KRSF and Lok Mangalam Charitable Trust built three check dams in two Dharampur villages to alleviate drinking water shortages

Ahmedabad: Dr KR Shroff Foundation (KRSF), a decade-old institution dedicated towards uplifting underprivileged communities through education, announced its collaboration with Lok Mangalam Charitable Trust to build three check dams in villages of Dharampur taluka of Valsad district in South Gujarat region. The project is aimed at conserving rainwater to address the stinging drinking water scarcity issue in Piprod and Khoba villages of the taluka. Lok Mangalam Charitable Trust is non-profit organization (a public charity) registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950. It has taken up a direct intervention in the areas of education, livelihood, Agriculture and Health to the various areas of Valsad, Dang and Navsari District. The organization has also incorporated measures for Environment Conservation i.e. Water Management and Tree Plantation through community participation.

As part of the collaboration, the two organisations have helped build check-dams at the streams passing near these villages located at higher altitudes to conserve rainwater, as the region receives significant rainfall every monsoon. KRSF has provided financial assistance worth Rs. 14 Lakh to execute the project.

Explaining the project, Mr. Uday Desai, President, KRSF, said, “Many villages including Piprod and Khoba in Dharampur district are situated in the hilly regions. While they get good rainfall in monsoon, summer months are usually harsh with an acute scarcity of drinking water and that for utilities. Since it is a hilly region, the water flows downstream leaving nothing conserved. The villagers are solely dependent on rainfall for irrigation and therefore, had repeatedly approached our organisations to address the issue.”

“We built two check dams on a stream flowing down a hillock in Piprod village. People of the village along with KRSF contributed towards the building of this dam. Similarly, the third check dam was made in Akhoba village, situated along the Gujarat-Maharashtra border. Since both the check dams have been built at a height, the conserved water will also help recharge the groundwater table and the wells of the villages. We are proud to collaborate with Lok Mangalam Charitable Trust for this project and extrapolate our efforts in various sectors of social welfare,” Mr Desai explained.

Members of Piprod village have formed a Water Committee to manage and maintain the check dams and water distribution in the village. One check dam in Piprod village has a height of 5 metre and a length of 29 metre, with a catchment area of 400 metre, thus benefiting some 80 households. Another dam in the village is of 1 metre height and 15 metre length with a catchment area of 200 metre. The third check dam in Khoba village has 1.5 metre height and 18 metre length with a catchment area of 300 metre.

Explaining the benefits of the project, Shri Nilam Patel, Founder and Managing Trustee of Lok Mangalam Charitable Trust said, “The construction of these check dams will go a long way in improving the living conditions of villages. Since they’re constructed at a higher level it will help elevate groundwater levels in these villages. Moreover, it will also provide farmers of these villages with adequate water for irrigation to cultivate vegetables and other crops. This will help augment their incomes too. Adequate water will also be available for flora and fauna of the region.”

KRSF and Lok Mangalam Charitable Trust also plan to plant some 22,000 trees in the forest areas of these villages to add to the green cover of the region.

Time and again, KRSF has forged collaborations with several other institutions working in different sectors towards addressing a range of social issues, for the greater good of the society.

Over the past decade, KRSF has been relentlessly and successfully working towards bringing about a measurable change in improving the quality of education across some 460 rural schools in 400 villages of Gujarat.