Coastal village in Surat adopts rainwater harvesting to meet drinking water needs

Surat (Gujarat) [India], October 3 : Kawas, a coastal village with a population of 6,500 residents in Surat district of Gujarat, has adopted rain water harvesting system to ensure clean drinking water for all.
Kawas which falls under the Hazira area of Surat district has dug three boreholes to store rain water in the village. Around three and a half crore liters of water will be stored in those boreholes.
Due to the proximity of village to the sea, the villagers in the area had always faced the problem of clean water. If you dig anywhere in this village, only salt water comes out of it.
As of now the village receives the water under Kribhako and Variyav water group scheme.
"It was such a bad situation that whenever we used to bore water only salty water used to come out. We had to travel to 3 km to arrange for drinking water," said Harshad Patel, Sarpanch, Kawas panchayat.
Kawas is now one of the first villages in the entire state to take this step which will also reduce the salinity of the land.
"We will be able to reduce the salinity in the soil in just two rains. And in the coming days, the salt water will be a little less. This work will solve the water problem of 6500 people of the village," said Bharat Patel, resident.