Pune: A month after residents of Tulshi village in Madha tehsil of Solapur district announced their water-stressed village was “up for sale”, a groundwater recharge initiative involving 18 percolation lakes has offered them a ray of hope. The initiative is being led by a couple of social organisations and veteran geologist Suresh Khanapurkar, architect of the famous “Shirpur pattern” of groundwater conservation. The project has already identified sites for the lakes in Tulshi, in different parts of the settlement.Khanapurkar told TOI on Sunday the 18 lakes will permanently resolve Tulshi’s water problem. “The villagers won’t even need canal water in the future,” he said.Tulshi is located just nine km from the Sina-Madha lift irrigation project, which began operations in 2000. But for 26 years, the village has not received a drop of water from the project because of a lack of pipelines. In Sept this year, fed up with years of acute water scarcity, govt apathy and after 45 days of no rainfall, villagers put up posters across Tulshi, announcing their 2,700-hectare settlement was “for sale”.The protest prompted a visit by state rural development and panchayati raj minister, Jaykumar Gore, who told villagers on Oct 4 the govt would lay a closed pipeline to Tulshi from the Sina-Madha project.Khanapurkar said Tulshi’s geography also had a role in the water scarcity. “What I observed here is that the rainwater flows away from the village. Tulshi receives rainfall in the range of 800mm to 1,000 mm. This year, it has only received 200 mm rainfall. So the problem became more severe.”Khanapurkar arrived at the village last month. Since then, he has conducted several scientific surveys. In 2013, he gained nationwide attention for similar groundwater recharge systems he built in Shirpur tehsil of Dhule district. His model came to be known as the “Shirpur pattern” of groundwater restoration.In Tulshi, each of the 18 percolation lakes is expected to be around 200 metres long, 10 metres deep and 20 meters wide. The structures will capture and conserve rainwater, allowing it to percolate into the ground.Sarpanch More said this is the first time in years the village has seen any work being done to conserve rainwater. “The lakes will certainly make a difference,” he said.Residents said the situation this year is dire. Most of Tulshi’s water bodies, including wells and lakes, have dried up. Ponds that were dug at fruit plantations are also at dead storage and tankers now supply the village.“The fruit plantations are an immediate worry. They took years to grow. Now, they’re withering and we can’t bear to see them die,” said resident Pandurang Mali.Khanapurkar said he hopes to finish the groundwater project by June. “Politicians have been giving hollow promises to the villagers,” he said. “No one ever did any work on the ground here, which is why the scarcity has persisted. Our project, according to estimates, is not expected to cost more than Rs 10 crore,” he said.
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