Lidhora Checkdam 
"No one wants to marry our daughters"

For roughly four months each year, the residents of seven small villages in the Lidhora district of Madhya Pradesh remained isolated from the rest of the world. During the monsoon season, when the rains would drop over 80% of the annual rainfall, the already fast flowing stream nearby would become impassible. As a consequence, trade between the seven villages and the towns on the other side of the stream would come to a halt. Economic activity would not resume again until the rains had stopped and the stream had reduced to its normal dry season level.
In 1993, residents of the seven villages approached our field staff in Jhansi with a request to build a checkdam across the stream. Their desire to improve water availability in the post-monsoon season was noted, but it was their more personal appeal that caught our attention:

"No one wants to marry our daughters", they said. Marriage to the women from the villages was seen as inconvenient due to the villages’ long period of isolation. For similar reasons, the villagers had a difficult time attracting and keeping teachers in the area. The education level in the villages was poor and the literacy level low. Even the option of sending their children to schools in other communities was not possible since the stream could not be crossed.

The villages surrounding Lidhora seemed to be ideal candidates for a checkdam project. After numerous site visits and consultations we chose an appropriate location for the new structure. As a twist on our usual checkdam design, we decided to add a bridge to allow transportation to continue even during the monsoon season.

Construction began in 1994 and continued over two seasons. The checkdam itself was three meters high, with an additional three meters of overflow in between the top of the dam and the roadway. The bridge was constructed to permit two lanes of traffic at any one time to cross the river. In addition, a turbine was added to the structure to allow for the generation of electricity to power the irrigation pumps.

The construction of the Lidhora Checkdam/Bridge has made a remarkable difference to the villagers in the seven small communities. No longer subject to the vagaries of the monsoon, the villagers are able to trade all year-round and water is available during the dry season for irrigation. More importantly, the residents are no longer isolated from the other communities and have access to education and a greater number of marriage opportunities.