Chandbali: Facing saline water ingress and administration apathy, residents of Jaladesh area under Chandbali block in Bhadrak district have been building an earthen check dam every year on their own since past 50 years.
Without technical know-how, these dams don’t last beyond a year though. This year, farmers of several villages in this area have embarked upon yet another similar initiative to construct a 40-ft-long and 15-ft-wide earthen dam across Malisahi rivulet, a distributary of Salandi river.
According to the farmers, the water resources department has constructed a concrete bridge on the rivulet. But it hardly solves the purpose owing to the lack of a sluice gate that could have blocked saline water ingress into the farmlands.
Saline water flows in the rivulet and then inundates the paddy fields, causing damage to ripe paddy crops. The issue keeps recurring every year, said a farmer.
Many farmers said they have been demanding for a sluice gate on the rivulet but to no avail. “We have taken up this issue with the administrative officers and political leaders on several occasions but to no avail,” an elderly farmer rued.
“With no alternative left, we have been constructing an earthen dam every year since the past 50 years, contributing our own labour and money, he added.
“We are not getting as much clay as we used to in past years to construct the check dam. That said, we will somehow manage to finish the work in two or three more days,” said another local farmer.
Such a dam goes a long way in checking ingression of saline water into the paddy fields. The locals have to be extra careful until both sides of the dam have grass on them.
The villagers keep constructing the dam each year as it gets breached during the rainy season.
Villagers of many villages such as Giripur, Purusottampur, Baulajoda and Dhanakhania under Bhuinbruti panchayat and Krushnapur, Brahmapur and Malisahi villages under Madhapur panchayat are constructing the dam, employing their own money and labour.
PNN