A Maharashtra Engineer is helping Villages Become Drought-Free
A Maharashtra Engineer – In 2013, one of the worst droughts hit over 90 lakh farmers and numerous Mumbai residents. Farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada, as well as adjacent communities, suffered the worst. Shelkewadi, Randulabad, Satichiwadi, Muthalane, Phalakewadi, and Thapewadi are among them.
One of the main reasons for the city’s dry period was simply a lack of rainfall.
These villagers, which once battled to keep their crops hydrated, have now turned the tables. They now have enough water and have implemented water management measures to ensure that communities do not face the same fate again.
This is all thanks to Rahul Bakare, a Pune-based engineer who was instrumental in developing a Participatory Groundwater Management Network and inventing a gadget that enabled villages to become drought-free.
Leaving a comfortable life behind
Rahul, 50, formerly worked in the software business as an engineer and earned his post-graduate degree from IIM Calcutta. He had a comfortable employment in the United States until 2009, when he returned to India. Despite living a lavish lifestyle, Rahul couldn’t shake the notion that he was missing out on mental fulfilment. As a result, he took a step toward a social cause with a good consequence.
Irrigation, water security, indebtedness, and farmer suicides were among his main concerns. He was inspired to enter this sector by news he received a few years ago about drought circumstances.
The engineer chose to practice agriculture in order to better grasp these difficulties on the ground and in depth. People close to him were opposed to his desire to buy land and pursue agriculture. They assumed Rahul lacked farming knowledge and that it would take him years to grasp and solve the farmers’ difficulties.
A Maharashtra Engineer
BoreCharger technology works by using an underwater camera system to perform “angiography” of borewells. Its main task is to locate and investigate the many underground aquifers. Rainwater seeps through various layers of rock structures and reaches these depths over hundreds of years, forming these aquifers.
Rahul explains why this is significant by stating that pumping large amounts of water causes deeper aquifers to dry up. They also take several months to refill and eventually dry out. Furthermore, the PVC casing used to create the borewell has obstructed the aquifers in the top levels of water.
Once found, the gadget uses a unique robotic arm to produce perforations in the casing pipe at hydro-geologically appropriate depths, allowing water from the top aquifer to flow through.
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