Wells and Step-wells

This case study is about Samerth's efforts to achieve drinking water security, in participation with local village communities in Rapar, Kachchh (Gujarat). Arghyam has been collaborating with Samerth on this effort since 2007.

The Vand Women of Kachchh: Guest post by Keya Acharya

She gazes unflinchingly with direct eyes into the camera with a feminine mystique and physique that could, be gracing the front cover of a beauty magazine. Her red, mirror-worked blouse, in the traditional Kachchhi style worn by tribal women, is strapped at the back in stringed bows, greatly practical in the dry, wilting heat of that arid expanse of land in hinterland Gujarat called Kachchh. Her skirt is a colourful hue of printed green, and her ‘dupatta’ is a blazing red piece of cloth swept forward from her waist, partially covering her back, brought over her head and tucked back demurely into her waist again. Her name is Ammi.

This case study is about Samerth's efforts to achieve drinking water security, in participation with local village communities in Rapar, Kachchh (Gujarat). Arghyam has been collaborating with Samerth on this effort since 2007.

The Best Part of the Story: Guest post by Keya Acharya

The landscape is barren in parts with just high heat and sun-bleached sand, the hallmarks of wastelands; in other parts there is some semblance of agriculture, with jowar, bajra and sometimes castor growing in small patches of mild green, without the lushness that good watering provides.

And in the middle of this landscape there appears, like an oasis without the accompanying palms, the ‘Tinnavahd talab’, a drinking water pond constructed by the community at Rabarkar vand, near Lakhagarh village in Rapar taluk of Kutch district. Inside the pond there is a dugwell, constructed on the pond bed.

Mazhapolima was a participatory well recharge programme initiated by the Thrissur district, under which domestic water sources were recharged with rainwater harvested (usually) from roof tops.

This report from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) deals with the status of groundwater in the Wardha district of Maharashtra.

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This paper on Bundelkhand from their Water and Sanitation Perspective series of WaterAid presents how ecological degradation and faulty policies make drinking water scarce and less accessible.

   CAREWATER's recent solicitation for comments on IWP blog (click here),  on their research study on dugwell recharge draws attention to a little-known programme of the government of India on decentralized groundwater recharge through the use of farmer d

Guest post on the Portal by Sunderrajan Krishnan, CAREWATER, (Center for Action, Research and Education on Water), www.carewater.org . === As a response to water stress in hard rock areas of the country, the Government of India has designed the Artificial Programme on Dug Well Recharge aimed at rejuvenating hard rock aquifers across the country. The idea is to divert rainfall runoff into open wells as a means of harvesting rainfall runoff and increasing recharge into aquifers. Currently as of April 2009, the program is underway in a couple of states, mainly in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, and other states are following suit. The program is ambitious in the sense that it aims to bring in millions of dug well owning farmers towards recharging. How will such a program be implemented, monitored and channeled so that the results are achieved to satisfaction? CAREWATER has designed a network of partners and is conducting studies to understand Dug well recharge and providing feedbacks to this national programme on artificial dug well recharge. Towards this purpose, since September 2008 we have created a partner base of organizations who along with our expertise are carrying out ground studies and analysis. Some of these results are available now on our website http://www.carewater.org (Please click on the link at the bottom of the homepage). We hope to keep updating this page as the program continues and wish to have more partners join our endeavor. In particular we have published a study of dug well recharge. The study is summarized below. We would like a larger discussion of the results of the study. Your comments below will be very useful to take this project forward more effectively.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Nitya Jacob, UN

Dr Kurien Baby, District Collector of Trissur, Kerala, and Solution Exchange Water Community are organizing a regional meeting to discuss the effects of the Mazhapolima program. The dates are 16-17 June 2009, and it will be held in Trissur.

Background

Kerala has among the highest well densities in India, and 71% of the population depends on them for drinking water. The aggregate household investment in the state on wells is pegged at Rs 1800 crore and they have a combined yield potential of 6.6 million cu m per day. That works out to a water availability of 197 litres of water per capita per day (lpcd), well above the government's prescribed norm of 140 lpcd. These wells are threatened. Despite an annual rainfall of 3,000 mm, 70% go dry in summer. The surface runoff is heavy, and therefore groundwater levels in several blocks have fallen sharply, and coupled with saline intrusion at an accelerated pace, have led to water quality problems.

This presentation describes Bharat Petroleum's 'Project Boond', funded by the Oil Industry Development Board and with

A story from NGO MASS on successfully reviving an open well in Padiabadmal village in Orissa, that had been neglected for two decades. In a tube-well dependent drinking water supply system, an initiative by people of Padiabadmal, a tribal inhabited village in Western Orissa, has come as a refreshing fresh water splash.