Built with logs, stones and sand, this check dam at a village in India is among thousands of makeshift pools along riverines that have revolutionised natural water access in the country.

In particular, the institute pointed to India. More than 66% of the total groundwater drawn in the world was exploited here. Water tables across the country had begun to shrink decades ago. By the mid-90s, when its population was close to hitting the billion mark, many parts were gravely plagued by scarcity.

Dramatically enough, India is today at the forefront of a little-known revolution, which has brought about an agricultural turnaround and a model for stricken farming societies. While the world shivers over its natural resource depletion, rural communities in India have been quietly taking to a system to phenomenally increase their supply of water.

The saviour? A simple concept called the check dam – a makeshift rainwater harvesting method through a little reservoir-like structure built with logs, stones or sandbags. Measuring only a metre or two in height, each check dam is located along a river, stream or catchment.

In Malaysia we have persistently latched on to the idea of building and expanding gigantic dams as the sacrosanct dose for all our society’s water ills; even as we keep harping so much about the importance of rainwater harvesting and conservation.

But in India, thousands of rural areas, which have not been within the reach of the excessive Narmada Dam, have already become independent, not needing to rely on external supply for their irrigation.

For the check dam offers a spectacular example of how water can be saved and used with minimal resources. International organisations quickly realised that the check dam gave a solution that was safer and much more feasible than that offered by ordinary dams.

Large reservoirs have been known to cause massive environmental problems, submerging whole towns and villages while destroying vast tracts of fertile land – even as they uproot traditional communities. Check dams, however, take up much smaller space along existing water channels. And they usually do not bring about land acquisition headaches or relocation problems.

Thakarsibhai Gabani, a philanthropist, was one of the pioneers who helped rural India adopt the check dam in recent years. "We realised that there was a need to properly use rainfall," he said during my visit to a check dam site in the Saurashtra region.

"And when we built our first check dam, we discovered that water collecting in it was actually percolating into the earth, recharging surrounding lands as far as 5km away."

In 1998, Gabani oversaw the construction of one of the country’s earliest check dams in the village of Khopala. It was built in just 27 days. Within weeks, the villagers found themselves liberated from their water shortage problems.

News of the Khopala success, from such a simple engineering concept, sent shock waves in Saurashtra which was worst hit by drought. And in just five months, about 10,000 check dams sprung up across the region.

The idea of the check dam is believed to have been first suggested by visiting Israeli engineers during the 90s. The structures, cheap and easy to maintain, mushroomed in tens of thousands. Agricultural heartlands in regions like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh began reaping bounties not seen in decades.

One of those who benefited from the check dam revolution is V.D. Patel, whose farm is near to, of all things, an abandoned giant dam called the Lakhanka. Fed up with the unproductive Lakhanka, Patel bought an excavator, hired labourers and took a month to build his own little check dam. He has since seen his harvest leap by 80%.

"Last time we could not find water even if pumped as deep as 80ft into the ground. Now we already have all the water we need at ten feet," he said, showing around his lush orchards. "I now can grow cotton, guava, olives and all kinds of vegetables on my farm … I can easily get 20,000 litres of water everyday."

Noticing his success, other farmers in the area immediately followed suit, building their own check dams.

"India has the largest network of irrigation channels in the world," said Kalpesh Bhatt, a village officer in Bhavnagar district. "There was a time when our wells were drying up and our water was deteriorating. The water had such high stone particle and fluoride content that my people were suffering all sorts of diseases ... We could not even call it water."

"The water was also so deep in the ground that trees were dying," he said. "The government planted so many trees, but they would not grow… Now today, even when we don’t plant anything, the trees grow."

Himanshu is theSun’s Penang bureau chief. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com