Question

How did Vilasrao salunkle solve the water crisis in Naigaon

Answer 1

pune: thousands of people from across the state, who 55 years since indepdence, continue to struggle for basic minimum water supply, lost a champion with the death of 65-year-old vilasrao salunkhe on tuesday. an electrical engineer by qualification, salunke taught at the government college of engineering, here, for two years and later worked as chairman of western maharashtra development corporation and maharashtra small scale industries development corporation in the 1970s. however, the severe drought of 1972 proved to be a turning point in salunke’s life, when he started working for the drought-affected people of purandar taluka through the pani panchayat gramgaurav pratishthan. he later went on to become synonymous with the panchayat. mukund ghare, secretary of association for agriculture renewal in maharashtra (afarm) says, “salunkhe relentlessly fought for equitable distribution of water, irrespective of land-holding and advocated a 800 cubic-meter quota of water per capita per year,� ghare stated. “it was salunke who forced the government to include the principal of equitable distribution in its 51-point water programme,� ghare points out, adding that the government and vested interests somehow managed to defeat him when it came to the actual implementation. salunke’s watershed development and water conservation project at ambegaon in pune district succeeded in reducing the migration of rural people to urban areas by 80 per cent.“if you provide food and water security to rural people, they will never leave their villages,� salunke used to say. salunkhe’s naigaon pattern of watershed development on wasteland won him international recognition and the swedish international inventor award in 1986. since then, salunke had been active in the tribal belts in yavatmal, gadchiroli, pune, amravati and nandurbar. he also took keen interest in organic farming. this soldier of watershed development and equitable distribution of water died with his boots on. at the time of his death, salunke was engaged in spearheading the chikotra valley agitation in kolhapur to secure equal share of water for residents of 52 villages in the valley and staged dharna in front of the secretariat earlier this month. environmentalist vijay paranjpye said that salunke was not only committed to equitable distribution of water but also felt that water right should be considered as a tradable commodity for raising bank loans for landless people. he suggested that funds from the tribal sub-plan be utilised for creating water assets in tribal belts. salunkhe survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Answer 2

Vilasrao Salunkhe solved the water crisis in Naigaon by taking 16 hectares of the uncultivable land on a Hillside area. He leased from the temple Trust of the nayagaon which was a drought-prone village and was suffering from severe shortage of water. He with his family members shifted to the place and started working there with other engineering students.

He started raising bumps along the hillsides so that the rainwater can be trapped and soil erosion can be prevented. The percolation tanks were also constructed at the base of the hill. A well was also constructed for drawing the water and to easily irrigate the farmlands on the hill slopes.
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