Women In Rural Shahdol Come Up With Innovative Use Of Discarded Plastic Bottles For Drip Irrigation
Their initiative is a small intervention with long-term benefits in conserving water and tackling the menace of plastic waste | Reports Akhilesh Shukla.
Published : May 31, 2026 at 3:43 PM IST
Shahdol: Around 5,000 women associated with various Self Help Groups (SHG) in Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol have triggered a revolution of sorts that will bring about positive results in the days to come. They have come up with a unique idea of putting discarded plastic bottles to use by using this plastic waste to create a drip irrigation system. Their initiative has caught the fancy of many in the district who are willing to replicate their model. These women from various SHGs have created over 30,000 such drip irrigation systems.
Kusum Bai of Amarha village and Shashi Tiwari of Chhatvai village are among those who now irrigate small plants using the bottle drip irrigation technique. They said that many women associated with the SHGs are taking this initiative forward, while tackling the menace of plastic waste.
The women claim that using plastic bottles for drip irrigation comes with multiple benefits. To begin with, the small plants receive water drop by drop, allowing the water to permeate the soil and maintain moisture for a long time. They say that irrigation using pipes or making small beds wastes a lot of water, while bottle drip irrigation conserves water. Another advantage is that the plastic bottles that are often thrown away in the trash cause significant environmental damage and this initiative helps in environmental protection.
The initiative by the SHGs has come under the Madhya Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission’s Jal Ganga Conservation campaign. While the district, block and village level teams of the Mission were working on larger projects, the SHGs went on to create inexpensive, sustainable drip systems by collecting plastic bottles that lay discarded in the fields, homes and on the streets.
So far, around 5,000 women in the district have, through their efforts, created over 30,000 bottle drip irrigation models and are receiving widespread praise.
To create the bottle drip system, these women first collected thousands of plastic bottles. They built wooden stands between small plants and attached the systems to them. The inverted tied bottles were cut at the top, and a small hole was made in the cap at the bottom to allow the water droplets to fall slowly. They use cotton to control the speed at which the drops are falling on the plant below.
The women explained that these bottles will automatically fill with water when it rains and the collected water will provide a steady stream of irrigation. This will conserve the water and benefit agriculture. A large number of farmers are now creating similar systems.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shahdol District Panchayat, Shivam Prajapati, explained, "The women in the SHGs are all farmers. They previously used flood or pipe irrigation methods that led to a lot of wastage of water. Then they came up with this unique method to save water. This can also be called a jugaad (make-do arrangement), which allows water to drip directly onto the plant's stem and roots. It has checked the wastage of water."
He said that there is a huge scope for its use across the district. "We have just started this campaign and will continue it. We will try to implement it wherever there is scope. However, it does not apply to large trees," he added.
The biggest advantage is that anyone can easily make a bottle drip irrigation mechanism. The women of the SHGs can be heard saying, "Our small effort will set an example for future generations. Bottles that were once waste are now useful for crop irrigation. We will bring about a revolution from waste and save every tree, drop by drop."
Shahdol has witnessed a transformation over the last decade from rain-fed agriculture to farmers going in for multiple cropping seasons. There has been an inclination to diversify into growing vegetables along with the traditional paddy, wheat and pulses.
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