Sasur Khaderi_1 - India Environment Portal

Sasur Khaderi Project
under MNREGA
Kanchan Verma
DM Fatehpur
Background
 Rivers big and small are the source of water
everywhere. Fatehpur is situated in the doab region
between Ganga and Yamuna.
 Small rivers and natural drainage over time get silted,
encroached and overused and are eventually lost.
 Two such rivers in Fatehpur are Sasur Khaderi 1 and
Sasur Khaderi 2. These are two distinct rivers sharing
the name.
 The project began with Sasur Khaderi 1 which
originates from a lake in Thithaura village and then
carves out its course through 4 blocks of the district.
 Total distance the river covers is 46kms before it falls
into the Yamuna.
 This river is the drainage for many small and big drains
and rivulets .
Objectives
 Restore the original shape and flow of the river.
 Revive and restore the Thithaura lake.
 Save the adjoining villages from water logging.
 To de-silt the lake and use it catchment area to ensure
water stays by making a gated check dam.
 To dredge and de-silt the 38Km of the river length.
 To plant trees around the lake and river so as to
prevent further silting back.
Project plan
 The project was prepared by the Lower Ganga Canal
Division of Irrigation department.
 The first phase was revival of the lake (7.377 hectare) and
38kms of the river.
 The project to be funded entirely under the MNREGA
scheme.
 The initial estimate for the project was 1208.30 lakhs.
Cost summary
S.N.
Particulars
Amount
A
Labour cost
90059666.00
B
Material cost
29235850.00
C
Contingency
1534410.00
Total
120829926.00
=~ 1208.30 lac
Labor material ratio = 75 : 25
Challenges
 Harvesting of the rabi crop continues well up to 15th
May in Fatehpur and labourers and villagers were
engaged there.
 The May June heat made it very difficult to work, with
temperatures constantly hovering around 42-45
degrees.
 The river bed was very hard and rocky.
Plan modifications
 The initial plan was to work the whole breadth of the
river along its entire length.
 In interdepartmental meetings, executive engineer
PWD suggested that we are not making an irrigation
canal whose water we can control.
 It was then planned to work on one third of the
breadth of the river which was 11.5 mts to 38 mts at
different places.
 This way we would clear the path of the river and let
the river take its own course .
 After the first spell of rain this year we were able to
gauge the locations at which more deepening or
widening was required.
 This was planned as the first phase of the project.
Implementation
 We held meetings at all the four block h q to request
the pradhans to support this mission and motivate
labourers to come to the work site.
 BDO s had village level meetings at every village
alongside the river .
 Meetings with college principals, industries, social
workers ,media so that the objectives of the mission
could be propagated.
 The amount of work was calculated at 500mts cross
sections with a natural gradient of 20cms per km.
 This was done for the whole breadth of the river and
modified to phase 1 where only one third of the
breadth was taken up.
 The whole section was not worked upon but on a
qunet form.
Work at the lake
 The amount of mud excavated till date has been
78200 cubic mts. generating a total of 38000 man
days.
 On an average 1000 to 1500 labourers worked
everyday on this site .
 Labourers from far off villages came to the site in
tractors. This was the only point where tractors were
used to deposit mud on the borders.
Work on the river
 The work on the river was divided into stretches of 1
km and allotted to one secretary,rozgar sewak and
technical assistant.
 At each km stretch facility for water and shade was
provided.
 As of date 186400 cubic mts of soil has been
excavated generating 96900 man days .
Current assessment
 Areas like Bhairwan and Phulwamau which never
took the paddy crop due to excess water are doing
so this year.
 The lake has already started retaining water. As on 16th
July the lake had 90,000 cubic mts of water.
 At chainage number 36 the water discharge as on
16th July was 600 cusecs.
 No village has been marooned due to overflowing
unlike in previous years.
 On initial assessment we have identified points at
which the river will have to be given more depth.
 The bunding along the borders of the river has to be
strengthened and more height given .
 A check dam will be constructed to ensure water
remains in the river after the rains also.
Future work
 This project is part of our integrated plan to conserve
water and soil in the district.
 We are currently carrying on bunding and plantation
of government land which has been categorised as
pasture and barn land.
 Work on 1084 plots which are larger than 1 bigha has
been started. work on 738 pasture and barn lands has
been completed.
 We have also carried out a plantation drive on 25th
July and 15th august and have planted 4.8 lakh plants
. This will also include a 5 hectare single plot in each
block.
 In the next 2 months we are also building check dams
on 39 drainages and nalas which run off into the
Ganga, the Yamuna and the Rhind.
 The drainages selected vary from 8kms to 21kms in
length. A check dam will ensure some water is
preserved for future use even after the rains.
 Residents of the villages along these drainages will be
removing minor hurdles in drainages e.g. major silting
at some point, huge vegetative growth which
slows/stops the flow of the drainage etc.
 This work will be done by minor irrigation, irrigation
departments.
 From 2nd oct we will start the work on Sasur Khaderi 1
which is 58kms in length. This work will be done by the
gram panchayats under the supervision of irrigation
department.
Some pictures before the project
Photographs during the project
After the completion of work
Peoples movement
Thank you