No one is available to irrigate the crops, and there is no water to drink. Animal ranches have stopped operating. Even a frantic attempt to dig a tubewell failed since not even at 900 feet could any water be found. Some villages' water supply has been cut off for three days, while others have been without water for almost 15 days. People have begun utilising salt water from whatever subsurface resources are less readily available since there is a lack of fresh water in the lakes.

Overuse of groundwater resources led to the terrible situation in Bhopalgarh. In addition to the weight of the naturally occurring brackish water issue, the entire region is included in the black zone (areas designated by the government where groundwater is over-exploited). The amount of agricultural acreage has also been drastically reduced due to a lack of water for irrigation.

But it wasn't always like this. Due to the region's undersea resources, farms were profitable, lush, and had ample production up until roughly a decade and a half ago. Only a few tubewells were present, and they were utilised to farm 100 to 150 bigha (one bigha equals 1.6 square metres). The people began digging several tubewells to sustain the farm, which resulted in excessive groundwater consumption and the current predicament.

A local farmer named Rajesh Jakhar explained that he used to utilise tubewells to cultivate 60 bighas of land, but that there is now little water left in the soil. Our agricultural activity is entirely dependent on rainwater, and our arable land has been reduced to 20 bighas, the man claimed.

The first part in Jodhpur to be designated as a Dark Zone is Bhopalgarh. Here, the yearly decline in groundwater level is 1.92 metres. The majority of the settlements in the area are experiencing a drinking water shortage. People drink the lake water in Bhopalgarh City even though it is not potable because it is the only supply that is accessible.

A 36-meter deep well in the village of Hingoli dried out before the monsoon, but the water level increased to 24.3 metres following the rains, according to statistics given by the Groundwater Department of Jodhpur in 2011. The well dried up in 2021, just as the wells in the villages of Rarod and Birani.

325 millimetres of rainfall on average per year in the area. The groundwater level here was typically between 20 and 95 metres, but it is presently between 145 and 175 metres. In 1984, only 63 percent of the water on the land was used annually; 48 million cubic metres (MCM) were taken out for agriculture and other uses; today, with 261 MCM taken out, 310 percent is absorbed.

The majority of people in western Rajasthan only have access to 10 litres of water per person per day, even though an individual needs an average of 50 litres of clean water per day.

Eight to ten tubewells have been sunk in each farm, one built deeper than the other, indicating the excessive water consumption in this region. In rural Bhopalgarh, almost 80% of them are no longer functional.

There are two inoperative tubewells and an empty water tank in front of farmer Omaram's home in the Narsar neighbourhood of Bhopalgarh. More than 50 to 60 acres of land might be irrigated at once using tubewell. Omaram excavated roughly 10 tubewells in response to the water deficit, and ultimately the water level dropped. They now need to transport drinking water in tankers as well. The majority of farmers that rely on rainwater for agriculture are in this scenario.

A farmer named Nirmal Mehta regrets past errors, lamenting, 'We started pumping water without replenishing it. Today's outcome is as follows. Incomes have decreased along with the reduction in agriculture.

In response to an emergency, a tubewell was built in Bhopalgarh city, but water up to 900 feet was not discovered, according to Prakash Chandra, assistant engineer, water supply department.

With financial assistance from a grant from the Department of Agriculture, farmers in this region are already creating community organisations to dig ponds for appropriate irrigation for sizable cultivable areas.

There are two different sorts of subsidies available in the region for rainwater collecting, according to Rafiq Ahmed Qureshi, Assistant Agriculture Officer in Bhopalgarh. The first is for lakes, with a subsidy of Rs. 63,000 for a lake with a volume of 1200 cubic metres and a depth of up to 3 metres. At least Rs. Grants up to Rs 20 lakh can be secured to preserve rainwater using community farm ponds for irrigation.

Currently, the only source of drinking water for the majority of settlements, the water delivery system is reliant on canal water. The Mankalao-Ocean-Bhopalgarh water supply network now has 67 communities in the region linked. The water travels to Mankala, where it then travels to the villages, from Kayla Lake near Jodhpur. According to Dr Prakash Tyagi, the working director of the Rural Development Science Committee, a group promoting water conservation, Bhopalgarh is not the only city in the Jodhpur area experiencing a water problem.

'It is crucial to preserve traditional water sources rather than exploiting the remaining water.

He said that historical ponds should be cleaned and traditional water storage techniques, such as reservoirs, should be conserved. 'In Jodhpur, for many years, we used to create khadin (embankments)to minimise surface runoff in the fields,' he said.

To restore historic water conservation infrastructure in these dry regions and to regenerate lakes, GRAVIS has collaborated closely with communities in other blocks of Jodhpur, including Baap, Ocean, and Phalodi. In Baap, Tyagi explains how the creation of khadeen helped to solve the irrigation water shortage by storing rainfall in agricultural fields. Additionally, the groundwater was refilled as a result.

He has stressed controlling the existing water as the key path out of the 'dark zone' category, which Bhopalgarh has placed itself in due to its annual rainfall of less than 200mm.

“The current water problem might be significantly alleviated if the same method and community initiatives were used in Jodhpur's dry region. not just for people and farming, but also for animals.”