Villagers, who slogged for five years to bring the Bakulahi river back to its natural course.

PRATAPGARH/ALLAHABAD: After five years of collective work, over 10,000 people in nearly 50 villages of Pratapgarh and Allahabad districts have been successful in bringing the Bakulahi river back to its natural course. If Bihar’s Dasrath Manjhi ’s resolve to break mountain was for carving out a road, these Manjhis from Mandhata block of Pratagarh were determined to end their water woes. The entire digging work of about 18 km started in August 2011 and finished by July end this year. The dug up stretch is now already full of water barring some patches.About 25 years ago, the irrigation department had diverted the flow of the river for ‘loop cutting’ work to check annual flood in the area. Although the flood menace was checked, the step triggered water crisis in the region.“Till 1987, the river used to pass through Torai, Babupur, Gaura, Nanda Ka Pura, Saray Deorai and other villages towards Dhema village and people would get adequate water. But after the route was changed, the villagers started facing problems in getting drinking water and that for agricultural fields,” said Samaj Shekhar, convenor, Bakulahi River Rejuvenation Campaign. There were three blocks which were majorly affected – Mandhta in Pratapgarh, which has a substantial part of the newly dug up stretch -- and Holgarh and Soraon in Allahabad.In 2003, ‘Waterman’ Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh visited the affected villages and stressed on the need for bringing the river back to its natural course to end the water crisis.“In 2011, thousands of villagers from 50 villages resolved to put the river on its natural course. Locals collected about Rs 12 lakh for the entire work on their own. Besides manual digging, we also hired JCB machines for deeper digging,” said Shekhar.“We faced various hurdles in the task. First, we had to fill up the 1-km to temporary loop that had been created to change the course of the river. Then the 18-km original stretch of the river had been encroached by villagers. But we sorted out all issues after a series of meetings with people concerned and villagers who had the land in possession. They agreed to vacate the land,” added Shekar.Another challenge was to keep the interest alive. Since the water crisis affected everybody – other villages had even stopped having wedding alliances in these villages – people agreed readily. The work started without any government support. Shekhar says that villagers had dug up 15.5 out of 18 km route of the river when the Pratapgarh administration chipped in to help out in the remaining part through MGNREGA.“We faced several problems in erecting the dam to divert the course of river. The dam made of mud was washed away at least three times due to strong current of the river,” shared Radhey, a villager.“We regularly petitioned the public representatives and district officials to address the problem but no one paid heed” said 72-year-old Madhav.There were other challenges too. Just when the digging work was at peak, some villagers, whose fields were dug to facilitate the flow of the river, lodged a police complaint against the villagers. The police stopped the digging and lodged an FIR against 70 villagers, including the two social activists. But the police action further united the villagers. They staged a sit-in and refused to lift it till digging was allowed. The complainants had to bow before the villagers and the digging resumed.Villagers are demanding a permanent cemented dam at Pure Turai village in Pratapgarh, claiming there is urgent need of the cemented dam to be built to check strong water current. Shekhar said they have sent a letter to the chief minister office in this regard. Allahabad divisional commissioner Rajan Shukla assured to help the villagers in getting the cemented dam constructed.