Excavated ponds make poor villagers happy in Barind

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RAJSHAHI, Dec 9, 2017 (BSS)- After suffering a long, poor and marginalized families have started getting water from the excavated ponds in the water- stressed Barind areas at present.

Champa Tudu, 40, wife of Naren Tudu, of Radhanagar area under Gomostapur upazila, said a re-excavated pond has brought blessings for their five-member family.

“Earlier on, we had to fetch water from a deep-tube-well over one kilometer away for our daily household purposes,” said Champa Tudu, adding that recently, a derelict pond has been re-excavated with community participatory system removing the embarrassing situation for around 30 families.

There are special arrangements to bring rainwater from rooftops of the adjacent houses through pipeline for the pond. Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Project extended financial and technical support to the pond re-excavation process.

With the same approach, some 109 ponds were either excavated or re- excavated in 115 drought-hit villages under 35 Union Parishads and four Pourasabhas in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj districts with the project intervention.

Number of the ponds beneficiaries is 37,488 people including 19,813 females. Around 2,652 ethnic minority families and 545 persons with special needs are also getting benefits from the ponds directly. The ponds were excavated and re-excavated only in the neglected and poverty-porn areas.

The beneficiary people took the responsibility of proper maintenance and functional of the ponds routinely.

DASCOH Foundation and Swiss Red Cross are jointly implementing the IWRM project in the two districts with financial support from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation-SDC since 2015.

Assistant Project Coordinator of DASCOH Jahangir Alam Khan said the scheme intends to supply safe drinking water in those drought-prone areas where acute crisis of drinking water exists. Its main objective is to supply round- the-year potable water to all people in the targeted areas, he added.

There is a shortage of drinking water in the vast Barind tract during the dry season and the problem has become acute for the last couple of years making the marginalized women especially the ethnic minorities ones worst vulnerable.

In the wake of inadequate aquifer recharge, groundwater level is declining alarmingly in the high Barind tract posing a serious threat to its farming sector besides living and livelihood condition.

For successful implementation of the project, local government institutions like the Union Parishads and Pourasabhas concerned were connected with all scheduled activities, Jahangir Khan added.