One of the major issues facing rural India is access to quality water for cultivation, rearing of animals as well as drinking and household activities. The water available is frequently of poor quality, leading to health problems. Poor management of water also means that this restricted supply gets wasted impacting lives of rural communities. |
Access to water has been one of the priority issues facing many villages we work with across location, Hence, since inception, ACF has undertaken water resource management as one of our key focus programmes to be implemented across states in India to create an impact on the environment, groundwater resources, agriculture and allied livelihood activities. The programme lays emphasis on sustainability through community action, and involves water harvesting, conservation and bringing about an attitudinal change among communities. Our focus is has been on creating necessary infrastructure for water conservation, like check dams and roof rain water harvesting structures. ACF also works on reviving traditional water management resources like ponds, and have also converted mined out pits to serve as water reservoirs. These efforts have helped increase water storage capacities and recharged the groundwater in many villages. Extensive work has also being carried out in Kodinar blocks of Junagadh district for salinity mitigation in Gujarat, while in Rajasthan, we have supported innovative subsurface dyke systems. Theses sub surface structures are able to provide water for irrigation beyond the monsoons every year. |