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Featured Articles
July 2, 2024
From scarcity to sharing: How farmers are managing groundwater in Rayalaseema
Community governance for groundwater management
Jasmine on the fields as part of the groundwater collectivisation agreement at Kummara Vandla Palli village, Sri Satya Sai District. (Images: WASSAN/Swaran)
June 13, 2024
Decommissioning of open wells: Is all well in the villages?
The rising trend of abandoning open wells for borewells in Chikkaballapur and Annamayya districts, and the potential negative consequences of this shift.
Borewell proliferation may dry up open wells (Image: FES)
May 12, 2024
Atal Bhujal Yojana: Bridging ambition with reality
Rethinking community engagement in the Atal Bhujal Yojana
Towards sustainable groundwater management (Image: IWMI)
July 11, 2022
Greening of barren lands – the local way
The Chauka system of Rajasthan can not only provide a sustainable way to manage water resources in water stressed regions, but also support livelihoods through development of pastures.
Can greening of barren lands happen? (Image Source: India Water Portal Flickr photos)
July 29, 2021
Demystifying groundwater for collective action
Experiences from participatory groundwater management efforts in Maharashtra
Unless work on managing the demand is undertaken, the notion of ‘infinite’ groundwater will be hard to address. (Image: Rucha Deshmukh, ACWADAM)
December 4, 2019
Looking back into history to understand droughts
The 2015­-2018 drought, the longest, but less severe of droughts experienced by India raises alarm on the negative effects of future droughts on water security in the country.
India will see more droughts in the future. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Digital tool to monitor groundwater
Women in Rajasthan use a groundwater monitoring tool to record water levels and promote water literacy
Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)
Posted on 28 Feb, 2021 09:41 AM

According to a 2006 report by the Inter-Agency Task Force, titled ‘Gender, Water and Sanitation’, women’s participation in water governance projects is important for their success. Given the gendered division of labour in our society, it is not hard to see why.
Women use an open source groundwater monitoring tool that enables collection of water level data of wells and its collation on a web platform for easy access by all. (Image: FES)
Groundwater recharge needs grassroots solutions: A study of two techniques in Kerala
Although groundwater is emerging as a critical issue and has managed to encourage new government schemes, a generic solution of rainwater recharge cannot be applied across different regions.
Abhinav Madhavanunni
Sai Rama Raju Marella
Posted on 09 Oct, 2020 12:42 PM

In Kerala, around half the urban population and 80% of the rural population depend on open wells on their domestic water needs. But in the last decade, the majority of observatory wells recorded an average annual decline of half a meter.
Rainwater is captured from the rooftop of the community hall and diverted to the sump before it is pumped into the open well. (Image by Authors)
Water wisdom of the Gonds of Garha Mandla
A peek into history shows how the Gonds of Garha Mandla managed their water needs with great ingenuity and wisdom by constructing and maintaining water tanks .
K G Vyas
Posted on 03 Oct, 2020 05:11 PM

The Gond dynasties mainly flourished in the Central highlands of India. This region includes Sagar, Bhopal, and nearly half of Narmada valley, including the flanks of Vindhya and the Satpuda mountain ranges of southern Madhya Pradesh. The principal states of the Gonds were Garha-Mandla (1300 to 1789), Devgarh, Kherla and Chanda.
Kolatal, a traditional tank in Garha region of Jabalpur (Image Source: K. G. Vyas)
Where does the water in a well come from?
In the water sector, the focus on fixing demand and supply is taking us away from the real problem - the unnoticed groundwater dependencies in ever-expanding urban India.
Rachita Vora
Smarinita Shetty
Posted on 29 Sep, 2020 12:58 PM

The environment versus development debate has increasingly become more polarised, with discussions in the public domain revealing a stark contrast of views. Development has increasingly come to symbolise ‘doing something’ and ensuring ‘visible outputs’, largely in the form of infrastructure.
An open well in Maharashtra (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos) Image used for representational purposes only.
Uttarakhand: Reaching the unreached
PSI addresses the shortage of safe drinking water in remote Uttarakhand villages through a participatory community-based approach to springshed management.
Puran Bartwal
People’s Science Institute (PSI)
Posted on 11 Sep, 2020 07:48 PM

People in remote hamlets left out by previous schemes like Swajal and Sector Wide Approach Program of the Uttarakhand Jal Nigam and Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan longed for household-level piped water supply for drinking and domestic purposes.
Women trudged long distances daily to fetch water for their basic household needs in Rupail (Image: People's Science Institute)
Drying veins of Ganga: Can we have ‘Nirmal Ganga’ with dying tributaries?
There is an urgent need to prioritise uninterrupted river flow over unpolluted flow in the Namami Gange programme.
Adeel Khan
Praharsh M Patel
Posted on 27 Aug, 2020 05:22 PM

India’s Himalayan rivers have been a cradle of civilisational development and a centre for faith and culture for ages. Ganga being a fertile basin has been a significant contributor to our agricultural economy as well as our river-based agrarian development.
The Baand river is nearly dry even when the region saw above normal monsoon this year. Much of the riverbed is encroached by farms. (Image: Adeel Khan and Praharsh Patel)
Understanding Atal Bhujal Yojana through the program guidelines
The program envisages promoting panchayat led groundwater management and behavioural change with a primary focus on demand-side management.
Manisha Shah
Nikita Deshpande
Posted on 10 Aug, 2020 03:59 PM

Groundwater fulfills the drinking water requirements of nearly 85% and 50% of the rural and urban Indian population, respectively. 65% of the total irrigated area utilizes groundwater. It also caters to the water needs of the industrial sector in India.
Community participation is expected to facilitate bottom-up groundwater planning process to improve the effectiveness of public financing and align implementation of various government programs on groundwater in the participating states (Image: Water Alternatives, Flickr Commons)
Pumping groundwater to harnessing rainfall: A tale of two states
Saurashtra, and Vidarbha and Marathwada have similar climatic and aquifer characteristics. Why do the latter suffer from droughts when Saurashtra has been able to improve its groundwater levels?
Praharsh M Patel
Dipankar Saha
Tushaar Shah
Posted on 01 Jul, 2020 12:04 PM

Groundwater depletion, a growing challenge for India
Groundwater decline in India (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Need to protect the unique geological features in the Upper Ken basin
An attempt to document the geological features, water potential, and traditional wisdom around them in the Upper Ken basin.
Seema Ravandale
Posted on 07 Jun, 2020 12:52 PM

Kathayi, a scheduled tribe (ST) dominated village in the midst of the forested stretches of Shahnagar block in Panna district faces acute water scarcity during the 3-4 summer months. Through the government schemes, three wells and two hand pumps were installed in this 75 household village in the last 10-15 years, but most of them are dysfunctional now.
Panghata Kund in village Aloni, Panna (June 2014, after initial monsoon) (Image: Seema Ravandale)
Developing an effective participatory groundwater monitoring program at village level
Issues in groundwater management and recharge have been dealt with in a series of booklets as a part of the MARVI project.
Amita Bhaduri
Aarti Kelkar Khambete
Posted on 16 May, 2020 03:52 PM

The ‘Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater Use through Village-level Intervention’ (MARVI) project is being undertaken since February 2012 with the overall aim to improve the security of irrigation water supplies and enhance livelihood opportunities for rural communities in India.
One of the Bhujal Jankaars measuring groundwater levels manually (Image: Basant Maheshwari)
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