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Participatory watershed management in India

Drought-prone hilly areas of rural India suffer degradation from overgrazing, deforestation and erosion caused by the heavy monsoon rains. This undermines the livelihood of the rural poor by reducing crop yields and the drying up of wells. Participatory watershed management, as opposed to conventional watershed management without community participation, has been introduced beginning in the early 1990s in Maharashtra in Central India, as well as in Northern India. Since then it has spread to at least 11 Indian states. Unlike conventional watershed management, participatory watershed management has been successful at stopping or even reversing the above-mentioned trends.

Conventional watershed management
Indian state governments invested substantial sums in watershed management since the 1960s. Measures include terracing, check dams that reduce the flows in small streams on steep slopes and increase recharge, and afforestation. Initially this was done with hardly any participation or collaboration by communities and followed a standard set pattern with little regard to local situations. The lack of participation and the lack of coordination between government departments in charge of land management, forestry and agriculture had dire consequences. Structures were not maintained and deteriorated quickly. Afforestation projects failed due to non-closure to grazing. Erosion was not halted, but often even increased. While farmers received short-term benefits from their salaries as paid laborers, little long-term benefits materialized.

Beginnings of participatory watershed management
Beginning in the 1980s, the Jesuite Hermann Bacher, who had lived and worked in the area around Sangamner in Maharashtra in Central India since 1965, advocated in favor of greater community involvement in rural development. For this purpose he founded the Social Centre in Ahmednagar. Initially his organization's work focused on drilling ever deeper wells for irrigation, but they were faced with declining groundwater tables. He then recognized the need for participatory watershed management. In 1989 he thus visualized the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme (IGWDP). The project was formalized in 1992 when it initiated its first pilot project for participatory watershed management in the village of Mendhwan. In 1993 the NGO Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) was created to cater to the capacity building needs of the IGWDP through the creation and strengthening of Village Watershed Committees (VWC).

Also in the early 1990s, participatory watershed management was introduced in Northern India with the support of the World Bank as part of the Northern Hills Project.

Approach and implementation structure
At the local level, participatory watershed management is implemented by Village Watershed Committees (VWC) with at least 30% women members. Participatory watershed management emphasizes the empowerment of women, who previously had little voice in their communities. Women self-help groups receive 5% of project funds through a Women’s Development Fund. In each village the program intervenes in two phases: a capacity building phase with small-scale pilot activities lasting 12-18 months, and a full implementation phase. In the 2000s, micro-credit and adaptation to climate change have also been incorporated in participatory watershed management.

At the state level, interdisciplinary committees are formed to ensure coordination between government agencies. They usually include the highest Secretaries of three Departments, namely Soil and Water Conservation, Forest and Agriculture. They are either called "Watershed Planning and Implementation Offices" or "Sanctioning Committees".

At the national level, many participatory watershed management programs are administered by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) which in many state cooperates with WOTR. However, the World Bank-funded programs have been implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Results
An evaluation of the first pilot project in Medhwan showed that the cropping pattern became more diversified, yields increased, income and employment increased, out-migration decreased, natural resources regenerated and drinking water availability improved. Overall, the financial rate of return of the project was 23%. However, surveys also indicate that many landless people are worse off because they lost access to common land for grazing and the collection of wood. Another evaluation, covering the 1787 hectare Shedashi-Wavoshi watershed in the Western Ghats in Maharashtra and carried out in 1999, found a financial rate of return of 31 percent mainly due to a substantial increase in agricultural production. Also, the water table in wells increased, the number of water tanker trucks that had to bring water to villages decreased significantly, and the streams who used to run dry in December continued to flow until February.

Scaling up
In 2005 NABARD implemented participatory watershed management projects in 11 states covering 86 districts through its Watershed Development Fund. In 2010 the approach was used in 18 states. The NGO WOTR has implemented 191 watershed projects in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh covering an area of 139,048 hectares. The World Bank replicated the approach through its (Northern) Hills Watershed Projects I (1991-97) and II (1999-2005) in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal as well as Jammu and Kashmir. The economic rate of return of the first Northern Hills Project was estimated at 17%, having reached or exceeded initial expectations. The approach was also introduced to Karnataka State with assistance from DANIDA since 1997, and also with World Bank assistance from 2001 onwards. .