Sunday, June 24, 2012

An Ideal village –Ralegaon siddhi

A success story  

A role model of water conservation work can be seen at Ralegaon-Siddhi, which
is also called the Ideal Village.

                  
hazare.jpg (9570 bytes)
In 1975, when Anna Hajare, a retired army man, went back to 
his village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, he found the 
village reeling under drought,poverty, debt, and unemployment.
He decided to mobilize the people and,with the collective support
 of all the villagers, he began to introduce changesToday Ralegaon
 Siddhi is being taken  as  a  role  model  for  other  villages
  by  the  Maharashtra government and by other states too. Massive 
tree plantation   has  been undertaken, and  hills  have been terraced 
to check   erosion.  Large canals  with ridges on  either  side  have 
 been  dug to  retain  rainwater.

As a result, the water table in this area is now considerably higher and the wells and  tube  wells are never  dry, making   it  possible  to raise three crops a year where only one was possible before.
       The  villager's   biggest  achievement  is undoubtedly in   the  area  of  non-conventional   energy. All the streets in the village are lit by solar  lights,  each   with a  separate  panel. There  are  four  large   community biogas plants and one of them is fitted  to  the  community  toilet. There  is a large  windmill  used  for pumping water. A number of households have their own biogas plants. The village is self sufficient .

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