2025\u201326 saw the installation of our second Village Community Well and Solar Irrigation Water Source.<\/p>\n
Our rural agriculture development partner, NSVK, completed a bunding project in 2015 which significantly raised the level of the underground (artesian) aquifer. Building on this success, we decided to establish traditional round wells to take advantage of the rejuvenated aquifers for the benefit of village communities unable to afford the significant upfront cost of constructing deep wells capable of serving entire communities.<\/p>\n
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The wells were built with strong participation from the local community, with each benefiting family volunteering one day a week of labour toward construction. It took two months to dig our most recent well, which is 37 feet deep and 22 feet in diameter.<\/p>\n
Today, water from these wells is bringing new life and livelihood opportunities to more than 1,000 tribal villagers in Jharkhand. The solar irrigation pump has expanded access to irrigation across approximately 500 hectares of farmland, allowing farmers to grow crops more reliably and productively.<\/p>\n
The new water source now serves 250 households and has increased cropping frequency from once a year to two and even three harvests annually – at least doubling, and in many cases tripling, annual incomes for smallholder farmers in Patartangar, Banaidega Revenue Village, Tapkara District, Jharkhand.<\/p>\n
Community volunteers also dug a 2,500 metre trench to lay a large water pipe from the well to their hamlet, providing first-time access to nearby clean water for drinking and cooking, along with improved family nutrition through home vegetable gardens made possible by a secure and reliable water supply.<\/p>\n
For families previously dependent on rainwater and distant, unreliable, and often unclean water sources, the impact has been profound. Water is now available close to home – for crops, meals, washing, and daily living – saving hours of labour each day and bringing greater health, dignity, and security to village life.<\/p>\n
Community farmers have established a Well Committee to manage the shared resource and ensure sustainability. Users contribute 10 rupees per hour for irrigation water, with funds reserved for maintenance of the well, solar pump, and essential piping infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Stay tuned for the many farming success stories – and the heartfelt thanks from villagers for whom access to water is now as simple as turning on a tap or starting a pump : ) Small changes like these are making extremely hard lives a little easier, healthier, and more hopeful every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2025\u201326 saw the installation of our second Village Community Well and Solar Irrigation Water Source. Our rural agriculture development partner, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wlt-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitelotustrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}