Power of +ve leadership!

If you have the right leadership, any miracle can be achieved. That’s what we learn, rather re-learn from this small village in Bihar, known as Vaishali. Facing falling ground water levels, the people in the village have been facing acute water shortage, with even the hand pumps sometimes not yielding not more than a bucket or so.

This changed dramatically this year. The young district magistrate, Rachana Patil ushered in water harvesting, motivated all Govt wings, right from the schools to the anganwadis, electricity supply departments, panchayat and the entire community. Unicef provided the technical assistance and, using locally available material, 14,000 people constructed the low-cost structures on every conceivable government and semi-government buildings, including ration shops. The result - 7,158 rooftop rainwater harvesting units were constructed on a single day, on July 24 2016.

This rain water harvesting has created a catchment area of 65 lakh sq ft across the district. As Vaishali gets 1,168 mm rainfall annually, nearly 70 crore litre of harvested rainwater will recharge the groundwater. Now this is what positive utilization of power and leadership can create.