, protect the common grounds and practise organic farming.”

Conscious of Rajendra Singh and his team’s work and the relevance of johads for sustenance of the village, he said students should be taught importance of water, forests, agriculture and water conservation at a young age, for they are the future.

As can be gleaned from Prakash’s words, having ownership and responsibility towards the common resources is the key to a village’s prosperity. And it’s a continual affair.

A woman herding cattle strikes a pose in Gopalpura.

Most of the families in Gopalpura are pastoral. Common grazing land, thus, is crucial for the survival of the cattle. Grazing is one of the main sources of their livelihood together with agriculture.

Padmavati Warsiram, a relative of Prakash added: “To ensure cattle has enough fodder, we recently planted as many as 400 to 500 saplings in the common ground.”

The first johad which Dr Singh built with the aid of the people of Gopalpura today has led to thousands of johads of varying sizes. Dr Singh’s Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), a development organisation, together with the community have made the villages water secure.

With forests revived, evergreen pastureland and sustainable agriculture, and the youths returning to the village, Gopalpura today is a model village worthy of emulation.

Gopalpura, thus, is an example of how a village on the brink of death can be revived with traditional wisdom, active community participation and acknowledging people’s common sense.

And it’s these three principles that determine the work of TBS, said Suresh, Program Coordinator, TBS.

To build more johads…

It was late afternoon and the breeze was cool. Women were cleaning, sifting grains in the veranda of their homes, and carrying water pots on their heads with young children in tow. Whereas old and young men alike were heading towards thayi., under a lush green neem tree, in front of the village temple. Several stones with images of gods were erected on pedestals on either sides of the temple.

Dr Singh addresses a meeting at Thayi in Manakor village.

The men slowly climbed atop thayi, a platform made of locally available stones and mud. Village meetings are conducted here and the place is treated sacred. Women are not allowed at the thayi. Though seems a regressive tradition, women do not shy away from airing their views about issues affecting the community.

Women in agriculture families across India play a key role in farming and share a greater responsibility in cultivating crops. They are great repositories of farming knowledge.

TBS that afternoon had convened Jal Adhikar Samvad (meeting on ownership of water) under the neem tree in Manakor village. Chaman Singh, Program Coordinator, TBS led the meeting with his two colleagues and Dr Rajendra Singh was present.

Sreedharji, an elderly man of Manakor village, with deep wrinkles and a calm demeanour spoke first and started the meeting. He thanked TBS for agreeing to restart building johads in the village together with the community.

Sreedharji of Manakor village.

Prior to this he had approached the organisation, along with a few others, after it withdrew from constructing johads in Manakor village. TBS pulled out after the villagers failed to participate as agreed upon.

Only after Sreedharji assured did TBS reconsider. And this was the agenda for the day’s meeting.

Till now eight out of ten johads have been built in Manakor village.

Chaman Singh noted people are enthusiastic at the start of johad making but tend to regress when they have to fend free physical labour (shram dhan) and give 1/3rd of the contribution.

When this happens, TBS calls for a meeting and withdraws from work. A johad cannot be built without community participation, for it defeats the purpose, he said.

A functional village holds meetings and discusses various aspects of village development. The role and significance of Gram Sabhas as envisioned by Gandhi, wherein the community decides for itself, was in action at the Manakor village meeting.

“Johads are for you. And without your full participation johads can’t be built and maintained,” says Chaman Singh.

Roping in people from the start till a johad is created to entrusting it to the community, shows making a johad isn’t a mere act of engineering. It’s a community-driven act. It’s about active participation and sharing responsibility for the welfare of all and the self. Even if one of the components is missing the johads shall not work.

“If you take the first step TBS will take the second,” Chaman Singh adds.

Moreover, it’s the community that monitors the work.

Building johads is participatory from the start. From selection of the site to build a johad to its maintenance, people come together, discuss, plan and act. Contributing physical labour and money gives the community a sense of ownership. For the johads belong to the village. As the community has invested both its labour and money there’s no scope for misuse.

Men at Thayi with Chaman Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh (Left).

The men at the thayi said they needed more johads in the village. We have to build 60 more to have thriving agriculture and guarantee continual fodder for the cattle, they added. And it was decided to build more johads at Manakor village.

An important aspect of building a johad is site selection. Once that’s decided, a meeting is held with Gopalji of TBS who determines the technical aspects of johad making such as height, the overflow etc. Soon after committees are formed and dates of shramdhan is decided.

A village has different types of johads. Each village has five types of ponds: for recharge of wells, irrigation, cattle, farm ponds and to meet the domestic needs. Use of various kinds of ponds is charted out after talking to the villagers. Rules govern the use of ponds and is binding on the people. Each and every pond serves a distinct purpose and its uses are not mixed up.

Dr Rajendra Singh, who listened to the men attentively, said to make villages prosperous, we have to create 500 tanks every year. So far the TBS with the community has created 12,000 tanks and the number has been on the rise.

Dr Singh explains rain cycle.

In Kasauli district alone as many as 90 johads were built in 2019, he said.

After the decision, the men enquired about water efficiency in growing crops, strengthening common pasture land…Dr Singh said conserving seeds, making local fertilisers, using green manure and protecting water sources were the ways to practise better agriculture.

He rued how age-old efficient practices in living and agriculture was somewhere lost in the line. And how the disconnect eventually led to the fall of an organic way of life in India’s villages. “It’s time we revived the time-tested practices and become self reliant,” he added.

Making a shift, Dr Singh painted the state of water resources across the world to the men at thayi in Manakor, a small village in Rajasthan.

In unequivocal terms he said: “Water belongs to all and it’s not the property of any one country, a company or a few people. Water is a common resource.”

Water belongs to where it falls. Having portrayed how crucial water was he asked the men to harvest, conserve and distribute water with diligence.

Weaving clouds in his hands and with a strong tenor, Rajendra Singh explained how rain occurred. The men at the thayi listened to him in rapt attention as children would do to a story. Having explained the rain cycle, he said it was mindless destruction of the earth that caused poor rainfall.

‘Earth repair, need of hour’

Whenever I fell sick as a child my mother put a cold balm on my forehead to beat the fever, he recounted.

“Today, mother earth is sick and we have to tend to her. We have to apply cold balm on her and bring back rains. How do we create rains? By growing trees, protecting forest covers and checking environment pollution. In arid region like ours we have to protect and conserve every drop of water that flows from the hills and save it in johads,” he said.

He assured the men that johads built with mud stood for more than 100 years. Mud houses, built by our forefathers, standing sturdy to this day is a testimony to this, he observed.

Agriculture has been found to be the biggest source of water consumption and pollution. And in India groundwater accounts for 63 % of irrigation needs.

Thus, small johads, growing less water intensive crops and cultivating in tune with nature’s cycles can only ensure our survival on the earth, pointed Dr Rajendra Singh.

The elderly man Sreedharji with an inspiring countenance recalled that since 1936 there were poor rains. If it rained a year, drought followed for three consecutive years. It was desperate times. But since we started to build johads we have water for animals, people and agriculture.

“We now harvest two crops a year. We grow jowar, wheat, sarsoan and bajra…,” he said.

“I grow two crops a year with water from the small johad in my field. I have harvested 45 quintals of wheat,” said a visibly happy Sreedharji, sound in his practise and work.

Similar to Gopalpura, the johads have changed the Manakor village for the better paving the way for sustainable living and true prosperity.

With 67 families living in Manakor village, it’s annual income today with eight johads is Rs two crore.

Even as the meeting was in progress, children with bags slung to their back started to trickle down near thayi, after the day’s school. In small groups of twos and threes, the children craned their necks to see the proceedings atop the thayi. The village’s future.

The men lauded transparency and accountability in TBS work. At every step of making a johad and other development work in the village, we are consulted. The size and type of johads are decided based on our needs. And every pie spent is accounted for, they said. The meeting, thus, was not only participatory but also democratic in nature.

With decisions made to build more johads, the meeting concluded. While the men seemed satisfied about the meeting and started to disperse, Dr Rajendra Singh quipped: “While government engineers attend to the design of the structures, we cater to the objectives of the structure.”

Indigenous wisdom & common sense

This is Roopvas anikut, Gopalji pointed out. When water flows from top it’s called an anikut and when it flows from sideways and from the centre it’s called a check dam.

Gopalji, the technical supervisor at TBS.

Quiet, Gopalji is adept at making johads and is the Technical Supervisor with TBS. He has built thousands of johads since he started early on with Rajendra Singh.

“I am not a civil engineer but learnt it hands on. And over a period I developed a sense of what works and how to engineer a johad,” said Gopalji.

Radheshyamvala johad in Nandu village, Jahaaz johad in the interiors of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, Bilunda baandh (johad) in Gujran village, Bhairuji wallah johad, Godam ki pas wallah johad… are a few johads to name.

Jahaaz johad in the interiors of Sariska Tiger Reserve.

Way back in 1986, TBS with the aid of the community built as many as 60 johads in the core area of Sariska Tiger Reserve. Today the number of johads is 100. To make sure there’s enough water inside the reserve is crucial for there are 22 villages inside the core area and several villages in the buffer zone. Moreover, there’s the wild animals and the flora that needs to be nurtured.

Each of the johads is unique. Size and use of each of the johads make it distinct. Shrubs and trees are grown on the natural edges of the ponds. While the ponds lay on one side, on the other side of the bunds were fields in resplendent green.

The ponds were largely built using locally available stones and mud. Stones chipped and stacked tightly together holding the water clear with greenery around, cattle grazing unperturbed and herdsmen and women spotted at a distance with umbrellas jetted out looked like a master’s painting.

The crystal clear and pristine ponds has a cleansing effect on the seer.

Bhumiyaji wallah baandh.

Bhumiyaji wallah baandh surrounded by hills and stretching vast, pointed out Gopalji, didn’t go dry despite four years of consecutive drought.

With common sense, backed by traditional knowledge and definitely engineering a johad can be built. And a johad such as the Bhumiyaji wallah baandh beats the vagaries of nature and turns to be the elixir of life, explained Gopalji.

People in the villages grazing cattle, or at work in the fields and travelling on bikes halted when they saw Gopalji. After wishing him, they spoke about work, rains, and the johads. There was an air of warmth and affection in their exchange.

Three walks a year

To emphasis people’s power towards positive, creative and sustainable action, TBS with the active participation of the community conducts three awareness walks every year.

Chotelal Meena, Community Organiser TBS, said at the ‘Ped lagao ped bachaon padyatra,’ awareness about value of trees is created among students, villagers, and people working in government departments alike. The second padyatra is “Johad Banao, Jal Bachao,” (Make johads, save water). And this activity is conducted for 40 days. And the final leg of the padyatra is “Beej bachao, khaad banao,” (Save seeds, and make your own fertiliser), he added.

Only a self reliant village can determine its future and chart its own success story. The ability to decide should rest within the villagers. Only then can they be true votaries of development and negotiate number and types of johads to be built, its upkeep and rules governing judicious water management and distribution.

When does a village become self reliant?

A village is self reliant when it has power over its seeds, water, land and soil. And most importantly when the villagers can decide for themselves. This is well exemplified in the song that Dr Rajendra Singh sang in every gram sabha.

…Gaon ke maati gaon main

Har ghar main har rozn bane khana

Pani rukhein har khet main

Beej rahein har ghar main

Jal par hon samaan adhikar sabhi ka

Har mahine gaon ki hon gram sabha

Gaon main hon hum sarkar

Gaon ki choti gaon main.

(Soil of the village remains in the village,

every day food is cooked at every home,

water is conserved in every farm,

every household preserves its seeds,

everyone has equal rights over public water bodies and its use,

gram sabha meets every month,

we are the government in the village,

the decision-making power rests within the hands of the people.)

The song resonates the philosophy and the guiding principle of his work and establishes the definition of Swawalambhan (self reliance).

The concept of Gram Swaraj that Mahatma Gandhiji espoused is palpable in the verses. To this day a majority of the population in India are dependent on agriculture. Thus, the growth of villages alone can ensure the country’s prosperity.

Wendell Berry’s words on nature’s memory here seems pertinent, he said: “Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”

We have dealt a severe blow to the nature. The damage is irreversible. Recurrent floods and droughts causing great loss to life and property are the results. As a country we have failed to provide our people safe and clean drinking water, a fundamental right. The soil is barren and the food grown is infested with higher levels of insecticides and pesticides. We are feeding poisonous food to the people. Despite the devastation that we have wrecked, we have to return to the nature for solutions.

“Nature is the only defense,” remarked Rajendra Singh. But somewhere along the line we severed the ties.

Knowledge about water, soil conservation and watershed management was passed on from one generation to another. Gradually there was a rupture and the younger generation stopped heeding the old wisdom, he added.

The need of the hour is to make the earth and make nature. It’s time for earth repair, he said.

As I have always reiterated, “Paani praan hain,” noted Dr Singh.

“Water is always cleansing our humanity. She treats us all. The mother earth and water can feel everything. But the humanity over the decades has failed to understand it.”

“We should realise that we are alive only because of water. Thus, we should adopt efficient and skilful use of water. We should retreat, recycle and reuse.”

“We, the humanity, should realise that water alone can rejuvenate the planet. Thus, we should respect, reduce use, retreat, recycle, reuse and rejuvenate nature by water,” he added.

India is the 13th most water-stressed country in the world, according to new data from the World Resources Institute. The data revealed that 17 countries, home to one quarter of the world’s population, face “extremely high water stress.”

By 2020, as many as 21 Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, are expected to run out of groundwater, and 40% of India’s population will have no access to drinking water by 2030, said the 2018 Niti Ayog, the government think tank, report.

It’s unfortunate we have reached this state even when safe and clean drinking water and sanitation was declared a human right by the United Nations General Assembly through resolution A/RES/64/292 in 2010.

Earlier by a decade, the Supreme Court of India in December 2000 declared access to clean drinking water was a fundamental right as enunciated in the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

Water, thus, is the biggest challenge India faces.

Where do we go from here?

The state machinery is responsible for the governance. But it doesn’t have time for age-old and time-tested methods. And we should stop looking upto the government for everything.

We should work intelligently towards solving our problems. As the johad man Dr Rajendra Singh believes, we should learn from the indigenous wisdom and find solutions that is resonant with our immediate environment. Moreover, the solutions should stem from people’s knowledge. People leading forward and decentralisation seem to be the mantras.

Alwar district in Rajasthan, through traditional rainwater harvesting structures, the johads, has shown the way.