Alongside the skill development centre where youths from city and rural areas learned new trades, Mirza adopted rainwater harvesting measures like digging recharge pits making the land water positive. “Not a single drop of water can leave the campus,” he said, pointing to trenches at natural slopes on the land.
Though monsoon has delayed across the country this year, Mirza said, his land has sufficient water to meet irrigation needs on the 15-acre area for the next two years. A well dug on the campus has water at 60-ft due to recharge from the previous year’s rain.
He has been growing vegetables and different crops round the year. Several saplings planted in the beginning have become full grown, giving the campus a picturesque look.
“We have been capturing rainwater through watershed management, rooftops, trenches, recharge pits, ponds, plantations for water self-reliance. We have recharged more than 3 crore litre at the Mahurzari centre, 1.38 crore litre at Mahindra plant in Hingna, 1 crore litre at an agarbatti plant in Nagalwadi,” said Mirza, who is director of Nagpur First and NGO Yashodhara.
The simple and indigenous ways of water harvesting have been extended to several villages on the outskirts of Nagpur. Through NSS (National Service Scheme) camps, 24 villages are now water positive, he said.
“A trench of 5 metre x 3 metre x 2 metre can save 10 lakh litres during entire rainy season. An average person’s daily water-print is 5,500 litre. Agriculture requires 70% of available fresh water. We need to grow more in less water. Hence precision irrigation technology, which saves 60% water, 35% electricity, reduces greenhouse gases by 80% and reduces dependency on rainfall is a must,” Mirza added.
He said the measures can also help arrest migration of rural population to city and bring prosperity to water-deficient areas.
“Why being water positive to water efficient matters because our resources are increasingly under pressure due to climate change, development activities, and pollution. So such measures are must to become water positive and efficient. We have to raise the bar from net zero to surplus stock by returning more water into freshwater sources. Judicious use of available water through precision irrigation and smart usage must also be adopted,” said Mirza.
