Water is the elixir of life. For rural communities, water plays a pivotal role, being needed for cultivation and rearing animals as well as drinking and household activities. An unfortunate reality of life in rural India is that few people have access to this basic and essential commodity:

Since inception, we have focused on the conservation and management of water resources across our locations. We took up conservation and better water management through-

Since water and agriculture are closely related, we worked with farmers on agricultural practices and encouraged micro irrigation (drip and sprinkler) systems, promoted the cultivation of low-water intensive crops and promoted mixed and multi-cropping.

Drinking water was made available to villager at their homes by the construction of rooftop rainwater harvesting structures that ensured a steady supply of safe drinking water all through the year.In villages where high fluoride levels were a problem, de-fluoridation kits are provided to families. Community based safe drinking water projects were also developed in a few villages.

Coastal salinity was a major problem in our Kodinar project areas and we worked jointly with the villagers, the Governmet and other NGOs to tackle this problem. Ground water buffers were created by the construction of check dams, existing water bodies, tidal regulators and rivers were interlinked, mined out pits of Ambuja Cements Ltd.were converted into water reservoirs and bottoms of wells were sealed to keep the salinity out.