KESHOD (Junagadh): A group of villagers has revived a dried up river by building check-dams. River Meghal in Junagadh district dried up 15 years ago but this year, thanks to the effort of villagers, it overflowed after the very first spell of rain.
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) helped the villagers build as many as 1,100 structures, including 54 check dams, along the 70km length of the river. The cost of the project — it involved labour by 6,500 villagers from early 2000 to 2012 — came to Rs 7 crore. Incidentally, it costs the state government around Rs 8 crore to build an RCC sump and pump house.
Apurva Oza of AKRSP said they had used a three-pronged approach for the Meghal River Basin Project. “Massive community participation, construction of check dams and use of traditional rain water-harvesting measures revived the river,” he said.
Via Times of India | 15 years on, Meghal flows again
Himanshu Kaushik,TNN | Jun 29, 2015, 02.13 AM IST
Meghnadi – stories from the Meghal river
This is a short film documenting the lives of farmers living in the arid region of Saurashtra, Gujarat in India. Their narratives outline the devastating droughts of the 1980’s and 1990’s and how they were able to recharge the groundwater in the region and revive the Meghal River through community action . The film is based off of a oral history research project, done by Alexandra Mouche.
The documentary was screened at the ‘Voices from water’ film festival, Bangalore in 2013.
Ismailimail 
Inspiring
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