In February 2011, 77-year-old Vaijinath Ghongade from Wadegaon, Maharashtra, stood on the banks of the Manganga river in Solapur and felt deeply moved by what he saw.
The river, which flowed close to his village Wadegaon in Sangola taluka and supported the livelihoods of hundreds, was slowly dying.
Manganga, a rain-fed river, flows through five drought-prone talukas before joining the Bhima River. The accumulated silt had rendered it shallow, causing floods during heavy rains.
Ghongade, a retired employee, decided to tour the stretch of the river on foot and study its ecosystem.
Ghongade and a team of 11 experts studied the 165 km stretch of the river’s ecosystem, taking soil and water samples and planting indigenous trees.
The trip resulted in a book titled, “Parikrama Mangangechi” (Circumnavigating Manganga), highlighting the river’s status. The team found that the river was ignored by the irrigation department for decades.
The foundation donated Rs 1.53 crore for the river’s revitalisation. The excavation took six years to clean the 75 km stretch of the river, removing 20 lakh cubic metres of silt, and costing less than Rs 3 crore.
Farmers, NGOs, and industrialists joined the cause as well. After the August 2021 monsoon, the weirs started overflowing which resulted in hundreds of people rejoicing by the river banks.
Revitalising the river brought 322 acres of fallow land under cultivation. Farmers carried the nutrient-rich silt back to their plots, resulting in better yields.
In December 2023, Ghongade was honoured with the Jal Prahari Samman by the Ministry of Jal Shakti for his incredible efforts.
Ghongade outlined their next steps saying, "We are demanding the removal of riverbed encroachments from the collector. This will widen the river, increase its water storage capacity, and potentially eliminate floods and droughts."