LAGATAR24NETWORK
Godda, August 19: In order to augment water storage capacity that can help the farmers throughout the year, the Adani Foundation took up a pond revival initiative.
It covered villages within a 10 km radius of the Godda power plant and now, over 80 ponds have been replenished. Together, they will be able to store an additional 4 lakh cusecs of water, according to an official.
The replenished ponds will benefit more than 20,000 farmers from Sondiha, Motia, Dumria, Baksara, Petbi, Patwa, Basantpur and Rangania villages.
Kapildev Singh from Rangania village said, the additional water storage capacity will give the farmers an option to think about multiple crops. “It will boost our income,” he said.
Around this time of the year, about 434 mm of rainfall is expected in the state. But so far this year, only 236 mm of rainfall has been recorded.
“We hope to get decent rainfall in the next few weeks. If the ponds fill up, it will give us some relief,” said Bimal Sah, a farmer from Sondiha.
Officials said the dredging and digging work in the ponds had been taken up in stages. The work has been completed for now and they will look at covering more areas in the future.
Ashok Choudhary, who heads the panchayat of Motia village in Godda, said: “Most of these ponds had not been cleaned for years. In our Motia panchayat area alone, over a dozen ponds have been revived by the Adani Foundation. If we get adequate rainfall, the ponds will be full and it will benefit the farmers. ”
