Spark foundation project proposal 2018 v1 0

सम$ ृ ध जीवन +क-प -२०१८

SPARK FOUNDATION PROJECT PROPOSAL

Author: Makarand Dixit (Executive Director - SPARK Foundation) Reviewed by:Tushar Paranjape (Trustee and Treasurer – SPARK Foundation)

NOVEMBER 2017

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Contents INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................2 BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................................2 FARM POND .........................................................................................................................3 WHY THE NAME SPARK? .........................................................................................................4 BENEFITS TO VILLAGES .............................................................................................................4 FUNDING AND WAGE PAYMENT ...................................................................................................5 PREVIOUS SPARK PROJECTS ......................................................................................................5 2017 SPARK PROJECT ........................................................................................................5 PHOTOS OF PROJECT-2017 (PIMPALVATI) ................................................................................6 सम$ ृ ध जीवन +क-प – 2018 ..................................................................................................7

COST ESTIMATES ....................................................................................................................8 EXPECTED RESULTS .................................................................................................................9

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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सम$ ृ ध जीवन +क-प -२०१८ SPARK Foundation

Introduction SPARK Foundation - Society for People’s Action, Reconciliation and Knowledge is a society registered under the society’s act – 1950 (Reg No - 10351/Thane).

To begin with, SPARK foundation is committed towards working in the water conservation domain. It is a foundation started by friends, who are working professionals pursuing different careers across varied industries, but are bind together with the thought of creating a change in our social surroundings, however small.

More details on our vision and trustees can be obtained on our website below:

http://sparkmaharashtra.org/ Background Consecutive droughts in the last few years and water scarcity have made life in rural Maharashtra, particularly of the farming community miserable. The situation is alarming so much that in many villages across the state, the water is distributed through tankers under police protection.

Scarcity of water results in many livelihood problems and it hampers village culture and impacts the local economy on a large scale. As a result, because of no livelihood and earning opportunities caused due to water scarcity for domestic needs, rural masses migrate to nearby cities in large numbers leading to urbanization. These are not just migrants but socio-ecological refugees.

This water scarcity is experienced majorly due to uncontrolled, unregulated extraction of ground water which results in ground water depletion in many pockets of the state. If villages become self-sufficient in water conservation (which was the case before the Green Revolution) many problems can be resolved in due course of time.

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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Farm Pond The most efficient and cost-effective technology for recharging ground water and enriching ground water stock is a farm pond or a village pond. Farm ponds are conceived as an important strategy for ground water recharge through percolation. The advantage of this technology is that the water is available throughout the year even in water stressed conditions.

The below Fig 1.1 shows Farm pond of size 10m x 10m x 3m as an example. (This farm pond was built with the help of SPARK Foundation in tribal village Hirdi -District Nasik in the year 2016).

Capacity is 3 lakh liters.

Fig.1.1

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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Why the name SPARK? SPARK Foundation is working in this particular area since 2015 by executing projects which include construction of Farm ponds and other suitable structure which helps water conservation.. We named this project as “सम$ ृ ध जीवन *क,प” which means “Enriching Life Project” because water is considered life.

Contribution of SPARK Foundation Even though Government recognized the importance of this technology a few years back and formulated many policies to accelerate construction of Farm ponds, its implementation in arid and semi-arid areas is an area of concern. This is where civil society organizations like us have a major role to play.

Our main target areas for all our projects are remote villages where government organizations & machinery fail to reach. This forms the basic criteria when we conduct our preliminary surveys. After the surveys, we conduct meetings in such villages in order to perform feasibility study and take villagers in confidence. We aim to create sustainable water resources (Farm ponds, wells or villages ponds) in the rural areas of Maharashtra, where there is a scarcity of water.

Benefits to villages We execute our projects during the peak of summer period (April-May) when water levels are at the lowest and the local people are looking for work.

This mainly serves three purposes1. It provides the local people with employment during the summer season when there is hardly any work generated through ‘MNREGA’ scheme.

2. It creates a sustainable water resource for the villager’s farms and increases the groundwater level once the monsoon rains start filling the ponds/wells. This allows them to grow 'Rabbi' crops as well.

3. Since manual labor, instead of heavy machinery like JCBs are employed for constructing the farm ponds, there is less erosion of soil. The quality of soil is not depleted due to this and it retains its natural richness.

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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Funding and wage payment We use the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) model for our projects and the only difference is that the funds are raised privately. We implement MNREGA model through private funding, thus removing implementation issues which are generally experienced during government implementation.

This scheme ensures that the all the donated funds are received directly by the local people without any middle men and employment is guaranteed to these people through the lifespan of the project.

Previous SPARK projects Last year (2016), 4 farm ponds and canals to connect these ponds with the farms were constructed in four different tribal villages in Nashik district of Maharashtra through SPARK projects: -

Hirdi

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Kotamwadi

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Handpada

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Borichivadi

2017 SPARK Proje ct

This year (2017) we had chosen village Pimpalvati in Peth Taluka in Nashik district. This village is a tribal village and is situated on a mountaintop with no water resources available. A water tanker is needed to be employed as soon as the month of March begins and all the women in the village have to come down the hill walking a distance of at least 3 kilometers and climb their way back carrying the water containers.

We constructed a mini watershed to make the water percolate in the ground. This included two Farm ponds of size 15m x 15m x 3m respectively followed by revival of a well.

We hope this will help change the harsh water situation in Pimpalvati permanently for good.

More details of this project can be found on our website.

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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Pho to s of Proje ct-2017 (Pimpalvati)

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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सम ृ$ध जीवन +क-प – 2018 As a result of efficient and error-free implementation of the above projects in 2016 & 2017 with technically accurate design and highly professional approach, even people who were previously not ready to work under Government’s MNREGA have now shown keen interest to work under SPARK’s work model.

As our work was appreciated by leading newspapers like Loksatta, now many villages have approached SPARK to undertake work in their own villages. We are aiming to construct Farm ponds of the size of 10m X 10m X 10m (size may be increased depending upon a particular village’s needs) in remote villages.

Tentative list of villages for the year 2018 has been provided in annexure-1 below. Our project is in line with Government’s strategy of encouraging Farm pond construction. Maharashtra Government has setup a target of constructing 1,00,000 Farm ponds by 2020. (Source Decipher IAS 2016 and GR on maharashtra.gov.in).

Annexure -1 Dist. –Nasik (All tribal villages)

Tryambak Block Chinchohol Bafanvihir Kotambi Khadakohol Zarvadkhurd Goldhari Awahte Aswali Harsh Dahalewadi Devgaon

Igatpuri Block Ambewadi Borli Walvihir Kurungawadi Pimpalgaon Manjargaon Wasali Indore Barshingve Chinchalkhaire

Peth Block Shingdari Mankapur Gawandh Amlon Shevkhandi Cholmukh Ruipetha Dolhamal Ghanshet Take Harsh

Annexure -2 Dist. –Pune

Purandar Block Sakurde Pingoli Belsar

Nilunj Walunj Satalwadi

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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Cost estimates We refer to unskilled labor rates sanctioned under MNREGA scheme which are published in Government of Maharashtra’s GR (attached here).

Estimates have been calculated according to these rates. We take the help of heavy machines such as JCBs where soil conditions are unsupportive for manual labor due to hard rock structure. Machinery rate is also included in our estimates.

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Estimate for one Farm pond of size 10m X 10m X 3m is Rs.

42,666 (Rupees Forty-two thousand six hundred and sixty-six only) ** - Total estimate of servicing all 30 villages in Annexure-1 will be Rs. 12,79,980 (Rupees Twelve Lakh seventy-nine thousand and nine hundred eighty only) ** - Total estimate of servicing all 6 villages in Annexure-2 will be Rs. 2,55,996 (Rupees Two Lakhs fifty-five thousand and nine hundred ninety-six only) ** ** Estimates are subject to change as per Government of Maharashtra’s GR for the labor rates.

Detailed estimate has been attached here:

Worksheet in SPARK-Foundation_Project Proposal_2018.xlsx

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com

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Expected results Farm pond of size 10m x 10m x 3 has capacity of storing 3,00,000 (Three Lakhs) liters of water.

Hence, after successful execution of project: - Annexure-1 Nasik region can be enriched with overall water storage capacity of (3,00,000 x 30) 90,00,000 (Ninety Lakh) liters.

- After successful execution of project, Annexure-2 Pune region can be enriched with overall water storage capacity of (3,00,000 x 6) 18,00,000 (Eighteen Lakh) liters.

- Exact amount of water percolated in ground can never be accurately measured but our experience indicates that one farm pond gets filled at least 25 times during rainfall of 45 to 50 days and according to feedback received from villagers at Hirdi,Kotamwadi,Handpada (Project -2016),wells which used to get dry by the month of December of subsequent year were recharged due to execution of our project and sustained water until end of March.This was significant achievement.

SPARK Foundation - Reg Add – G3,Plot No 527/528,Ramdev Palace,Sai Section, Ambernath. Dist-Thane. Pin – 421501.

Email – sparkngo15@gmail.com