When rain plays truant year after year and the govt. chooses to be blissfully ignorant, people are left to fend for themselves. Here is the story of a mammoth effort by communities in MP to put together a sustainable indigenous system. The story of this community power began in 1999 when heavy rains damaged the earthen bund of a 12 hectare village pond at Biroraket in Tikamgarh district, in Madhya Pradesh. The bund was built by the Chandela emperors about 300 to 400 years ago. Fisher folk from about 20 villages depended on it for their livelihood. They approached the sarpanch. But he was as helpless as them. When the embankment was about to be washed away, the villagers began asking fishermen samitis, in more than 30 villages, for help. Meanwhile, about 240 men and women from the 20 affected villages assembled together and voluntarily contributed 1,859 mandays towards repairing the bund. Their effort paid off. For the bund was repaired without any external help, physical or financial. Government-promoted institutions like the panchayat, health, water and sanitation committees remained inactive.