UP's water warrior to teach 'medbandi' model in Bundelkhand

LUCKNOW: Padma Shri awardee and water warrior Uma Shankar Pandey will now launch 'Jal Andolan' to create awareness among villagers on water retention in fields through his 'medbandi' (bund making) technique.
Addressing a session on 'Water conservation a success story' at National Climate Summit 2023 here on Tuesday, Pandey said that farmers need to retain rain water in their fields as according to Met department, the number of rainy days have reduced from an average of 120 days per year to 41 days in Bundelkhand region of UP and MP.
Further, the ground water level is going down every year due to exploitative irrigation practices, so it is time people chose the ancient technique of water retention through bund making, said Uma Shankar Pandey, of Jakhni village in Banda and has made a mark through rainwater harvesting using the centuries old ‘medbandi’ method.
He said, “After experimenting successfully in my village in Banda, now I have decided to visit water scarce villages in other districts of Bundelkhand on my cycle to teach people about the simple technique to conserve water.” “I will start my awareness cum workshop movement from Mahoba or Chhatarpur district and will carry a microphone along with 10 water warriors for the movement,” Pandey said. “We will hold meetings in panchayat buildings, primary schools and anganwadi centres in villages and ask people to make “Har khet mein med aur har med mein ped” (Make bunds in fields and rope saplings on them).
This will help in retention of water in the fields,” said the Jal Yoddha, whose technique, he claimed, saved around 1.82 crore litres of water in his village in the past five years. Pandey said, “Initially, we will cover 15 districts of Bundelkhand in two months and later our movement will expand to other parts of India.” He said he took inspiration from Vinoba Bhave’s ‘Bhudan Andolan’ to start working for water conservation.