Walni Village In Maharashtra Is Using Plastic Waste To Save Water

The Walni Village of Maharashtra’s Nagpur district has around 30 ponds and lakes that fill up over the monsoon season. However, by summertime, all the bodies of water are dried up, putting farmers in a difficult irrigation predicament. This is a prevailing issue faced by farmers all around Maharashtra, and most of India for that matter. Lucky for them the farmers of Walni village have come up with a solution that not only makes a huge difference to water shortages, but in turn helps farmers repurpose their plastic waste instead of burning it.

The natural and man-made ponds and lakes have no problem harvesting water during monsoon season, they fill right up. The struggle is battling ground infiltration, the gradual seeping of harvested water from the ponds and lakes. This retention issue means by December the ponds and lakes are about as useful as a cycle with no wheels.

Nevertheless, the farmers, desperate for a solution, thought they might as well try stitching their plastic waste together as a sort of protective blanket. They placed these sheets of plastic, made out of anything from Lays packets to plastic shopping bags, on the bottom of the lakes and ponds and filled roughly a foot of soil on top of them. Low and behold the farmers were able to hold water four to five months longer than before. Miraculously the story of Walni Village turns out to be a real life application of negative (lack of water retention) + negative (plastic waste that is often burned) = positive (better retention of water and less plastic waste being burned).

This solution has the potential to radically change two major difficulties farmers face year after year. With more water for crops and less plastic being burned in rural dump yards thus reducing land and air pollution, things are looking a bit brighter for the people that bring fresh food to our tables. Hopefully this model will be widely adopted by farms across the state. Good work Walni Village!