Bhadva, Kotda Sangani, Rajkot Environmental Sustainability & Climate Resilience
“Instead of running toward the city, we decided to make our village like a city”
Bhadva rebuilt its own water, sanitation and enterprise base — and took first rank for cleanliness in Rajkot district while doing it.
That line belongs to Lavjibhai Gajera, Bhadva’s sarpanch, and it is the whole argument of this village in one sentence. Migration out of rural Rajkot is normal. Bhadva decided to make staying worth it instead.
The work began in 2023, run by the Village Panchayat and a group of young people, with SSKK alongside.
Water first, because everything follows it
Two check dams were renovated and an RCC tank built. Groundwater rose enough that wells and borewells began to overflow, and 70% of the village’s farmland came under irrigation. It also took the water-fetching walk off women’s mornings.
At the school, 150 children had been bringing drinking water from home. A 1,000-litre purified tank connected to the Narmada pipeline ended that.
Drainage outlets built for over 20 farmers stopped soil washing off the fields, which lowers cost and lifts yield in the same move.
Then income, then trees
52 women were given ergonomic jewellery tables — the kind of unglamorous detail that decides whether piecework is sustainable or crippling — with training in spice packing, papad making and digital marketing. Sales run through social media.
The Panchayat opened an e-governance desk for digital services and welfare access. 1,000 mango saplings went in.
What it added up to
- First rank for cleanliness at Rajkot district level under the Swachhta Abhiyan
- Recognised ODF-Plus by the Ministry of Jal Shakti
- Urban migration reversed, with IT and agri-tech ventures starting in the village
None of that is a single intervention. It is water, sanitation, income and governance moving together in one small place — which is the only way a village becomes somewhere people choose to stay.