Sasur Khaderi Project
under MNREGA
Kanchan Verma
DM Fatehpur
Background
 Rivers big and small are the source of water
everywhere. Fatehpur is situated in the doab region
between Ganga and Yamuna.
 Small rivers and natural drainage over time get silted,
encroached and overused and are eventually lost.
 Two such rivers in Fatehpur are Sasur Khaderi 1 and
Sasur Khaderi 2. These are two distinct rivers sharing
the name.
 The project began with Sasur Khaderi 1 which
originates from a lake in Thithaura village and then
carves out its course through 4 blocks of the district.
 Total distance the river covers is 46kms before it falls
into the Yamuna.
 This river is the drainage for many small and big drains
and rivulets .
Objectives
 Restore the original shape and flow of the river.
 Revive and restore the Thithaura lake.
 Save the adjoining villages from water logging.
 To de-silt the lake and use it catchment area to ensure
water stays by making a gated check dam.
 To dredge and de-silt the 38Km of the river length.
 To plant trees around the lake and river so as to
prevent further silting back.
Project plan
 The project was prepared by the Lower Ganga Canal
Division of Irrigation department.
 The first phase was revival of the lake (7.377 hectare) and
38kms of the river.
 The project to be funded entirely under the MNREGA
scheme.
 The initial estimate for the project was 1208.30 lakhs.
Cost summary
S.N.
Particulars
Amount
A
Labour cost
90059666.00
B
Material cost
29235850.00
C
Contingency
1534410.00
Total
120829926.00
=~ 1208.30 lac
Labor material ratio = 75 : 25
Challenges
 Harvesting of the rabi crop continues well up to 15th
May in Fatehpur and labourers and villagers were
engaged there.
 The May June heat made it very difficult to work, with
temperatures constantly hovering around 42-45
degrees.
 The river bed was very hard and rocky.
Plan modifications
 The initial plan was to work the whole breadth of the
river along its entire length.
 In interdepartmental meetings, executive engineer
PWD suggested that we are not making an irrigation
canal whose water we can control.
 It was then planned to work on one third of the
breadth of the river which was 5mts to 38mts at
different places.
 This way we would clear the path of the river and let
the river take its own course .
 After the first spell of rain this year we were able to
gauge the locations at which more deepening or
widening was required.
 This was planned as the first phase of the project.
Implementation
 We held meetings at all the four block h q to request
the pradhans to support this mission and motivate
labourers to come to the work site.
 BDO s had village level meetings at every village
alongside the river .
 Meetings with college principals, industries, social
workers ,media so that the objectives of the mission
could be propagated.
 The amount of work was calculated at 500mts cross
sections with a natural gradient of 20cms per km.
 This was done for the whole breadth of the river and
modified to phase 1 where only one third of the
breadth was taken up.
 The whole section was not worked upon but on a
qunet form.
Work at the lake
 The amount of mud excavated till date has been
78200 cubic mts. generating a total of 38000 man
days.
 On an average 1000 to 1500 labourers worked
everyday on this site .
 Labourers from far off villages came to the site in
tractors. This was the only point where tractors were
used to deposit mud on the borders.
Work on the river
 The work on the river was divided into stretches of 1
km and allotted to one secretary,rozgar sewak and
technical assistant.
 At each km stretch facility for water and shade was
provided.
 As of date 186400 cubic mts of soil has been
excavated generating 96900 man days .
Current assessment
 Areas like Bhairwan and Phulwamau which never
took to the paddy crop due to shortage of water are
doing so this year.
 The lake has already started retaining water. As on 16th
July the lake had 90,000 cubic mts of water.
 At chainage number 36 the discharge as on 16th July
was 600 cusecs.
 No village has been marooned due to overflowing
unlike in previous years.
Future work
 This project is part of our integrated plan to conserve
water and soil in the district.
 In the 2012 report on water levels four blocks namely
Hatgaon, Amauli, Haswan and Bhitaura were
categorised as dark blocks while three other were
declared as critical.
 We are currently carrying on bunding and plantation
of government land categorised as pasture and barn
land.
 Work on 1084 plots has been started.
 We are also carrying out a plantation of drive on 25th
July and will be planting 3.5 lakh plants . This will also
include a 5 hectare single plot in each block.
 In the next 2 months we are also building check dams
on 39 drainages and nalas which run off into the
Ganga, the Yamuna and the Rhind.
 The drainages selected vary from 8kms to 21kms in
length. A check dam will ensure some water is
preserved for future use.
 Residents of the villages along these drainages will be
removing minor hurdles in drainages e.g. major silting
at some point, huge vegetative growth which
slows/stops the flow of the drainage etc.
 After the rains this September we will start the work on
Sasur Khaderi 1 .
Some pictures from project site