Daily Times

KARACHI/MITHI: Tharparkar’s drinking water issues may remain long but there are solutions as well to decrease the sufferings of the locals. Like the one that residents of Dedh Sar of Diplo tehsil and Haryar village of Mithi tehsil have found in the form of building huge-size concrete ponds as part of rain water harvesting.

Built by United Kingdom-based international charity WaterAid in collaboration with a local non-governmental organisation Sukaar Foundation, these ponds were filled with fresh water during recent rains. These ponds have low seepage and massive storage capacity, making them an acceptable and durable solution to the water problems. The estimated cost of a 90-foot-diametre and 15-foot-deep pond comes around Rs 1 million.

Once completed, the ponds were handed over to local villagers through water management committees and the citizens were guided on how to store and utilise that rainwater, which is a precious commodity in the region.

The vast scattered Thar Desert witnessed the recent history’s severe drought that started in the year 2012, during which shortage of food caused malnutrition that killed hundreds of children. Due to drought, the groundwater, which is a major source of drinking for rain-dependent Tharis, dropped down drastically and the volume of mineral in the groundwater increased alarmingly.

After waiting for four consecutive years, it rained – bringing happiness and hopes for the people of Tharparkar. But the residents of remote villages like Dedh Sar and Haryar had one more reason to be happy, as they could see huge-size ponds of their village filling with fresh water.

“It is a visible change in our lives. We stored rainwater and it seems to be sufficient for six to seven months,” said Muhammad Charo, a local from Dedh Sar.

Earlier, locals used to buy drinking water, which was very expensive for the people, especially in the dry period when the communities did not have earning opportunities. One tanker of water could range somewhere between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000.

“It (pond) saves money, which I can use for food and health for my family. Besides that, the children and women had to travel to two to three kilometres to fetch drinking water everyday,” Rattan Singh from Haryar village.

For experts, this experiment could be very useful if Tharparkar is to see long-term solution to the problem of drinking water. “Through Water Security Planning Tharparkar Project we are suggesting different ideas to the government and the development sector so that the issue of water scarcity in Thar Desert can be resolved for good,” said Abid Channa, CEO of Sukaar Foundation, while briefing the touring journalists from Karachi.