RAJSHAHI, April 11, 2021 (BSS)- Around 20,000 people are getting safe drinking water from dug-wells in some of the drought-prone high Barind tract where the existing shallow and deep tube-wells water technologies are yet to be reached due to various reasons.
The villagers are not only using the water for drinking and other household purposes but also cultivating various less-irrigation consuming cereal crops and vegetables after the best uses of the surface water.
Around 1,000 hectares of land have, so far, been brought under vegetable farming through operating 400 dug-wells till February last.
The dug-wells were constructed on behalf of a project titled “Extension Excavation of Dug-well in the Barind Area for Cultivation of Crops by Soft Irrigation”.
Tozammel Haque, 54, a farmer of Koraldanga village under Sapahar Upazila, said an acute water crisis exists in the vast Barind tract resulting in the untold sufferings of the poor and other marginalised communities.
He said although there are some ponds and ditches in the area, water of those are unfit for use due to chemical use and due to rugged underground soil pattern, no deep or shallow tube-well could be installed there.
They were facing severe water crisis for decades but by dint of sinking a dug-well in the area, 40 to 45 families are getting their daily drinking water and also cultivating crops and vegetables with the same water.
Sadhona Rani, 53, another farmer of Chalk Sohabat village under Patnitala Upazila, said they were suffering from water crisis for decades but now they’re having a dug-well, their suffering has abated to some extent.
She mentioned that the dug-well has become blessings for them. Before installation of the well, they had to fetch water from far away. She demanded commissioning of more dug-wells in the area.
Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) has implemented the four-year project in nine upazilas of Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts for boosting surface water use.
Engineer Sibbir Ahmed, Director of the project, told BSS that the ultimate goal of the scheme is to reduce excessive use of groundwater and develop an agro-ecological balance for addressing the adverse impact of climate change in the project area.
Under the Taka 53.48-crore project, 400 dug-wells with equal number of solar power panels were installed in 197 villages bringing 33,750 people under safe drinking water supply coverage besides providing irrigation to 1,350 hectares of lands till June, 2020 last.
The solar pumps are being used to fetch water from those dug wells. As a result, farmers’ families are getting water through the water distribution installations and 1.5-inch diameter pipeline easily for the purpose of their irrigation and household uses.
The solar panels are also being used for lighting the pump house areas and as a funnel for harvesting rainwater which is also recharging subterranean water level.
Engineer Ahmed added more than 2,250 farmers were imparted training on how to operate the pumps side by side with using and promoting soft-irrigation.
Jahangir Alam Khan, Coordinator of Integrated Water Resources Management Project under the DASCOH Foundation, said lifting underground water through deep tube-wells is becoming tougher day by day.
Options for surface water are also very limited. Thousands of hand-driven tube wells remain lying out of use every dry season due to the fall of the water level in the area.
So, extension of dug-well technology and its proper uses can be the vital means of mitigating the crises of water as the role of dug-well is important for aquifer recharge besides lessening the gradually mounting pressure on groundwater in the drought-prone area.