What problem did the villagers in Hardas village face? What did they do to solve this problem?

The villagers in Hardas village faced the problem of acute water shortage. The hand pump water had gone well below the point up to which the ground had been drilled. They hardly got water in the taps. Women had to travel 3 km to the Suru River to get water.

The Gram Sabha got together to discuss the problem. Many people came up with short-term and long-term suggestions for dealing with the problem at hand, e.g., piping water from the Suru and making an overhead tank, deepening the hand pumps and cleaning the wells, conserving and recharging water through watershed development.

After the discussion in the Gram Sabha, the Gram Panchayat discussed the suggestions and decided that the money it had received for the maintenance of handpumps could be utilised for deepening two hand pumps and cleaning one well, so that the village would not go without water. The Panchayat members also discussed options for a long-term solution. At the end, they decided to approach the Block Development Officer and get more information about the watershed programme.