Water policy watershed? Rehabilitating rain-fed wastelands in India

Much of India is covered by vast wastelands. The Indian government is attempting to reclaim these areas to reduce poverty. How successful has this strategy been? Experimental projects have shown that improved management at the micro-level can increase the productivity of water resources in equitable and sustainable ways. But how can productivity be increased on a large-scale?

Research by the UK Overseas Development Institute shows that the lack of capacity to implement government policy on watershed development is hindering increased production.

India introduced new guidelines in 1994 for rehabilitating rain-fed wastelands and involving local communities. It was recognised that neglecting local communities had led to environmental degradation and poverty. Community level associations have been established to represent local people who are dependent on the watershed. The associations, self-help groups, the village assembly, and specialists join up to form a watershed committee. The committee, using participatory methods, develops a plan of activities, funding requirements, and project users, which is then sent to the Project Implementation Agencies (PIA) at the district level for funding and implementation.

The guidelines have been welcomed by local people. Furthermore, while it was not a panacea for poverty, improvement made to the wastelands have made an important contribution to people’s livelihoods.

Research on the implementation of watershed rehabilitation projects found that:

• Guidelines were unclear about how villages and areas are selected.
• Local people felt greater ownership of the projects although they were reluctant to contribute to costs as government has funded watershed activities in the past.
• Despite generally wider participation, women and marginal groups tend not to be part of the decision-making process.
• Rehabilitation created employment opportunities for the poor but in some cases has also led to reduced grazing grounds, affecting the landless and often increasing women’s workloads.

Successes aside, there are significant obstacles to repeating and increasing watershed management projects. The study recommends that:

• More time is taken to strengthen weaker groups prior to involving them in negotiations over watershed planning and management.
• Procedures for selecting and de-selecting villages should be clearer to avoid focusing on areas which are less needy of assistance.
• NGOs and local government need help in designing incentives to attract and keep good staff.
• There should be better strategic planning and greater transparency at all levels.
• Projects need to be compatible with local agro-ecological, socio-economic and infrastructural conditions.
• Watershed projects should be developed within states’ existing rural initiatives.
• Stronger links between national, state and district levels would benefit training and management of staff, as well as monitoring and evaluation.

Source(s):
Enhancing Rural Livelihoods through Participatory Watershed Development in India, ODI Natural Resource Perspectives #34 by C. Turton and J. Farrington (1998) Full document.
Scaling Up Participatory Watershed Development in India: a Review of the Literature. ODI AgREN Network Paper #86 by C. Turton, M. Warner and B. Groom (1998) Full document.
Scaling Up Participatory Watershed Development in India: Lessons from the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme, ODI Natural Resource Perspective #17 by J. Farrington and C. Lobo (1997) Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 11 May 2001

Further Information:
John Farrington
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7JD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)207 922 0300
Fax: +44 (0)207 922 0399
Contact the contributor: J.Farrington@odi.org.uk

Overseas Development Institute, UK

Other related links:
More from the Chartered Institution for Water and Environmental Management

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AGL Land and Water Development Division promotes efficient use of water resources to achieve sustainable agriculture

World Water Council promotes awareness of critical water issues

WRI aims to improve human access to water supplies and reverse watershed degradation