Watershed Development

25 years ago Sittilingi had water at 10ft and we had never had a water shortage. However, with 6 years of drought, the water table dipped and farming became a difficult proposition. Moreover, last year, the bigger farmers started bore wells and depleting what small reserves were already there. So in 2019, we launched the Watershed Program which consisted of

1. Education and demonstration of how watersheds work – using films, models, village meetings and going and visiting the farms
2. Desilting check dams which were built over 25 years ago and then forgotten. They got silted up and water flowed over them. There was no budget in the Government to de-silt them. We took up the Jal Shakthi Abhiyan along with the Government and did desilting of check dams.
3. Farm ponds and spring stops in the farms and near the hills where we stopped the spring water coming from the hills and allow it to seep into the ground.
4. Raising field boundaries so that all rain water which falls into the fields, remains there.