A police head constable volunteered and inspired villagers to participate in desilting and dredging of 150-year-old Singaiya lake in Rithi village of Katni district, Madhya Pradesh.
For over two weeks, the cop alongwith the villagers are carrying the work of desilting and dredging of the Singaiya lake for three hours between 7 am to 10 am.
The lake is spread on 7.5 acres area and rain water rushes from surrounding catchment area. Since it is an old lake it has a ghat for the villagers to fetch water from it.
About how he got idea to take up the work to remove silt from the lake, Police head constable Rajkumar Sharma said “I daily used to go to the lake to feed the fishes for quite some time, with the approach of summer season water level in the lake depletes and a large portion of the lake dries”.
“I often saw the villagers use the lake water for domestic purpose and the animals drink it”, he said.
“If silt is removed from the lake the water storage capacity will increase”, said Sharma.
Sharma is posted in the Rithi police station of the district.
A villager Kallu Adivasi said it is old lake and due to the lake the ground water availability in the village is round the year and they fetch drinking water from the handpump while the lake water is used for domestic purpose.
The lake biodiversity is healthy, presently water is available in over 1.5 acres area in the hot weather condition where the pink lotus flowers in full bloom can be seen, MP government public relations officer Manoj Shrivastava said.
“The villagers use the lake water for irrigation particularly during rabi season for wheat crop”, he said.
When the initiative of the villagers came to the knowledge of Katni district panchayat chief executive officer Jagdish Chandra Gome said “I had talked with the Janpad Panchayat authorities and a proposal will be made to rejuvenate the ghats and other works of the lake.”
The villagers have attachment towards the lake for they perform religious rituals of children like ‘mundan ceremony of children (tonsure of hairs) near a temple on periphery of the lake.
Meanwhile, the State government has launched Jal Abhishek campaign for desilting and dredging of lakes, rejuvenation of water bodies, creating new lakes for rain water harvesting across the state.
