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Introduction
SPARK Intro Video on Youtube
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, the 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 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 groundwater which results in groundwater 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.
Contribution of SPARK Foundation:
SPARK is executing a participatory watershed development program in the tribal villages since 2016.
Our main target areas for all our projects are remote tribal 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 a feasibility study and take villagers in confidence. We aim to create sustainable water resources (Farm ponds, wells or villages ponds, Cement Nala Bandhara) 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 purposes-
1. 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.
This year's (2020) Project :
As our work was appreciated by leading newspapers like Loksatta and All India Radio's Delhi substation conducted and broadcast our interview regarding our Water conservation projects. Now many villages have approached SPARK to undertake work in their own villages. This year we are aiming to construct Cement Nala Bandhara(CNB) in the remote village Poshera of Mokhada block of District Palghar through a participatory approach. 'Drought' is always being experienced in Mokhada block Water is considered as life. Hence the name of our project is समृद्ध 'जीवन' प्रकल्प alias Enriching 'Life' project.
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, the 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 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 groundwater which results in groundwater 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.
Contribution of SPARK Foundation:
SPARK is executing a participatory watershed development program in the tribal villages since 2016.
Our main target areas for all our projects are remote tribal 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 a feasibility study and take villagers in confidence. We aim to create sustainable water resources (Farm ponds, wells or villages ponds, Cement Nala Bandhara) 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 purposes-
1. 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.
This year's (2020) Project :
समृद्ध 'जीवन' प्रकल्प alias Enriching 'Life' project
As a result of the efficient and error-free implementation of the above projects in 2016,2017,2018 & 2019 (details can be obtained from our Website) with a 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 a result of the efficient and error-free implementation of the above projects in 2016,2017,2018 & 2019 (details can be obtained from our Website) with a 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 and All India Radio's Delhi substation conducted and broadcast our interview regarding our Water conservation projects. Now many villages have approached SPARK to undertake work in their own villages. This year we are aiming to construct Cement Nala Bandhara(CNB) in the remote village Poshera of Mokhada block of District Palghar through a participatory approach. 'Drought' is always being experienced in Mokhada block Water is considered as life. Hence the name of our project is समृद्ध 'जीवन' प्रकल्प alias Enriching 'Life' project.
The successful execution of this project will help to resolve drinking water and irrigation water to some extent.
Benefits of Cement Nala Bandhara(CNB) :
- Water storage of 1 CR Liters at a time.
- Recharge nearby groundwater sources like wells which will help to resolve the drinking water problem.
- Provide protective irrigation for Kharif crops.
- Provide irrigation source for Rabbi crops and Horticulture.
- Reducing soil erosion.
Please refer to the detailed Project Proposal attached to this campaign.
*Note*: All the donations will be tax exempted under section 80G of Income Tax Act-1951. Please refer to the attached certificate from the Income Tax department.
