The Sardar Sarovar Canal remains in the vicinity to Bhalicha, it the canal overflows the water may spill over into the lake, but as a result of neglect of years the lake has become extremely shallow, there is no scope for water to accumulate. We were elated to find such young men who are prepared to work proactively for the development of their village. “It will be done!!” Amitbhai and other youth spoke in unison.
To our surprise, there were no questions raised when we shared the preconditions and the need to collect contribution. But the leaders remain reluctant to do even that.Ī joint meeting with village elders and youth was organised at the Ram temple premises. 500 from each house, it will add up to be a substantial collection. Even if the village leadership agrees to raise Rs. However, despite of the fact that these efforts obviously benefited the village, many villages do not agree to this preconditions. The funds collected from the families are to be used for the upkeeping of the deepened lakes. VSSM bears the cost of JCB expenses, rest all the costs including contributions by individual households, have to be borne by the village community. On learning of VSSM’s initiative, he invited us for the same in his village.Īs the name of this initiative suggests, the first precondition to launching any lake deepening initiative is community participation. Amitbhai Joshi is a well informed and aware citizen residing in Banaskantha’s Bhachli village. Mittal Patel discusses Water Management with the villagersĪlmost four years ago, VSSM initiated Participatory Water Management efforts in Banaskantha.