Woman saving lands from 100 villages - Fusion - WeRIndia

This is the story of one woman who changed the state of more than 100 villages in Rajasthan with just traditional water harvesting techniques. The woman is Amla Ruia. With her help, today, 2 lakh villagers are earning an income of Rs.300 crores.

In Rajasthan it is quite common to see deserted farm lands which make it almost impossible for farmers to farm. The lack of sufficient water makes it hard to sustain a normal life for many. However, with the help of Amla Ruia and her techniques, many villages now don’t have that problem. Now, many farmers are growing three crops a year. Farmers are also using animal husbandry to earn more income.

With her efforts, Amla Ruia has become known as ‘water mother’. It started in 1999/2000 when Rajasthan was going through a severe drought. Amla, a Mumbai based social activist was moved by the troubles of Rajasthan farmers. She founded Aakar Charitable Trust to research about water.

She started her work by constructing check dams near the village. These dams are also called khadin. They are useful in hilly terrain. They act like large dams without any of their disadvantages like water logging.

So far, Aakar charitable trust has constructed 200 check dams in 100 villages. The trust convinces the community about each and every project they do. They explain the benefits of the projects to the farmers. Most of the times, around 40 percent of the construction cost is borne by the farmers themselves.

With the intervention of Amla and the constructed dams, water sufficient for the irrigation of crops for an entire year is stored. In the past, the farmers could barely grow one crop a year. But now, they can grow three crops per year. This has saved many farmer lives and gave them stability to earn a lot of money.

Image Reference: TheBetterIndia