Bathinda's ponds reek of sewage: Burj village in Punjab’s Bathinda district once had six to seven ponds. Only two are left now, and they are yearning for attention. 

“These ponds have become useless due to lack of maintenance. Now no one thinks about them,” says Teja Singh Taggad (70), a retired teacher and resident of the village.

Until 25 to 30 years ago, people of Burj in Maur Mandi block considered their village incomplete without ponds. Ponds started deteriorating when drains were built in the village so that household sewage could be discharged into the pond. In no time, the ponds became polluted. Many types of fish, turtles, ducks and waterfowl that were commonly found in the pond disappeared.

Piped water facility has brought about the change. “The ponds would fill up during the rains and we would use that water for bathing and washing clothes, besides quenching the thirst of our cattle and bathing them. If there was a shortage of water in summer, the pond would be filled with canal water in the month of Jyeshtha. These ponds were indispensable for humans, animals and birds, but water is not suitable for drinking or bathing now,” says Taggad. 

In the recent panchayat elections, issues such as construction of a hospital, paving of streets and provision for full water in canals were prominent issues in Burj. Some people in the village offered lakhs of rupees for development in their bid to become sarpanch, but no one was worried about the ponds. “Common people are in favour of taking proper care of ponds and making them as before, but ponds did not become a big issue in the panchayat elections,” notes Amritpal Singh, a private school teacher in the village.

It is the responsibility of the village panchayats to maintain the ponds. If panchayats wish, they can earn income by giving ponds on contract for fish farming. However, lack of maintenance and sewage discharge have made them completely dirty. Now, instead of being useful, these ponds have become a problem for the common people. Burj resident Jagga Singh (47) claims that no sarpanch or panch has taken care of the ponds.

The condition of ponds in Teona village of Bathinda block is no different. Four out of five ponds are contaminated by sewage discharge from the entire village households. Harmel Singh (75) of Teona remembers how the ponds were clean when he was young. “We used to take bath in them, and animals were also brought to the pond for bathing. Many aquatic animals and birds used to camp near the pond, but now all that is a part of the past.”

Gurlabh Singh (72) says that until 35 years ago, the water of all village ponds was as clean as a lake. Now it has become dirty and there is always moss in it. “Leave aside bathing in it, sometimes it becomes difficult to even pass by it.”

In Teona too, there was excitement over panchayat elections for about a month. However, no one showed interest in the ponds. Tara Singh (42) says the biggest issue this time was to free the village from drugs. The ponds have been forgotten long ago, he adds.

In villages across Punjab, most of the ponds are dry or are getting contaminated due to sewage discharge. Ponds have disappeared in many villages due to encroachment. Settlements have come up in their place.

According to a report of Jal Shakti Ministry, 16,012 water bodies were enumerated in Punjab in the first census of water bodies. Of them, 98.9% (15,831) are in rural areas and the remaining 1.1% (181) are in urban areas. Of the total water bodies, 97.6% (15,633) are under public ownership, while the remaining 2.4% (379) are under private ownership. The report shows that 48% (7,680) water bodies are in use and a major part of 52% (8,332) are not in use due to drying up, siltation, degradation beyond repair and other reasons. Of all the water bodies in use, 95.8% (7,358) are ponds and the remaining 4.2% (322) are tanks, lakes, reservoirs, water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams etc.

According to the report, 65.2% (5,008) of the total water bodies in use are used for groundwater recharge in the state. Punjab has 14,318 natural and 1,694 man-made water bodies. As much as 98.9% (14,154) of the natural water bodies are located in rural areas, while 1.1% (164) are in urban areas. Among the man-made water bodies, 99% (1,677) are located in rural areas and 1% (17) in urban areas.

According to the report, information on ‘filled up storage capacity’ and ‘status of filling’ were collected for 15,835 water bodies. During the reference year 2017-18, 19.3% (3,049) water bodies were filled to their full storage capacity, 43.9% (6,953) were filled to three fourth capacity, 23.2% (3,681) up to half level, 8.8% (1,391) to one-fourth level and 4.8% (761) had nil/negligible storage capacity. Based on the criteria of filling up of storage capacity during last five years, out of 15,835 water bodies, 37.6% (5,956) are found to be filled up every year, 46.5% (7,368) are usually filled, 13.1% (2,065) are rarely filled up and 2.8% (446) are never filled up. 

Good work has been done in the direction of renovation of selected ponds under Union government's Mission Amrit Sarovar, but the number of ponds selected under it is only a handful compared to the total number of ponds. In Punjab, Amrit Sarovar is implemented under the name Sanjha Jal Talab. As many as 2,133 spots have been identified in 23 districts of the state, out of which work on 1,479 ponds started. Most of these ponds were old, and it was decided to renovate them, while the remaining ones were decided to be built on the vacant land of panchayats. Till now, 1,450 ponds have been prepared in the state on Thapar and Seechewal models, but rainwater has not collected in them and so many of them are lying empty.

However, Punjab's Joint Development Commissioner (Integrated Rural Development) Amit Kumar tells 101Reporters that water is present in most of the ponds. “Due to land disputes, encroachment etc., there has been obstruction in the access of water. Many cases are in courts,” he says.

Kumar claims that good work has been done under the mission. The ponds of selected villages have been repaired and developed as tourist destinations by planting saplings around them. The objective is to store rainwater in these ponds and to use it for agriculture, fisheries, cultivation of crops, and to cater to animals and birds.

When asked about the plight of thousands of ponds in Punjab, Kumar claims that the Punjab government has been actively working in this direction. “Punjab is facing a groundwater crisis. This problem can be solved through ponds. Therefore, they are being renovated through panchayats. Work has been done to free pond lands from encroachments.”

Asked when can all the ponds in the state be restored to their original form, Kumar notes that this is a huge and extremely expensive task that requires much time and money. “Punjab has 17.20 lakh ponds. A pond renovation costs Rs 20 to 25 lakh. As per this estimate, around Rs 6 crore are required,” he details.

Considering the huge amount required, this task seems like a pipe dream because in the limited annual budget that the panchayats get from the Fifteenth Finance Commission, there is very little provision for drinking water. For example, a budget of Rs 12,39,500 has been allocated for the 2024-25 fiscal for Burj village panchayat, in which there is a provision of Rs 4,64,810 for works related to drinking water. The remaining money is for road related works, sanitation, vocational education etc.

Burj Panchayat Secretary Manjit Singh tells 101Reporters that there are only two ponds in the village, out of which the work of deepening the pond near the gurdwara, cleaning up the water and making it suitable for use for farming will commence soon.

A campaign for conservation of ponds is being run under the leadership of Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal, who is engaged in cleaning and saving water sources in Punjab. Sant Sukhjit Singh, the head of the pond conservation campaign, says ponds are more valuable than the amount of money spent on them. "Ponds are part of our life. Our elders built them. Later, the governments reserved the land on which ponds stood during murababandi [land consolidation]. The pond lands were not made private property. This shows their importance.”

He adds that ponds are indispensable for groundwater recharge, while they also collect water for irrigation. "We have so far revived ponds in 250 villages under the Seechewal model in Punjab. Earlier, these ponds held stagnant water as there was only input, and no output. Now, this water is used for irrigation." Under the model, villagers themselves work without pay for these renovations.

"We are working on the basis of an underground sewerage system designed by Sant Balbir. In this system, sewage water is stored in a pond, treated naturally and used for irrigation. While this process promotes organic farming, it also helps farmers save money on fertilisers and irrigation. This costs less and is indigenous, it is also very effective, durable and easy to instal. We have proved its effectiveness by installing it in various villages."

Singh says that supplying water to the ponds in villages through electric motors and appointing employees are very expensive tasks. Hence, they are installing motors running on solar energy, which cost only Rs 2.40 lakh. 101Reporters/SP