Latur
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Latur, 1908
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Town in the Owsa taluk of Osmanabad District, Hyderabad
State, situated in 18° 25' N. and 76° 35' E. Population (1901), 10,479.
Latur is a great centre of the cotton and grain trade in communication
with Barsi railway station, 64 miles distant. It has three ginning
factories, a British sub-post office, and a State post office, as well as a
vernacular school and a travellers' bungalow.
Availability of water
River Manjra and its revival
The Times of India, May 10 2016
Latur pattern
In dry Latur, villagers revive a dead river
Syed Rizwanullah
Bad monsoon years and drought has laid to waste the only tourist centre set up in 1993 near Sai barrage, recalled S R Deshmukh, the then chief of the municipal council. “Nobody even looks at it now,“ he added.
When groundwater levels fell and the river turned dry , it had a telling effect on Latur's water needs. Citizens, realising that a rejuvenated Manjra is their only hope, formed Jal Jagruti Abhiyan -Jal Yukta Latur.The idea is to have enough water for the city, a pattern other drought-hit places can emulate.
Till some years, the city was famous for its Latur pattern, a method of studies that helped students do well in state board exams. The effort to revive Manjra was steered by Mahadev Gomare and Makrand Jadhav, both followers of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living (AOL), began in February 2013. Both convinced sarpanchs in Marathwada to attend a three-day camp in Bengaluru.
Here, experts spoke to them about tackling water crises in their villages. The meeting didn't have the desired effect -there were conflicting voices and many doubted if the results would show. “We did not give up and decided to implement Guruji's concept in at least three villages,“ Gomare said. He now spends nearly 18 hours a day to ensure AOL's dream project in Latur comes true.
The project involves desilting 18km along the Sai barrage to increase its holding capacity to 18.5 million cubic metre. Latur requires 18.25 million cubic meter water per annum. Plans are to remove about 45 lakh cubic metre of silt. “In 2013, we succeeded in convincing people in three villages in Latur district to pool in money to carry out desilting work as well as construct low-cost Gabion structures to trap rain water, Gomare said.
This helped increase the water level in borewells and wells in surrounding villages and helped maintain the greenery .Gradually , more villages joined the movement. Though AOL funded a part of it, people cont ributed too. Thus, 50 smaller projects were completed through people's participation.
But a poor monsoon last year and a now-dry Manjra river have highlighted Latur for several wrong reasons.
Villagers now know about AOL's initiatives and its simple methods to rejuvenate the parched region -desilting nullahs, gabion structures and arresting rain water in rivers and rivulets. They are chipping in, Jadhav said.
A meeting on April 3 discussed the situation and the negativity it was attracting. The efforts bore fruit. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar gave Rs 1 crore for the project while citizens contributed with funds and sought support for the Rs 8-crore project.
The campaigners roped in district collector Pandurang Pole to inaugurate the works on April 8. “We have already collected Rs 3 crore while hundreds of people have made a commitment of contributing Rs 5 crore for the work,“ said Gomare.
Employees' unions and those working in hotels as waiters have contributed too, he said.Nearly half the silt dug up has been taken away by farmers from 25 villages with an average 3,000 population each. “Farmers are taking the silt for Rs 100 to Rs 200 per truck voluntarily to strengthen soil fertility and le vel their fields, Prakash Suryavanshi, sarpanch of Arajkheda village, said. The village is situated close to the barrage.
Mohammad Sarfaraz Shaikh, senior geologist in Latur, countered fears that desilting may mess up the ecological balance. “Workers stop desilting as soon as the sand level shows up because sand holds the water. Silt formation may vary from place to place,“ he said.
Sachin Suryavanshi's village, Sai Arajkheda, is one of the 25 to benefit from the work. “Desilting will create enough space for water, and help increase the water table in our wells, he said Gomare said they were creating three levels along the barrage where local species of trees will be planted. The first level will have cactus, the second will have bamboo trees while the third will have neem, mango, jamun and other fruit-bearing trees. Farmers from the 25 villages have agreed to provide the seeds and school children, farmers and activists will plant these trees, Gomare added. Darshak Hathi from Mumbai, who liaisons with Latur's citizens, told TOI Guruji had made an unscheduled visit to Latur's drought-hit areas. During his tour, he visited the Manjra river rejuvenation project site. “Guruji urged farmers to have faith and not commit suicide,“ Hathi said.
SHOWING THE WAY
At Sai barrage, workers ensure only the silt is removed. They stop work when the sand surface in the riverbed emerges
The government's estimate for the work was pegged at `87cr while the AOL-led work requires a mere `8 crore.
Activists said saving on different counts and voluntary support had reduced the cost of the project
The Poclain machine operator charges `1,450 while his rate is `2,000 to 2,200 per hour hFarmers take away the silt by paying `100 to `200
The administrative cost is zero. There are no contractors or any underhand dealings
Activists plan to double the 26 Poclain machines to speed up the desilting by May-end to clear the 18km stretch of Sai barrage
2016: From severe drought to plenty
Syed Rizwanullah, Parched Latur now has enough water for 5 yrs, Sep 28 2016 : The Times of India
The water train chugging into Latur to meet the city's drinking water requirement is unlikely to recur at least in the next five years, said officials.
Unprecedented heavy showers that lashed Marathwada over the past few days have helped increase water levels in all resources, including the Manjara dam, which is considered the lifeline for Latur.
The Manjara dam, which has a storage capacity of 9,000 million cubic feet, was in dead storage since 2012 till a few weeks ago. With the dam filled up to 97% of its capacity , officials have started discharging water from it.Though the rains receded on Monday , water from the catchment areas continued to flow into the dam, which is situated about 80 km from .
Latur's daily water requirement stands at 60 million litres, and considering the consecutive years of drought, the government had started supplying water to the city through a train from Miraj in Sangli district. The severe drought had brought industries to a grinding halt and severely affected trade and business in the city .
“Manjra dam is now filled up to 100% of its storage capacity . Lower Terna, another major dam, is also almost full ... and the storage we presently have, is enough to last for about five years,“ said Mohammed Sarfaraz , a senior geologist at the ground water survey and development agency in Latur. He added that the groundwater table, which had dropped by 3.5 metres, had made a significant recovery and was rising constantly .
Latur district disaster management officer Saqueb Osmani said the problem of drinking water supply for Latur and its nearby areas would be closed chapter at least for now. “The Manjra dam and other barrages supplying water to Latur are filled to capacity ,“ he said.
A number of NGOs had rushed to Latur to imple ment different schemes to desilt, deepen and widen the water bodies that had run dry across the district.
Latur district collector Pandurang Pole said that after the drought, most farmers had shifted from sugarcane to other crops. But due to good rains, some might think of growing sugarcane.
Interestingly, Latur's civic body cannot immediately fetch water from its pumping station at Manjara dam. The 800 kv transformer installed by it was recently stolen from the dam's vicinity. A tender has been floated by the civic body for a new transformer.
