The Hindu Business Line : Hind Unilever’s second rainwater harvesting scheme

Mumbai, Jan 28 Greening Barrens is Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s new Corporate Social Responsibility programme at Mandka village in Vidarbha, inaugurated last week by Mr Poreddiwar, Collector.

This is the second rainwater-harvesting project undertaken by it around its soap factory at Khamgaon, in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra. It is being implemented with the help of Maharashtra institute of Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, a non-government organisation of Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation.

After completing a similar project on 100 acres of land in Parkhed and handing over the management to the villagers, the company is introducing the project in Mandka, on a larger area, of around 569 acres. While the company will take care of the expenditure, MITTRA-BAIF will implement the project with the help of villagers, who will provide shram daan (labour contribution by foregoing 20 per cent of their wages) for building check dams. The company will spend around Rs 9 lakh for the project in a phased manner, over a period of five years, according to a company release.

With an average annual rainfall of around 584 mm, last year the rainfall in the region reached a low of 400 mm, according to a MITTRA representative. About 15 per cent (about 75 cubic metres per day) of the water requirement in and around the factory was being met through water harvested through watershed management, according to a company’s website. “We use plough shed mixer technology in our soap factory, to reduce ground water consumption by 50 per cent,” said a company spokesperson.

The company will also introduce self-help groups, dairy farming, cattle breeding, health and hygiene programs in the village.