The land of four villages — Hesatu, Silhiri, Khatanga and Gagari — is no different from other fallow agricultural fields of Jharkhand and neither is the fate of the villagers. But unlike others, they’ve decided not to wait for the rain god to pour down, or for the all-powerful Government machinery to bring modern means of irrigation to them. When the unending wait for a turnaround got longer, a sense of community crept in. A hundred-odd villagers of the area decided to swim against the tide. “We are predominantly farmers and the lack of irrigation facilities left our fields barren, even during productive seasons. It was eating us up slowly, as more and more people migrated to big cities in search of jobs,” says Devender Thakur, the pioneering force behind the entire movement. Thakur first went into a huddle with like-minded residents and then took action. “Though we were facing difficult times due to lack of water, our situation was different from our forefathers’. A perennial stream flows along the villages coming down from Gagari Mountain but we were helpless as the flow had become too thin to be tapped,” he adds. It’s not that the villagers did not knock on the doors of policy-makers and the establishment, whose job it is. Lakhs were spent on check dams but alas. “You can see the fate of the check dam build about couple of years ago. It tells its own story,” says Jaganu of Hesatu, pointing towards the concrete structure sunk deep into sand and letting all the water of the stream flow by. With their backs against wall, the tribals arranged sandbags themselves to put across the stream. “All the materials were available locally and what we needed was just the contribution of all and a sense of community. Youths from Hesatu, Khatanga and others came together for the cause. They built a base with large stones and put the sandbags over it,” Thakur explains. Today, the four-feet-high community ‘check dam’ holds sufficient water to be pumped into the fields, wash cloths in and for the livestock. About 50 acres of uplands are getting irrigated as fields of vegetables such as bottle gourd, brinjal and cauliflower flourish. The success did not stop here; it rolled downstream as well. A series of seven sandbag dams have come up, which is in conformity with the very idea of building such check dams. “We could not pay those who worked but the idea was so noble that youths of Duhu and Barwe also came to assist us. We just arrange food for them,” says Rajesh Mandal while carrying sandbags. The success story even attracted Government officials. An array assembled for a workshop on Saturday. “It could be a good example to be put before the Green India Mission (GIM),” says AK Mishra, Additional PCCF and member secretary of GIM for Jharkhand. “The newly-launched programme talks not just about planting trees but also enhancing farm productivity so a sense of profitability is attached with every step. Here, villagers have not only prevented natural water from flowing down unused, but also used it to make their fields green in the true sense,” he adds. These ‘stilled’ waters may not run very deep, but they are enough to bring a smile to the faces of so many self-sufficient villagers, along with prosperity to their lands.