Water Management

This Watershed Works Manual for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) programme was prepared by Samaj Pragati Sahayog at the request of the Union Ministry of Rural Development. It is meant for those individuals and organisations who will be involved in planning, implementing and/ or monitoring NREGA.

These presentations deal with a case study of the work done in Chicago City in the United States of America to improve flood management and water quality. In order to save construction costs, the reservoir side walls are composed of geomembrane liner over compacted clay.

Earthen dams are a very common and cost-effective watershed intervention. This multimedia course gives an understanding of the principles of earthen dams, the types of earthen dams and the parameters to be considered in their construction. It goes into the detail of the steps to be followed in constructing these dams.

Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) moved forward on developing a GIS in 1998-99 and along with other civic bodies of Bangalore (BDA , BMP, BESCOM and others) pooled resources for obtaining aerial photography and photogrammetrically compiled base map covering an area of 290 Sq Kms of Ban

This course is part of a multimedia course series developed by Arghyam for the India Water Portal in collaboration with IT and domain experts.

This case study from FAO deals with participatory watershed management at Ralegan Siddhi village in district Ahmadnagar. In recent years the notion of sustainable development has emerged as a reaction to the highly technological and centralized processes that have governed thinking on development, the green revolution being a classic example.

This section from www.rainwaterharvesting.org deals with traditional water harvesting systems. Water has been harvested in India since antiquity, with our ancestors perfecting the art of water management. Many water harvesting structures and water conveyance systems specific to the eco-regions and culture has been developed.

• They harvested the rain drop directly. From rooftops, they collected water and stored it in tanks built in their courtyards. From open community lands, they collected the rain and stored it in artificial wells.
• They harvested monsoon runoff by capturing water from swollen streams during the monsoon season and stored it various forms of water bodies. 
• They harvested water from flooded rivers

Waternama is a collection of traditional practices for water conservation and management in Karnataka. The book is produced by Communication for Development and Learning and edited by Sandhya Iyengar.
View/download the full book (29.2 MB)

The NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) was set up in the mid 1980's for rural development and environmental conservation work. Their work includes water, forest conservation and other social issues hence raising awareness and understanding of the natural world.

To develop a watershed means, conventionally, to treat this whole area in such a way so as to conserve and nurture the natural resources of the area. These natural resources chiefly include the soil and water.