Water conservation

Introduction:

The nature can only sustain when there is equal balance between ecosystem and human system, the equal balance will create good quality life and unbalanced act will create worst quality of human life. In the rural areas the natural resource such as land, water, vegetation, livestock and livelihood are inter-linked with each other. Approximately 17 percent in the Indian GDP is contributed from the Agriculture and approximately 60 percent of the population is depending on the income from agriculture.

In the last few decades we are seeing that the environment is getting degraded and destroyed due to human’s greedy activities. This kind of unwanted activity and experiment with the environment has not only threatened to the various species but now human is also suffering from various effect of global-warming. This has breakdown the traditional local management connection between the human and nature. 

Watershed programme:

Watershed is not simply the hydrological unit but also socio-political-ecological entity which plays crucial role in determining food, social, and economical security and provides life support services to rural people.

At the backdrop of less rainfall, depleted ground water conditions, crop failures, Govt. Of Maharashtra has declared more than 24,000 villages in the state as drought affected during year 2015- 16. Out of 1353 villages in Aurangabad district, 237 have been declared as drought affected in year 2015. To deal with the recurrent drought situation, Government of Maharashtra launched Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan on December 5, 2015 a flagship programme for making ‘Drought Free Maharashtra by year 2019’ enabling water for all. 

Integrated water and soil conservation Programme

According to the Soil Conservation Society of America, a watershed is a geo-hydrological unit comprising land and water within the confines of a drainage divide.

The focus of project is  Soil and water conservation is on i) In situ water harvesting, ii) increasing ground water level, iii) increasing irrigation potential & creating facilities for protective irrigation, iv) creating decentralized water bodies, v) rehabilitation of existing water bodies through de-silting, vi) soil conservation vii) livelihood programme. It has been implemented various water harvesting measures and soil conservation on integrated approach through convergence of various ongoing schemes.

The benefits of the interventions have reach out directly to the villagers in terms of increase in ground water table in dug wells / bore wells, increase in area under protective irrigation, reduction in incidence of crop failures due to longer dry spell, increase in cropping intensity, increase in crop yields, all this has lead to increase in income & development of drought coping mechanism.

Holistic approach of MGVS

1.       Promotion of modern technologies for maximum output of the programme

2.       Soil conservation to increase crop productivity.

3.       Increase the income and income source of underprivileged people.

4.       Create awareness on natural resource management.

5.       Livelihood programme by establishing Self help Groups (SHGs)
.       Empowering rural women by involving them in the decision making process.