Sasur Khaderi Project under MNREGA Kanchan Verma DM Fatehpur

Background  Rivers big and small are the source of water everywhere. Fatehpur is situated in the doab region between Ganga and Yamuna.  Small rivers and natural drainage over time get silted, encroached and overused and are eventually lost.  Two such rivers in Fatehpur are Sasur Khaderi 1 and Sasur Khaderi 2. These are two distinct rivers sharing the name.

Background contd.  The project began with Sasur Khaderi 1 which originates from a lake in Thithaura village and then carves out its course through 4 blocks of the district.  Total distance the river covers is 46kms before it falls into the Yamuna.  This river is the drainage for many small and big drains and rivulets.

Objectives  Restore the original shape and flow of the river.  Revive and restore the Thithaura lake.  Save the adjoining villages from water logging.

 To de-silt the lake and use it catchment area to ensure water stays by making a gated check dam.  To dredge and de-silt the 38Km of the river length.  To plant trees around the lake and river so as to prevent further silting back.

Project plan  The project was prepared by the Lower Ganga Canal Division of Irrigation department.  The first phase was revival of the lake (7.377 hectare) and 38kms of the river.  The project to be funded entirely under the MNREGA scheme.  The initial estimate for the project was lakhs.

Cost summary S.N.ParticularsAmount ALabour cost BMaterial cost CContingency Total =~ lac Labor material ratio = 75 : 25

Challenges  Harvesting of the rabi crop continues well up to 15 th May in Fatehpur and labourers and villagers were engaged there.  The May June heat made it very difficult to work, with temperatures constantly hovering around degrees.  The river bed was very hard and rocky.

Plan modifications  The initial plan was to work the whole breadth of the river along its entire length.  In interdepartmental meetings, executive engineer PWD suggested that we are not making an irrigation canal whose water we can control.  It was then planned to work on one third of the breadth of the river which was 5mts to 38mts at different places.

 This way we would clear the path of the river and let the river take its own course.  After the first spell of rain this year we were able to gauge the locations at which more deepening or widening was required.  This was planned as the first phase of the project.

Implementation  We held meetings at all the four block h q to request the pradhans to support this mission and motivate labourers to come to the work site.  BDO s had village level meetings at every village alongside the river.  Meetings with college principals, industries, social workers,media so that the objectives of the mission could be propagated.

Implementation contd  The amount of work was calculated at 500mts cross sections with a natural gradient of 20cms per km.  This was done for the whole breadth of the river and modified to phase 1 where only one third of the breadth was taken up.  The whole section was not worked upon but on a qunet form.

Work at the lake  The amount of mud excavated till date has been cubic mts. generating a total of man days.  On an average 1000 to 1500 labourers worked everyday on this site.  Labourers from far off villages came to the site in tractors. This was the only point where tractors were used to deposit mud on the borders.

Work on the river  The work on the river was divided into stretches of 1 km and allotted to one secretary,rozgar sewak and technical assistant.  At each km stretch facility for water and shade was provided.  As of date cubic mts of soil has been excavated generating man days.

Current assessment  Areas like Bhairwan and Phulwamau which never took to the paddy crop due to shortage of water are doing so this year.  The lake has already started retaining water. As on 16 th July the lake had 90,000 cubic mts of water.  At chainage number 36 the discharge as on 16 th July was 600 cusecs.  No village has been marooned due to overflowing unlike in previous years.

Future work  This project is part of our integrated plan to conserve water and soil in the district.  In the 2012 report on water levels four blocks namely Hatgaon, Amauli, Haswan and Bhitaura were categorised as dark blocks while three other were declared as critical.  We are currently carrying on bunding and plantation of government land categorised as pasture and barn land.  Work on 1084 plots has been started.

 We are also carrying out a plantation of drive on 25 th July and will be planting 3.5 lakh plants. This will also include a 5 hectare single plot in each block.  In the next 2 months we are also building check dams on 39 drainages and nalas which run off into the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Rhind.  The drainages selected vary from 8kms to 21kms in length. A check dam will ensure some water is preserved for future use.

 Residents of the villages along these drainages will be removing minor hurdles in drainages e.g. major silting at some point, huge vegetative growth which slows/stops the flow of the drainage etc.  After the rains this September we will start the work on Sasur Khaderi 1.

Some pictures from project site