HUBBALLI: Early this month, a young social development consultant from Ballari used his wedding card to spread the message of Swachh Bharat. Now, a farmer from Davanagere has adopted similar means to create awareness on rainwater harvesting.

While farmers in his village are campaigning for their candidates in the gram panchayat elections and sweating it out in the scorching heat, H K Anandappa of Honnanayakanahalli village has a different concern: the water shortage in his village. To spread the message on saving water and recharging borewells, Anandappa has decided to use his son’s wedding to drive home the point. Right from the card to the nuptials, the theme will be on saving water.

The wedding card features catchy slogans like ‘save water’, ‘drop of water is more precious than anything else’, ‘use rainwater harvesting to recharge your defunct borewells’ etc.

He has also made arrangements to hold a workshop on the importance of rainwater harvesting on the occasion of the marriage of his younger son H A Kallesh on Wednesday at Santebennur. Before tying the knot, there will be a workshop where groundwater experts, including N J Devaraj Reddy, a Chitradurga-based hydrogeologist and founder of Geo Rain Water Board, will speak on rainwater harvesting and its role in recharging borewells. Other experts and farmers from surrounding villages will participate in the workshop and bless the newlyweds. Nearly 2,000 wedding cards have been printed at a cost of Rs 30,000.

Anandappa told TOI, “I had borewells dug up in my five acres to grow horticultural and other crops, but all of them dried up as the water tables depleted. We faced a huge loss. We did not get a single drop of water even after we had dug borewells up to 500 ft deep. I then met groundwater expert Devaraj Reddy who advised me to adopt rainwater harvesting method. After I followed instructions, my luck changed and water filled my borewells. Today, I’ve been able to grow varieties of crops, including vegetables and other horticulture crops.”

Anandappa said that many farmers are facing loss and not drawing any water from their borewells since they are not aware of rainwater harvesting. “I have to spend thousands to hold seminars or workshops to educate people about it, but I have decided to use the occasion of my younger son’s marriage for this purpose. I have printed details of workshops and some catchy slogans on groundwater protection and importance of rainwater,” he said.

A large number of people, mostly farmers, are attending his son’s wedding. “Apart from our relatives, I have also invited farmers from surrounding villages to participate in the workshop and then bless the newlyweds. My efforts have been appreciated by all villagers and family members,” he added.

Kallesh, the groom, is fully backing his father’s initiative. “We don’t want to see other farmers face the problems that we did. So we are creating awareness,” he said.

