A photo story: What it means to have fresh rain water in village

By Mukesh Pandit, Bhavnagar, 31 August 2012

Photographs presented above show importance of water for villagers.

People of Bhavnagar district’s Ugamedi village constructed a check dam about ten years ago with the help of local gram vikas samiti, government of Gujarat, Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust, and Aksharpurushottam Swaminarayan mandir.

Ever since the construction completed, local village people have earned immense benefit from this new water body.

Due to poor monsoon, this year(2012), this check dam remained unfilled. But villagers didn’t just sit idle. They initiated a huge excavation exercise to increase the water storage capacity of this water body.

It was only this week that good rain during just couple of days filled this check dam, in fact it was overflowing.

Local villagers organized a procession with school girls putting pots on their heads and dholi playing dhol.

Minister of state and Gujarat government’s Bhavnagar district’s prabhari minister Saurabh Patel was there to felicitate the fresh arrival of water.

Let’s pray, all villages of Gujarat get similar blessings of good rain and get water bodies filled at full level.