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Soil for Water – A Winner All Round
Soil sourced from farms ensure water storage for farmers
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Soil for water – a winner all round
Soil sourced from farms ensure water storage for farmers
L&T is constructing a 95-kilometre railway line in Vidisha
District, Madhya Pradesh. This project includes railway
track laying with signal systems. The project uses
blanketing soil to lay tracks. The area around it had a
considerable overburden and limited amount of good soil
as the ground hits hard rock, five to six metres below the
ground level.
The Company had a choice to either purchase soil from
areas close-by or from a distant location which adds to
the transportation costs. If they were to use soil from the
vicinity, it meant additional procurement efforts as it had
to be gathered from many farms. The land owners in the
area are farmers with large farmlands. Yet, they lacked
water all year round, and had no access to rivers or canals
to cater to farmland requirements.
The only available source of water was the monsoon
showers. Monsoons brought in a good amount of
rainfall, yet the water could not be stored and used for
agriculture. This situation restricted income from farming
as it could only support one crop a year, and that too
crops like Chana which do not require large amounts of
water.
L&T held a series of stakeholder consultations to
understand the situation and needs of farmers. It then
joined hands with villagers to take soil from the vicinity,
thereby creating a win-win situation for both parties.
The soil collection process created large mine pits, which
could be converted into water storage reservoirs. This
move helped integrate sustainability with business as the
Company got soil at fair value, and farmers received good
value and reservoirs, which they could not have created
by themselves.
Rain Water Storage Structures
Result
The intervention led to storage of rainwater in reservoirs,
which is now used for growing crops like wheat and
rice. These reservoirs are part of individual farmlands and
water is directly pumped for irrigation. The soil is fertile,
and hence, India’s best quality wheat is now cultivated
in the region. The area now harvests up to two crops a
year, improving its prosperity. More than 39 reservoirs
were created, which are filled once a year holding more
than 1,159 million litres of water. This transformed the
lives of villagers, making it a defining case of bringing
sustainability into their business.
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