Ambuja Cements builds check dam across Kalnoi river

The check dam aims to solve the problems related to water availability for people in the surrounding villages, which used to be acute prior to its inauguration. Farmers couldn’t get adequate water for irrigating their crops and the people in general couldn’t get enough water for drinking purposes. Recognising the problem, Ambuja Cements offered the community a long-term solution by building a masonry check dam.

That’s because Ambuja Cements is guided by the ideal of creating sustainable and prosperous rural communities—where villagers have the livelihoods, resources and dignity to prosper in life. The company’s technical team of four members designed the check dam after analysing the rainfall data and other patterns of the region like flash flood possibilities. A site was zeroed in on after collaborating with the village leaders. The dam, built in coordination with the local community over 45 days, is such that it will serve the generations to come without any physical failures. It has 10 gates and 2 distillation gates with a storage capacity of 91 000 m³ of water which can store the water up to 10 km upstream as the river bed gradient is very less.

The check dam has helped to rejuvenate the Kalnoi river, enabled multi-cropping over 150 hectares of agricultural land in six villages and can facilitate the operation of six lift irrigation systems. With water reaching some of the regions for the first time because of the check dam, all land in the region has become cultivable. Up to 10 000 households receive drinking water from the check dam. It’s located near the ash pond of Ambuja Cements’ manufacturing unit in Kalaidanga, from where water flows without hindrance to the check dam.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/indian-subcontinent/25072022/ambuja-cements-builds-check-dam-across-kalnoi-river/