A new technique to conserve water for irrigation by creating artificial farm ponds using polymer lining is gaining ground in rural Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana and Karnataka. This affordable water conservation technique introduced by 22 year-old Maithili Appalwar, founder, Avana — a strategic business unit of Emmbi Industries — has helped farmers conserve over 200 billion litres of water in Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Avana’s flagship product, Jalasanchay, is an end-to-end water conservation solution. Jalasanchay works on a simple idea —farmers dig a large pit in the farm and cover it with a polymer lining that does not allow the water to seep into the ground; this creates an artificial pond that captures rainwater and river surplus.
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At 1 paisa per litre per year, Jalasanchay costs 1/10th of a concrete tank for the same size of water storage, making it viable for farmers at the bottom of the pyramid, says Appalwar. Emmbi Industries manufactures various woven polymer based products like container liners, protective irrigation system, canal liners, flexi tanks etc and also manufactures the ploymer lining for Jalsanchay. Over 200 billion litres of water has been conserved successfully across Maharashtra as well as in Rajasthan. Appalwar says the solution has touched the lives of over 5,000 farmers.
Over 68.8% is dependent on agriculture and only 14% have certainty of income through micro-irrigation. A changing rainfall pattern has led to high water stress among farmers, she said.
Conserving water by capturing this water surplus is critical for farmers who depend on it for their livelihood. But traditional water conservation solutions, such as concrete tanks,are unaffordable for the vast majority of Indian farmers.
Emmbi has created three major methods to solve the nation’s water crisis. These include Jalasanchay Pond Liner, AquaSave Canal Liner and Perco Plus Percolation Tanks. “We have created over 5,000 ponds in three states irrigating over 10,000 hectares of land in 36 months with around 8 ponds a day.”
“AquaSave Canal Liner prevents percolation losses in clay canals. This increases the area under irrigation and improves water efficiency till the last mile,for large irrigation projects,” she said.
Perco Plus is used to line bunds in percolation tanks preventing horizontal movement of water. Thus, water moves down vertically and recharges the underground water table. “We have created 70 such tanks this year. This has increased the availability of groundwater in nearby villages by 6 months in a year. Now water is available till May end,” Appalwar explained.
Avana has created large water reservoirs of 15,000 sqm and 20,000 sqm at Athani in Karnataka and Sangli in Maharashtra respectively. The SBU intends to double its distribution network in Maharashtra and Karnataka and also enter states such as Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the company is looking at 50% growth in revenues by 2025.