Water, water everywhere, but there’s not a drop to waste

The story of dry water taps is nothing new, especially during the hot summer months. But here is a village in Gujarat, which has full tanks,...

The story of dry water taps is nothing new, especially during the hot summer months. But here is a village in Gujarat, which has full tanks, and yet rations water supply to just once in five days. That’s not all. None of the 12,000-odd villagers are complaining.

Two summers back, Bhesan, 30 km from Junagadh, was one of the many villages that faced acute water shortage. Supply was limited to once in 20 days. Tankers were organised from 30-35 km away, at exorbitant sums. Borewells were dug to as deep as 1,000 feet. ‘‘There were days when even these would dry up. Then we would have to depend on water from borewells in the fields, which very clearly was laced with pesticides,’’ recalls Rambhai Bhesania, vice-president of the village panchayat.


The overhead water tanks in Bhesan. Parish Joshi

It is memories of these hard times that have made the villagers so cautious and self-disciplined now. For two years, 8,200 villages in Saurashtra and Kutch have been overflowing with Narmada water. But not a drop is being wasted. The reason: after the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam supplies the water to the overhead tanks in the villages, the panchayats take over the distribution, limiting it to once in five days.

Thus, all the initial fears of wastage have been drowned. ‘‘At least this generation very clearly remembers to what extent we used to go to get water in summer. Now, we have decided that supply once in five days should be enough,’’ says Shashikant Vyas, a member of the Bhesan Panchayat. The sumps and overhead tankers in the village, built with NABARD funds, have a total capacity of 15,000 litres. So far, there have been no demands for increasing the frequency. Villagers say even their health has improved due to availability of clean water.

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There is one minor cause of disgruntlement though. The villagers still haven’t got used to paying for the Narmada water. Where earlier they used to pay Rs 90 for every water connection, they now have to pay Rs 150. Even then, the amount raised falls short. The Bhesan panchayat manages to collect about Rs 1.5 lakh, just half its expenses of Rs 3 lakh. Money from octroi collections fills the gap. ‘‘People are not used to paying for government supply although they used to pay much more for private tankers,’’ says Vyas. Like 42 other villages in the taluk, Bhesan is completely dependent on agriculture. The two rivers which run through it, Ozat and Uban, are dry. The last time the village grew wheat was in 1984, when they had a good monsoon.

Falling within Keshubhai Patel’s constituency, Bhesan received a mainline connection with the Mahi Dam as a thanksgiving gesture after his victory. Today the village has more water than it has ever seen before.