NGO initiates 'CCT' project to retain water in soil

In a multi-pronged rural intiative aimed at reversing the trend of migration of people from villages to cities, a volunteer-based organisation has initiated a 'continuous counter trenching' project in several villages of Satara district, to retain water in the soil.
"In the villages of Satara, as rivers and wells are dry, vegetation thinned, crops failed and livelihoods crumbled, people are leaving villages and migrating to metropolitan cities, adding to the woes of people who are already settled there due to a limited infrastructure," said Ramesh Raman, CSR Head of Art of Living.
"An estimated 40 per cent of the population of Mohi can be found in the slums of Pune, Bangalore or Mumbai, performing daily wage jobs such as a painter, labourer or cleaner, on days they are lucky," he said.

Raman said that during times of acute water scarcity, villagers become ready to spend around Rs 80,000 for a borewell in their fields, with each such borewell adding to a further fall in the already falling water table.
"This circle of negativity perpetuating itself was broken by the Art of Living's initiative, where on one hand the energy levels of people were raised through its trademark programs such as the 'Happiness Program' and the 'Youth Leadership Training Program', creating local leaders in the process who then took concrete steps on the ground," he said.
Raman said that the first step was to improve the water table which was done through the Deep CCT (continuous counter trenching) project in which 176 kms of trenches were dug in the region's topography.

"Compared to the traditional bunds from which 52 per cent of water is lost to evaporation, Deep CCT leads to percolation of water in the sub soil leading to a much greater retention rate," he said.
In the second step, the trenches are planted with saplings for improving green cover and arresting soil erosion, as also reversing the silting of rivers, improving the water table and on the whole the crop productivity of the region, Raman said.