Where there is a will there is a way
Bandh is a tiny mountain village in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. RUCHI’s complex is also located in the vicinity of Bandh village. The village and RUCHI used to face acute water shortage during summer until the year 2006. Water to the village was transported by tankers.
With the assistance of Rotary Clubs of New Zealand, RUCHI decided to restore an old dried natural spring on Shili forest stream and recharge it with rain water by developing a catchment in the form of a check dam immediately above the spring. Additional associated protective works of gully plugging, cattle troughs, earthen pond and a filter chamber were installed. It took us 8 months to complete the project in 2007.
The site for Dam was not ideal and experts had doubts over the success of project but the choice of site was limited.
The project proved to be a great success and has become a source of inspiration for replication elsewhere.
The impact was noticeable when the natural spring started getting recharged and after the monsoon of 2008 the spring has continued to supply drinking water round the year to the people.
