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This waste-side story gets happy ending as four filthy ponds turn picture-perfect
The task was accomplished at a cost of Rs 1 lakh with the participation of the same villagers who had been dirtying the ponds for years.
It was almost as if someone had waved a magic wand and four ponds, which resembled floating islands of garbage in Firozabad district for years, suddenly wore a squeaky, clean look and bore new names.
Anyone who had seen these ponds in the Dalit-dominated Donkeli village at the beginning of June could be forgiven for rubbing his eyes in disbelief at the transformation that came about a month later.
The task was accomplished at a cost of Rs 1 lakh with the participation of the same villagers who had been dirtying the ponds for years, officials said.
What is more, the ponds, around which villagers belonging to four sub-castes lived for years,were renamed after Dalit icons to ensure that the locals took pride in keeping these water bodies waste-free in future too.
All this happened courtesy a drive by the district administration under the union government’s Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in Donkeli, which has an approximate population of 5,000.
So, the water bodies in the Koli Basti (settlement), the Jatav Basti, the Valmiki Basti and the Divakar Basti have been renamed after Jhalkari Bai, Dr BR Ambedkar, Maharishi Valmiki and Sant Gadge respectively.
“The ponds are staying clean now,” said Prabhat Mishra, assistant director, National Savings, Firozabad, who held additional charge of block development officer (BDO) of the Firozabad Sadar block under which Donkeli is located.
Chief development officer (CDO) Neha Jain said: “We liked Prabhat’s idea as we thought it would give a sense of ownership to the community. And it worked.”
The four ponds were cleaned in a month-long drive starting June 1 and over 400 tonnes of solid waste was taken out.
Neha Jain said: “The ponds were in bad shape. We don’t know why, but for years villagers dumped all kinds of household waste, kitchen refuse, plastic-polythene, footwear and pillows into the ponds. Now, they are surprised at the outcome of the cleaning mission.”
“We took up rejuvenation of Donkeli ponds under the union government’s Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA). The union government made a list of roughly 1600 blocks in 255 districts for JSA. Firozabad is one of the districts with six water-stressed blocks. Donkeli village is situated in one of those six blocks. We took up the Donkeli ponds under JSA’s ‘rejuvenation of traditional water bodies’. We spent less than Rs 1 lakh on cleaning the four ponds. A task any private firm would have done for several lakh rupees,” the CDO said.
Now, JSA has mentioned the Donkeli success story in its blog.
She said the district administration had appointed Prabhat Mishra as the consultant, Jal Shakti Abhiyan, Firozabad.
Misra said: “The ponds were a virtual quagmire. We wanted to pull the garbage islands out and then decided to build a giant pitchfork with a rope tied to the handlebar end. The villagers threw the fork on the islands and then pulled them to the fringe of the pond and (brought them) out. Once, the islands were pulled out, we also used fishnets to take out floating rubbish. Once this task was accomplished, we began desilting the ponds using tractors.”
The CDO decided to create a park out of garbage in the village.
“The organic waste that came out of the pond was natural manure. We have been asked to plant trees, grass, and landscape it a bit to convert into a park,” said Donkeli panchayat secretary Harendra Baghel.
Village head Ramvir Singh said: “When they came to our village to clean the ponds, the idea looked preposterous. When we compare the ponds with their previous state, the transformation looks unbelievable. We will maintain the ponds.”
Amarlata, resident of the Koli settlement in the village, said: “This (pond) and our surroundings were full of polythene, thermocol and plastic. They looks neat and beautiful now.”
