Sasur Khaderi Project

under MNREGA

Kanchan VermaDM Fatehpur

Background

Rivers big and small are the source of water everywhere. Fatehpur is situated in the doab region between Ganga and Yamuna.

Small rivers and natural drainage over time get silted, encroached and overused and are eventually lost.

Two such rivers in Fatehpur are Sasur Khaderi 1 and Sasur Khaderi 2. These are two distinct rivers sharing the name.

Background contd.

The project began with Sasur Khaderi 1 which originates from a lake in Thithaura village and then carves out its course through 4 blocks of the district.

Total distance the river covers is 46kms before it falls into the Yamuna.

This river is the drainage for many small and big drains and rivulets .

Objectives

Restore the original shape and flow of the river.

Revive and restore the Thithaura lake.

Save the adjoining villages from water logging.

To de-silt the lake and use it catchment area to ensure water stays by making a gated check dam.

To dredge and de-silt the 38Km of the river length.

To plant trees around the lake and river so as to prevent further silting back.

Project plan

The project was prepared by the Lower Ganga Canal Division of Irrigation department.

The first phase was revival of the lake (7.377 hectare) and 38kms of the river.

The project to be funded entirely under the MNREGA scheme.

The initial estimate for the project was 1208.30 lakhs.

Cost summary

S.N. Particulars Amount

A Labour cost 90059666.00

B Material cost 29235850.00

C Contingency 1534410.00

Total 120829926.00

=~ 1208.30 lac

Labor material ratio = 75 : 25

Challenges

Harvesting of the rabi crop continues well up to 15th May in Fatehpur and labourers and villagers were engaged there.

The May June heat made it very difficult to work, with temperatures constantly hovering around 42-45 degrees.

The river bed was very hard and rocky.

Plan modifications

The initial plan was to work the whole breadth of the river along its entire length.

In interdepartmental meetings, executive engineer PWD suggested that we are not making an irrigation canal whose water we can control.

It was then planned to work on one third of the breadth of the river which was 5mts to 38mts at different places.

This way we would clear the path of the river and let the river take its own course .

After the first spell of rain this year we were able to gauge the locations at which more deepening or widening was required.

This was planned as the first phase of the project.

Implementation

We held meetings at all the four block h q to request the pradhans to support this mission and motivate labourers to come to the work site.

BDO s had village level meetings at every village alongside the river .

Meetings with college principals, industries, social workers ,media so that the objectives of the mission could be propagated.

The amount of work was calculated at 500mts cross sections with a natural gradient of 20cms per km.

This was done for the whole breadth of the river and modified to phase 1 where only one third of the breadth was taken up.

The whole section was not worked upon but on a qunet form.

Work at the lake

The amount of mud excavated till date has been 78200 cubic mts. generating a total of 38000 man days.

On an average 1000 to 1500 labourers worked everyday on this site .

Labourers from far off villages came to the site in tractors. This was the only point where tractors were used to deposit mud on the borders.

Work on the river

The work on the river was divided into stretches of 1 km and allotted to one secretary,rozgar sewak and technical assistant.

At each km stretch facility for water and shade was provided.

As of date 186400 cubic mts of soil has been excavated generating 96900 man days .

Current assessment Areas like Bhairwan and Phulwamau which never took

to the paddy crop due to shortage of water are doing so this year.

The lake has already started retaining water. As on 16th July the lake had 90,000 cubic mts of water.

At chainage number 36 the discharge as on 16th July was 600 cusecs.

No village has been marooned due to overflowing unlike in previous years.

Future work

This project is part of our integrated plan to conserve water and soil in the district.

In the 2012 report on water levels four blocks namely Hatgaon, Amauli, Haswan and Bhitaura were categorised as dark blocks while three other were declared as critical.

We are currently carrying on bunding and plantation of government land categorised as pasture and barn land.

Work on 1084 plots has been started.

We are also carrying out a plantation of drive on 25th July and will be planting 3.5 lakh plants . This will also include a 5 hectare single plot in each block.

In the next 2 months we are also building check dams on 39 drainages and nalas which run off into the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Rhind.

The drainages selected vary from 8kms to 21kms in length. A check dam will ensure some water is preserved for future use.

Residents of the villages along these drainages will be removing minor hurdles in drainages e.g. major silting at some point, huge vegetative growth which slows/stops the flow of the drainage etc.

After the rains this September we will start the work on Sasur Khaderi 1 .

Some pictures from project site