It takes a village: the Indian farmers who built a wall against drought

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In rural Rajasthan, villagers have taken action against climate damage by constructing water-saving walls, trenches and dams to revive their farmland

he villagers of Surajpura have built a wall: a 15ft mud bulwark that snakes through barren land for nearly a mile, with an equally long trench dug beneath it. It might not look like it, but for the 650 residents who toiled on it for six months in 2022, it is an architectural marvel.

“We see a drought once every three years. Last year was a drought year, too, but this time around we had water. The wall worked,” says Sharma, who worked in a textile mill in neighbouring Bhilwara city until a few years ago. The water scarcity had also led his brothers to migrate to the city, where, like him, they worked 12-hour shifts for 5,000 rupees a month.

For climate advocates, Surajpura’s wall is a case study in climate resilience. It was built as part of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme , a government-run social welfare policy and one of the world’s biggest job programmes.

 

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