SV Govardhan Das

The APWELL Project: Andhra Pradesh's experience with participatory hydrological monitoring

The APWELL project sought to improve agricultural production through controlled groundwater exploitation by the means of nearly 3,500 wells and irrigation systems. The project acknowledged the risk of over-exploitation of groundwater.Part of the solution was to only permit wells in areas that were not already over-exploited. Recharge of groundwater and increasing irrigation efficiency were also implemented.

Posted on 18 Dec, 2012 02:04 PM

Preventing groundwater abuse depends on the users' knowledge of what constitutes this over-exploitation and abuse, and why it is undesirable. The success of APWELL, therefore, depends on participatory hydrological monitoring in which the users were trained in basic hydrology and charged with monitoring the hydrological balance of the watershed.

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