Why in news? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised the Bori-bandh campaign in Jharkhand’s rebel-hit Khunti district during his ‘Mann ki Baat’ for setting up an example that how public participation brings positive change in the society.

Highlights:

• A detailed report on the initiative was published in ‘The Sunday Standard’ way back in January 2021.
• Under this campaign, small dams are constructed by filling sand and soil in used cement bags that are kept on one atop the other to stop water from flowing into the local rivulets. This helps provide water for irrigation throughout the year and also maintains the water- table in the region.
• People in Khunti have found a way out to deal with the scarcity of water through the Bori-bandh campaign, which helps in retaining water in the rivers further enabling villagers to irrigate their fields and grow vegetables and improve their income.
• ‘Bori-bandh’ is purely managed through ‘shramdaan’ (voluntary donation of human resources through labour) and presently, there are more than 275 low-cost bori bandhs in the district.

The need for the initiative:

• Notably, despite having numerous small rivers, rivulets and streams flowing through the region, most of the farmers in the region would only manage to grow kharif crops and suffer low irrigation efficiency due to a lack of adequate water supply till recently.

How has it changed the lives of people?

• The project has changed the lives of over 8,000 farmers living in more than 70 villages under Arki, Murhu, Khunti, Torpa and Karra Blocks of the Khunti district — by helping them grow crops around the year across thousands of acres.
• Due to these check-dams, the water table has also increased up to 5-6 meters in the region, which itself is a positive sign