A dark zone is an area where groundwater has been over-exploited and hence depleted and the quality of water is not safe for consumption. In Sikar district, Dantaramgarh was the first block to be declared a dark zone. The overall low quality of ground water, coupled with the high saline content of the Rewasa lake meant that the villages in this block were dependent on nearby blocks for their drinking water needs. Recognising this ongoing issue, the Bajaj Foundation has been actively working with various villages in the block to solve the drinking water crisis since 2011. Dudhwa is one such village in the Dantaramgarh block where the Foundation has been helping villagers improve their water table.

There are 308 families (1,900 people) living in Dudhwa village presently. The main occupation of the people here is agriculture. However, due to the existing water crisis, villagers were only able to cultivate their land during the Kharif season. For the rest of the year, their land lay empty while most of the farmers from the village would travel to another block in search of work as farm labour.

Further impacting the issue, several farmers had their farmland (13.8 hectares) close to the Reta hills. As a result, during the rainy season, rainwater from the hills would accumulate on their land destroying their crops. The affected farmers highlighted this issue to The Bajaj Foundation and requested their help to resolve the water crisis that threatened their livelihood.

In 2017-18, the Bajaj Foundation formed a Village Development Committee (VDC) in Dudhwa to tackle these issues. One of the first steps the committee took on was to construct a water recharge structure in the village that would take care of the water logging issue as well as provide the farmers with a regular water supply. Thanks to the water recharge structure, farmers began to have regular supply of clean water for irrigation of their land during the rabi season, and there was an increase in the ground water table of the village.

Another benefit of the initiative was the improvement in the availability of drinking water for the children of the village. Before the water recharge structure was built, the school had to source its water from a tube well more than a kilometre away or had to depend on water tankers. The tube well near them could not handle the village’s requirements. The water recharge structure helped recharge the tube well at the school which meant that now a regular supply of drinking water is available to everyone in the village.

Bajaj Foundation, by helping villagers build a simple water recharge structure were able to alleviate the livelihood of an entire village.