Villagers and volunteers came together, dug 13,000 soak pits in six months and raised Rs 35L for the project At a time when the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is facing a major rap from the National Green Tribunal for releasing untreated sewage into river bodies, Bhigwan village near Indapur, located 98 km from Pune and known for famous freshwater fish, has become the first drainagefree village in the district.
The model was first used in some small villages in Nanded district, and, after its subsequent success, has been executed for the first time in a semiurban village like Bhigwan.
Some of the Rotary Club members suggested that we use the soak pit model, but we were reluctant, considering our population and the cost involved.
No longer do we have to contend with the menace of pigs, mosquitoes or odour,” added Madge.
A layer of sand and fine gravel, along with pieces of brick is spread under and around the pipe to allow the water to percolate slowly into the ground.
The un-dissolved particles could be removed from the pits after regular intervals — perhaps every two years.” He added, “The experiment not only stopped stagnation of drainage water in the village, but also helped the wells and streams remain free of dirt.” Riaz Shaikh, one of the volunteers for the project, echoed, “The willpower and unity of the villagers helped generate the funds.
It is cost-effective, yet ecofriendly.
The ZP plans to use this model all ccross the district with the help of Rotary Clubs.” How it works The soak pit model was earlier successfully used in Tembhurni village in Nanded district.
However, implementing it in was far more tedious due to a larger population and more use of water.
Water flowing into the soak pits gradually drains down into aquifers (permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater), thereby recharging the groundwater.

Floodwaters have overflowed from Khado, Jeeta, Mahuli, Dhudhela along with other rivers, putting over a dozen settlements at risk and inundating about 1,500 houses in the district.
District Police Office (DPO), Saptari, said around 800 houses are estimated to be submerged.
“We have deployed teams to collect data on the number of houses inundated by the floods,” said SP Dwibedi.
Data collection and rescue works have been very challenging,” he added.
According to Mithilesh Jha, ward secretary of Tilathi-Koiladi Rural Municipality-9, most of the houses in wards 1 to 9 of Tilathi have been submerged.
According to him, the floods entered the villages after the western embankment at Khado River was damaged at two places.
Authorities have said that many houses of the villages have been waterlogged by about four feet.
As the floods have submerged houses, rendering kitchen and basic necessities useless, the flood victims have no place to cook food and are left to stay empty-stomach.
Even the children have nothing to eat.
Authorities have not been able to reach all the flood-affected areas of the district.

NMSU alumni use grant to expand sustainable farming.
“The project is called the MESA Project and it’s funded through a $250,000 grant through ArtPlace America,” said DeSimio.
Taylor Hood Farms is a partner in the MESA Project, which will eventually include other farms in Doña Ana County.
Eventually, WiseSurguy came up with the idea of “protecting the environment through the culinary arts,” she said.
The project has four parts, DeSimio said, one being the community meals.
Part two is an experimental farm, Pata Viva, DeSimio said.
“Pata Viva Farm is the experimental farm part of our grant where we’re going to be implementing all of the different techniques that we’ll be talking about in each one of ours meals in order to get these processes off of the research farms, get them onto working farms,” WiseSurguy said.
Pata Viva’s farming techniques, which focus on reducing water use, topsoil loss and soil salinization, are still in the design phase so the first community meal will take place on July 15 at Taylor Hood Farms, a partner farm that has independently implemented sustainable farming methods through a partnership with professors in NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
Pata Viva Farm and Taylor Hood Farms will be working closely together to expand sustainable agricultural in Dona Ana County, and Taylor Hood Farms will likely be among the first additional sites for any viable techniques that Pata Viva identifies through the MESA Project.
The greenhouses at Pata Viva and Taylor Hood Farms were designed by Carlos Estrada-Vega, a Las Cruces artist, with help from Bryce Richard.

Residents of Sushant Lok 1 and DLF areas have been suffering from shortage of drinking water for 10 days Residents of DLF Phases 1, 2, 3, Sushant Lok-1 and sectors 56 and 57 are facing an acute shortage of drinking water for the last 10 days.
Residents said that despite the rains and the end of peak summer, authorities have not been able to supply water to these areas, which fall at the tail-end of the supply line.
Residents have been forced to pay exorbitant amounts for water tankers due to the shortage.
Vinod Tayal, a member of DLF Phase 2 RWA, said, “There has been an acute water shortage this summer and ordering water tankers was the only solution for us.
Paying for water and then paying for water tankers is burning a hole in our pockets.” Water supply is regularly disrupted, often due to damaged pipelines and electrical problems or the infrastructure projects, residents alleged.
Shalini Saini of DLF Phase-1 said that he has been facing water shortage for the last few days.
Even after collecting property tax from the residents, the municipal corporation is not paying heed to residents’ problems.
Residents of Sector 56 said they met officials of Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Friday, who are blaming each other but failed to give them a solution.
The tanker charges are also increasing due to the regular water shortage.” Officials say that the problem is being caused due to heavy construction taking place along the expressway, as a result of which supply lines have been damaged.
This, however, has allowed the private tanker mafia to take advantage of the situation.

Until 2015, the pond was the ultimate source of water for the 13 households of Gungthramo village.
Tshering said: “Streams and springs are drying every year.
Tshering, mother of eight, goes out with aluminum bowl whenever there is rain.
According to the National Health Survey reports of 2012, 97.7 percent of the Bhutanese have access to piped drinking water.
“If timely intervention is not taken, our livelihood could be in danger.” National issue Drinking water shortage has hit many communities across the country.
The villagers collect water from temporary springs that hold water in summer when there is rain.
The sources disappear in winter.
In Kengkhar in Mongar, drinking water shortage has severely affected about 2,212 people of 482 households.
Though it’s not easy to ascertain whether the disappearance of water sources is purely because of climate change, most of the villagers who depend on ground water, springs, streams, ponds and wells for drinking said that erratic rainfall could be one of the main factors leading to drying of water sources.
Compared to rural areas, demand for water in urban centres is much higher.

This summer season has seen a massive increase in the number of tourist arrivals in the hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
All this simply points towards the need for a rethink on the tourism policy of these state governments.
The administration blacklisting around 3,000 violators had recently led to a strike by taxi operators that had made things go from bad to worse.
It has been reported that 90% of the hotels at these places have no parking facility.
“In Nainital, tourists reach up to Hanumangarhi from Delhi in five hours but it was taking another five hours to reach their hotels.
This has led to the crumbling of civic amenities and the result has been heaps of filth, public easing itself along the roads and total chaos on narrow roads.
Courting it The Uttarakhand High Court has directed the Senior Superintendent of Police and District Magistrate of Nainital to work out a plan to combat traffic snarls witnessed during the tourist season every year.
The advocate for the local civic body told the court that the state has released a fund of Rs 26 lakh to Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) that will look into the situation and implement plans for the betterment of roads.
Some days back, the high court had directed the state administration to come out with a long-term vision plan for regulating and managing traffic in Kullu, Manali, Rohtang Pass, Kasol and Manikaran.
The court had observed that – ‘Mere widening of roads or construction of new roads may not solve the issue per se.

‘New technology will help farmers sow rice without water’.
MULTAN: Scientists have successfully developed a new technology that will help farmers sow rice without water.
The recent development would be helpful for the farming community facing water crisis.
These views were expressed by Provincial Agriculture Secretary Muhammad Mahmud on Friday.
Earlier, in view of water scarcity in some areas, farmers adopted drip irrigation system to sow crops.
This technology, so far, has been adopted by many farmers across Punjab owing to acute shortage of river water and limited rains.
CM prioritises improvement in agriculture Keeping in view its high efficacy in conserving water, increasing per acre yield and reducing cost of cultivation, there is a need to create awareness among farmers about the drip irrigation system.
With this technology, the farmers could save 60% electricity and diesel costs augmenting per acre yield by 100%.
A spokesperson of agriculture department said the project would cover 50,000-acre of orchards in Punjab, including 20,000 acres of mango orchards, 26,500 acre of citrus orchards and 3,500 acre guava orchards.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2017.

Power failure, water shortage resented.
HYDERABAD: In this hot and rainy season the people of Hyderabad spend a miserable life due to failure of power and water scarcity.
Residents of different localities included Tilak Inclined, Heerabad, saddar, Resham Bazar, Cloth Market, Lajput Road, Latifabad and Qasimabad complained of the prolong power suspension and water shortage.
The peoples of different areas told APP here on Friday that sometimes the period of power suspension was prolonged to the morning and people were unable to fill overhead water tank.
They said that besides power suspension the area people were facing low voltage since long.
They said that power supply played hide and seeks the whole day.
The business community said that due to power failures their business suffered a lot and they were unable to run their business in the evening hours due to power cut, which were causing them huge losses every month.
The locals demanded the higher authorities to solve their problems.
This news was published in The Nation newspaper.
Read complete newspaper of 01-Jul-2017 here.

A violent protest broke out between the cops and the protesting villagers at Kathiramangalam village in Thanjavur over broken oil pipes laid out by ONGC.
A violent protest broke out between the cops and the protesting villagers at Kathiramangalam village in Thanjavur over broken oil pipes laid out by ONGC.
Last month, the company decided to service the well to sustain it.
This was not recieved well by the villagers.
Villagers claimed that this had led to water scarcity in the area stating that earlier they had to only dig 10 feet for water, but now they have to go to 70 to 100ft below ground.
Panic gripped the villagers after word of smoke from pipes spread around.
When the collector and village administrative office tried to visit the site, they were not allowed.
Authorities claim that protestors ganged up against them and blamed the ONGC for the leak, saying the land was not suitable for cultivation anymore.
The situation went out of control when a few miscreants began to pelt stones at the cops, and someone lit up haystacks.
Police was forced to resort to lathi charge.

Several areas including some newly established colonies and historic village of Burzahama san basic amenities like water and electricity.
Sheikh Hamza colony, New colony and Bilal colony adjacent to Burzahama lacks the basic facilities including drinking water.
The locals said that they have switched to tube wells in order to obtain water.
We are temporarily connected to transformer of nearby areas which are far away from us and the voltage is very low,” they said Locals also complained that the water tank at Gasoo, which caters to Bilal Colony, Hamzah Colony, and New Colony is not regularly cleaned— forcing locals to drink contaminated water.
Burzahama, which gets water from Shohama Alesteng water plant is poorly connected to the areas.
They said water to this plant comes directly from open power canal without proper piping.
Muhammad Maqbool Bhat, a local said the 0.45 inch water line set up in Burzahama during 80s used to cater few households.
The water line cannot cater to pressure of this large area,” he said.
MLA Hazratbal Asiya Naqash acknowledged the problem in these newly established colonies.
“We have already held a meeting regarding this last week.