The Sakharpa village along with Naam Foundation has finally made a couple of Maharashtra villages flood-free after seventy years! The Sakharpa Village and the Naam Foundation have created a miracle. By de-siltation processes, they have finally restored the Kajali River course in Maharashtra for the 1st time in seventy years.
This has made the Maharashtra villages of Kondgao and Sakharpa completely flood-free. In July of 2021, torrential rains killed more than 200 people in Maharashtra’s Chiplun. The flooding that followed the torrential rains sunk half the town in water. It was the heaviest rainfall witnessed by the town in forty years. The rainfall also affected many other sections of that state like the Kondgao region, Raigad and Ratnagiri.
De-Siltation Makes 2 Maharashtra villages Flood-Free In Seven Decades
Kondgao and Sakharpa, two neighboring Maharashtra villages didn’t witness a single flood. In 1948, River Kajali used to flow straight through Sakharpa village. Because of a rise in floods and rainfall, the course had to be changed. This is according to one Sakharpa resident, Mugdha Sardeshpande.
Moreover, both Gad and Kev rivers flowed into Kajali. This resulted in additional silt deposition along the river, which further narrowed its water carrying capacity and its channel. Mugdha also talked about how the flood used to damage various commodities like grains, electronic goods, etc thereby causing severe economic losses to distributors and traders residing in the village.
However, it was the efforts of the villagers and their restoration work that stopped the floods from happening. A group of nearly 5000 people was involved in the restoration work. After Mugdha along with her fellow villagers contacted the Water-Resources Dept. of Maharashtra, there was a survey. After that survey, authorities recommended restoration work in the form of de-siltation. However, the expense was too high for the panchayat to incur at that moment.
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So, Shridhar Kabnoorkar took matters into his own hands in 2019 and asked for help from the Naam Foundation. Naam Foundation is an NGO that solves rural water crises. With the expertise of the Naam Foundation and a group of nearly 5000 people, the two Mahrashtra villages finally became flood-free! Mugdha wants her own village to be an example to other villages who face water crises and wants to do something about it!
