Flow, water, flow
You will bring water out of the rock for them; you will provide drink for the people and their livestock. - Numbers 20:8
Water out of a rock. God did it for the people of Israel thousands of
years ago and it is happening again today.
In the village of Sinisingi, the water is flowing. Over 2,500 meters of
irrigation pipeline have been laid from the water source high in the mountain
rocks to the village. This Gravity Water Flow System has revolutionized the
lives of these villagers.
The village is in the district of Gajapati, one of the most remote parts
of the Orissa region of India. The land is barren and the tribal groups who
live here on the edge of the forest land rarely have the water they need for
daily living and growing crops.
With the irrigation pipeline, villagers now have enough water to drink
and to grow their crops. Before, the women had to walk more than half a mile to
get clean water. “It was a crisis,” one of the women tells me, “But now, we can
grow many different kinds of vegetables and have enough to sell in the
marketplace.”
We walk the hilly land and see how these tribal people have terraced it.
Water gushes through the pipeline and through the furrows in the fields that
have been dug. In just three months time, the irrigation system was constructed
to provide water for 22 families and 30 acres of land.
Sinisingi was the first of three villages where MCC partner Isara has
worked with the village to provide water. All twelve villages of the Gajapati
district are targeted for future similar projects as funds are available. Each irrigation
system costs just under $20,000 to construct, mostly in labor that the
villagers provide in exchange for food.
We visit the village of Abarasingi, the next village scheduled to
receive an irrigation line. We meet with village leaders and learn that three
kilometers of pipeline have already been laid and only one kilometer remains.
This time, the pipeline will provide water for 31 households and over 120 acres
of land, including drinking water for a school of more than 100 children.
The villages will own the water rights to the water sources and Isara is
also helping the villages gain access to government programs that they are
entitled to. The project provides one-time seeds to each farmer for their kitchen
gardens.
Isara leaders say that, each time, the process gets easier with the
villages because villagers can see the results in the villages that have already
received water.
Just prior to visiting these villages, we learned that MCC will be able
to provide an additional $75,000 for irrigation pipelines in four more villages
next year.
Flow, water, flow.
Ron Byler is executive director of Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
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