User:CSPCell

The Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell (CSPC) is a joint initiative of Aga Khan Rural Support Program India (AKRSPI), Tata Trusts and Ambuja Cement Foundation, registered under section 25 of Companies Act in the year 2008. The constitution of CSPC was founded through Government issued Resolution to address the overarching problems of salinity ingress.

CSPC strives to strengthen rural livelihoods by developing and strengthening various initiatives of the government and civil society organisations addressing drinking water, sanitation, agriculture, land development and natural resource management.

CSPC has impacted over One lakh households across the 9 coastal districts 936 villages (500 villages under Agriculture and over 436 villages under WaSH interventions) of Gujarat: 70,000 Households ensured with safe drinking water, over 56,000 with Sanitation facilities. More than 60,000 Farmers covered through improved Package of practices.

CSPC supports creation and strengthening of Farmer Produce collectives to ensure safe input, timely input supply as well as forward linkages for their produce. CSPC is also actively involved in Early Child Education and learning enhancement with grade-appropriate literacy and numeracy skills in primary grade students.

Genesis

Increasing salinity of land and water resources in coastal areas is one of the serious environmental problems in Gujarat over the past decades. Prolonged use of saline water for irrigation has led to a decline in agricultural yields and decreased soil fertility, rendering the land unsuitable for future cultivation. Salinity has also affected underground water aquifers, leaving over 1,500 villages with drinking water unfit for human consumption.

With an effort to facilitate a solution to the environmental problems caused by salinity ingress in the coastal belt of Gujarat, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, along with their partner organisations, launched the “Kharash Vistarotthan Yojana (KVY)” in 2002, earlier known as the “Gujarat Coastal Salinity Prevention & Mitigation Initiative”.

In recognition of the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the problems, it was felt that to make a substantial impact, joint efforts of both Government and civil society organisations were required. This led to the formation of the Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell (CSPC) that could coordinate and provide technical inputs to ongoing salinity projects in the state as well as develop innovative programmes and initiatives.