The ACIAR project team at Nalanda University, Rajgir, invited technical expert Mr Biplab Ketan Paul, Director, Naireeta Services Pvt. Ltd. His primary expertise lies in technology implementation and adaptation in execution model to suit local irrigation needs through groundwater sources. He has wide experience of groundwater recharge projects across states in India, i.e., Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, etc.  He visited the campus of Nalanda University in the second week of June 2019. The research fellows under the ACIAR project made a presentation to him in the presence of project supervisors, Dr Somnath Bandyopadhyay and Dr Prabhakar Sharma. During the presentation, Mr Biplab was made aware of the current distribution of irrigation sources, i.e., open dug wells, shallow bore wells and deep bore wells, agriculture practices and social dynamics of the project area, i.e., Nekpur Village within Rajgir Block. The project team consisting of two professors, one senior research fellow,two junior research fellows along with Mr Biplab Paul paid visit to the village for site inspection and selection for the proposed aquifer recharge pits.

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The team held focused group discussion with a group of around 18 villagers. It went for around one and half hours. The group comprised of people of young adults as well as senior citizens. In conversation, the villagers were asked about the technique of bore well drilling they employ as well as its changing nature over the years. They also mentioned the nature of soil strata found during the various drillings in the village which helped the team to make informative opinion about the soil layer structure beneath the surface. According to them, local drillers are hired for shallow bore well drilling (up to 100- 150 feet). After 150 feet in the subsurface, they find bedrock which needs much powerful machines for drilling. For any further drilling, they hire deep bore well drillers who come from Gaya and Ranchi. The trend of deep bore well drilling is fairly new. Out of 17 deep bore wells constructed in the village, more than 95 % were constructed within a year. Most of the existing shallow bore wells (more than 30), close to farm area, were drying. This indicates severe depletion of groundwater in the village. It also came to light that the layer of water for irrigation and drinking needs is same in the village. Villagers also talked about drying hand pumps within habitation area and rising dependence on bore wells for drinking water in the village. This is alarming since the groundwater depletion will have severe effect not only on big landholders but also on marginal farmers and landless villagers in terms of shrinking potable sources.

 

Then the team went to farmlands near the “Ahar- Pynes” the low lying area, which gets submerged in the rainy season and periods flash floods. These Ahar- Pynes have been traditional avenues of water storage and consequently irrigation apart from recharging the groundwater. Generally the land of Ahar- pynes are government owned. There was absence of women participants in the focused group discussion as well as field survey. This is due to minimal participation of women in drilling activities thus limiting their role in site selection for Aquifer recharge pits (ARP).  However, the research fellows took informal interviews of women in village to gauge the ongoing household hardships caused by rising shortage of water. 

After the completion of village survey, the project team had meeting with Mr Biplab in the university and discussed the feasibility, challenges and possible innovations for installation of ARPs in the village. Mr Paul gave his learned insight about the possible structure of soil layer and fractures in the village. There was also a discussion about the prevalence and nature of aquifers found in the village. The innovative design of filtration chambers required for ARPs was also finalized which will help in overall cost reduction, thus making it appealing to poor villages for wider adoption.

As follow up, a driller market survey was undertaken and our junior research fellows along with Mr Soni Prasad (a villager) interacted with deep bore well drillers in Gaya district. They found informal structure of oligopoly with different geographies allocated to different drillers.