Sunk costs

Since the devastating 2001 earthquake, the arid region of Kutch, Gujarat, has experienced growth across sectors, including agriculture, industry, and tourism. However, this has come at the cost of a precious resource: groundwater. Kutch has experienced groundwater depletion to the tune of 10-15 feet a year since 2001, with only about 10 percent of all groundwater withdrawn getting recharged.

As a result, large numbers of groundwater structures are now defunct across the region. For instance, Kotda Jadodar village in Nakhatrana tehsil has more than 150 dry borewells; this is the case in other villages as well. These borewells have been seen as sunk costs by farmers.

In 2019, communities in different villages in Kutch took up the task of recharging groundwater through these defunct borewells. They did this by creating sink points or kundis (pictured on the left) to collect the rainwater, which would otherwise flow over the undulating terrain. The sink points were then connected to the dry borewells through pipes (pictured on the right), thus diverting rainwater to recharge aquifers.

The efforts were led by communities and financed through their own resources, without any help from the government. The structures worked well after a good monsoon in 2019, and expecting a good monsoon in 2020 as well, many have been doing this preparatory work during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Praharsh is a co-founder and advisor at Prayaas: The Movement for Grassroot Changes.

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