A long wait for water

Nandini Thilak  and Satyanarayan R Iyer

BANABAHEDA (Betul): For the villagers of Banabaheda and Chikalda, who almost entirely depend on farming for subsistence, lack of irrigation is their main concern. Due to water shortage a large part of their land holdings go uncultivated, making it impossible to grow rice and wheat.

Farmers mentioned how the Bidiyadol dam, a small-scale irrigation project was never completed. The cost of the project shot up 18 times from the initially sanctioned Rs. 19 lakhs to Rs. 3.5 crores.

Villagers blame the corrupt contractors for embezzling the project money and later abandoning the work. With much of the land surrounding the dam, having come under the control of the forest department (establishment of the Satpura Forest Reserve), hopes of resuming the construction have drowned amid wrangles between the Irrigation and the Forest department over environmental clearance.

The dam, forest officials say, will submerge protected areas as almost 90 per cent of the work was completed before the construction stopped.

Irrigation officials say that the local court ordered a stay on the work of installation of nala pipes that would divert the water. The questions nobody seems to have an answer for is– Was this not foreseen?  Is there no alternative water channel to the farms?

The Irrigation department says it has filed an appeal and the issue is awaiting the government’s verdict. The local government seems to be indifferent about it. “Now the matter is in the hands of the central government. No one knows how and when the case will settle,” said L.N. Yadav, a divisional official at the Shahpur Irrigation office.

An ex-irrigation official (name withheld on request) blamed everyone including the Panchayat for mismanaging the project funds.

“The farmers, the Sarpanch and Panchayat members are illiterate, the contractors take them for a ride,” he added.

There are 15 dams in the Shahpur block of which Banabaheda is a part of, with a capacity to irrigate 6316 acres when full, which happens to be less than 25 percent of the area. In the entire block 60 percent of the area is classified as forest and the rest as cultivable land.

Even those farmers, who possess more than 10 acres of land, are unable to do anything beyond subsistence agriculture due to water shortage and are critical of the Panchayat and the officialdom.

“We’ve demanded several times that the Panchayat do something about the water problem, but nothing has happened. At least the tribals benefit from government yojanas. I receive no help,” said Jag Ram, a dalit farmer. He and his sons cultivate just enough to sustain their family. 

“To repair and complete the dam will require at least another crore which we cannot afford. We are helpless,” said Daulat Yadav, the ‘Up-Sarpanch’ (Panchayat Vice President).

The land around the dam is dry, with sparse vegetation. The argument that the dam will submerge protected areas is hence slammed by the farmers.

“If they want to protect the forest, why is there so much logging?” asked Ramnath Malvi, one of the farmers. Trucks use the road leading to Banabaheda to carry timber from the forests to the timber depot managed by the Forest department.