Restoring Rajasthan’s Traditional Earthen Dams for Rainwater Harvesting and Groundwater Replenishment

~ Amanda Suutari

This in-depth ETP story features a Photogallery.

Click here to see another version of the Rajasthan’s Rainwater Harvest story written by the EcoTipping Points team.

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The wells in Rajasthan’s Alwar District had dried up, thrusting the people into abject and seemingly inescapable poverty. The revival of traditional earthen dams to capture rainwater for recharging the underground water supply provided a tipping point that brought the wells back to life. And with the water came a better life for the people. It started in the spare, humble village of Gopalpura. Nearly a thousand villages are now following Gopalpura’s example.

The Water Problem

Historically a water-rich country, India is now facing a water crisis. Changes such as the Green Revolution, economic growth, and urbanization have all put enormous pressure on its freshwater resources. With 16% of the world’s population but only 2.45% of the world’s land area and 4% of the world’s water resources, India’s demand for water is outstripping its supply. Meanwhile, the population is increasing by 19 million every year, the equivalent of a new Canada every year and a half. Half the nation’s inhabitants are expected to make a drastic demographic shift to urban areas by 2050.

The Central Groundwater Board of India projects that the reservoir of groundwater will dry up by 2025 in up to 15 states if the current rate of exploitation continues. Punjab state is estimated to have already used up 98% of its groundwater, which means that if current trends continue, this breadbasket of the nation could turn into a desert. Moreover, water distribution is dramatically unequal: from 9000 millimeters of rainfall in Meghalaya in the west of India to 100 millimeters in western Rajasthan in the east of the country. The reservoir of groundwater, estimated at 432 billion cubic meters, is rapidly being depleted with major metropolitan centers estimated to go dry by 2015.

Water scarcity is a familiar subject in the media and has become a major political flashpoint. Conflicts, sometimes violent, have erupted at all levels--between states, regions, urban and rural areas, upstream/downstream populations, and along national borders. Sometimes conflicts surface along ethnic lines, as between the Bishnoi and Bill peoples of Rajasthan. While many of the ethnic conflicts are rooted in complex historical, ethnic and religious issues, scarcity now plays a critical role. Some of the major hotspots which simmer under the surface in years of stability and erupt in years of scarcity are the conflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu state over the Cauvery River Basin; between India and Pakistan over the Sindh river; and historical conflicts between India and its downstream neighbor Bangladesh over the Ganges and Bramaputra Rivers. Bangladesh blames Indian mismanagement of the Ganges for floods which repeatedly washed through the country.

Under pressure from multilateral development banks, the Indian government has tended to look for solutions in markets and large-scale, costly infrastructure. Dams, diversion projects, and the controversial plan to interlink the major rivers have been widely criticized for displacing and impoverishing villagers, wreaking havoc on wildlife, and pushing India further into debt. South of Rajasthan in neighboring Gujarat state, the notorious Narmada dam has been the subject of international campaigns because of its astronomical costs and its flooding of villages that is expected to displace over a million rural dwellers.

Rainwater Harvesting in Rajasthan

Against the backdrop of urban water shortages and increasingly volatile friction over water sources, the groundbreaking revival of traditional rainwater harvesting initiative in the arid state of Rajasthan has received nationwide attention.

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is not new to India; in fact, it has been a major source of irrigation on the subcontinent for centuries. Archeological evidence of water harvesting tanks date back to around 1500 BC, and reference is made to them in ancient texts. One study cites evidence of sophisticated irrigation systems and hydraulic structures that used water harvesting as early as 5,000 years ago. In the medieval period rulers in southern parts of India financially supported the construction of village-level structures for rainwater harvest or storage running into the tens of thousands.

Traditionally water and forests were seen as intimately linked. Both were bound up in spiritual and social traditions which forbade cutting of trees or misuse of water. The Rajasthani people co-evolved rainwater harvesting traditions that practiced water conservation so that their naturally arid region did not translate into water scarcity. Water was considered sacred, and an "amrit," a nectar or ambrosia. Around communal ponds, people tied threads around the trees in worship of them. Various ceremonies marking important milestones in family life such as births, deaths and marriages often involved water or some kind of ceremony around the village well. It is also common for daily offerings of water to be made to the deity of the village temple. In the forests people believed deities lived in the trees. In Sariska, people saw the degradation of the forests by the destructive mining activities as a sign of anger from the gods with rain and water being withheld from them as punishment. The Peepal and Banyan, their sacred trees, would not grow, because there was no water or sand to hold them. They also believed deities were angered by the blasting and dumping that were disturbing the animals that lived there.

Despite regional variations, these beliefs and practices prevailed in the region for centuries, if not millenia, until the 19th century. Changes started to take place with the arrival of colonial Britain and accelerated after Independence. Control of formerly communal forests and water resources were taken over by centralized authorities. Based far away and with no local ties, they had little interest in or understanding of local conditions. They frequently opened these resources up to exploitation by commercial mining and logging companies. Over the years, the dependence on government to manage their resources eroded traditional communal management institutions and people lost their sense of stewardship for their village forests and watersheds. Wooded areas became denuded and overgrazed, and water harvesting structures became neglected.

The State of Rajasthan is the second largest in the country, covering 34.3 million hectares, over 10% of the total geographic area of India. It comprises 5% of the country’s population. It is divided into 30 districts, which are further divided into blocks. There are 15.7 million hectares of arable land. It is among the driest states, with total surface water resources only about 1% of India’s total surface water. All rivers are rainfed, with 14 major river basins and 59 sub-basins. Surface water is found mostly in the south and southeast of the state. There is a large area in the west which has no distinct drainage basin. The scarce water resources are distributed unevenly temporally as well, with most of the rainfall occurring during the monsoon. Large-scale infrastructure, such as dams, reservoirs, and diversion canals are available to about 30% of the state’s population, but not without significant social and environmental costs. Groundwater mining is causing water tables to drop up to a meter per year in some areas.

Rajasthan is a historically and culturally rich region, and was once home to very wealthy merchants and maharajas. It is located along the trading routes where camel caravans crossed the western part of the state. There are various ethnic groups in Rajasthan, speaking Hindi or Rajasthani or, because they are similar, a patois of both. Hindu is the dominant religion, followed by Islam. One major ethnic group is the Rajputs, warrior clans known for their bravery, whose dynasty peaked at the beginning of the 16th century . They were overtaken by the Mughal Empire but struggled for independence as the Mughal empire declined. Allying themselves with the British, they managed to remain an independent state, but during the ensuing extravagance and escalating corruption their wealth and privilege were squandered. Today it is one of the poorest regions in India. The female literacy rate is lowest in the country, with 1.7% compared to 87.8% in Kerala in the south. The child labor rate, on the other hand, is high.

The Negative Tip

The Alwar District lies northeast of Jaipur in the northeast part of Rajasthan, covering an area of 8,380 square kilometers. It has a population of nearly two million people, living in 1,991 villages and five towns. It is divided into eleven blocks, or administrative subunits. It was a princely state during the pre-Independence period, merging with the Indian union in 1949 with the birth of Rajasthan. The area is at the northern edge of the Aravalli mountain range that extends from south Rajasthan to Delhi. Its climate is semi-arid with an average rainfall of 350-400 mm distributed unevenly throughout the season. It is mainly an elevated, rolling plateau interrupted by the hills and rocky ranges of the Aravallis. Thought to be one of the world’s most ancient mountain ranges, geologists say the Aravallis belong to the pre-Cambrian period of 1,500 million years ago. The ranges run from Delhi to near Ahmadabad in Gujarat state, with peaks rising in the southern portion to about 6,000 feet near Mout Abu in Raja. The mountains are composed mainly of shrub lands with forests of dry, deciduous vegetation. They provide habitat for endangered species such as the panther, leopard, and four-horned antelope. Forest cover is the best in Rajasthan and covers 10-15% of the district.

The main inhabitants of the region are the tribal Gujjar, Balai, Rajput, Kumar and Meena. The main sources of livelihood are agriculture, mainly staple crops such as wheat, mustard and pulses, and livestock such as cows, buffalo, sheep, goats and camels. The crops and animals often vary depending on the ethnic group. Landholdings are small, averaging between 1.5 and 2.5 hectares in area. In the forested areas, there is less agriculture and more emphasis on minor forest products. Houses are made of stone, mud, and thatch.

Ironically, the Alwar District was once locally known as “naha," meaning an area with a high water table. This was due mainly to the practice of harvesting rainwater. Unfortunately, just prior to Independence, a wealthy prince sold off logging rights to the local forests. They were subsequently cleared without the consent of the people whose livelihood depended on them. Although the changes that occurred in the region over the years are a result of complex interacting forces, this act of clearing the forests set in motion a wide-ranging web of effects. First, it caused severe soil erosion during the monsoon. Rains ran off the mountains and land and escaped, carrying topsoil into water tanks. As they lost their de facto ownership and sense of stewardship of the forests, villagers became alienated from their long established communal forest management institutions. Since water and forest management were inseparable to the people, this also eroded their water conservation practices. Water harvesting structures silted up and became neglected. At the same time, state control of water resources created a further disincentive for villagers to maintain their traditions. They became increasingly dependent on the distant bureaucracy to provide water sources in the form of wells, diversion canals, and water harvesting structures. These were essentially ill-conceived projects foisted on villagers without their participation and without in-depth knowledge of local conditions. As such neither the government nor the villagers themselves properly managed or maintained them.

Paradoxically, as the natural resources began providing less of their formerly reliable services, pressure on them intensified. Wells were dug deeper to capture receding water. This "groundwater mining" caused water tables to fall further. This in turn reduced crop yields to one harvest per year and lowered livestock productivity. It also increased the workload of women, who were walking much longer distances to find water sources. Once self-sufficient villages were pushed into the cash economy as able-bodied men left the countryside for towns and cities in search of work. This out-migration put an added population pressure on growing cities as well as eroding the social fabric in the villages. Absent men contributed little to the upkeep of their community, increasing the pressure on women and female children to care for children and the elderly in addition to the normal farming, household, and water fetching responsibilities. With falling crop yields, food security for villagers and livestock was low, and forested areas were overgrazed by hungry livestock. Increasingly, destitute villagers were clearing forests and grazing malnourished livestock. Despite the fact that they may have been aware of the long term unsustainability of their actions, they were forced to focus on daily survival needs.

The Positive Tip

Around this time, 1975, a small youth organization known as Tarun Bharat Sangh (Young India Organization), or TBS, formed in response to the destruction wrought by a fire on the campus of Rajasthan University. A group of volunteers came together to offer assistance, medical help, food and shelter to the victims of the fire. After this initial project, the group decided to stay together and shifted their attention to rural development. They began to learn about poverty in the villages, and the impact of the Green Revolution and economic liberalization on villages.

In 1984 they moved into Bhikampura village in the Alwar district with the goal of introducing some health and education programs. The villagers were skeptical. Jaded by the misguided efforts of outside aid organizations, they had little faith in TBS’s vision of development. An older wealthy farmer from the neighboring village of Gopalpura, Mangu Patel, told TBS worker Rajendra Singh that they didn’t need hospitals and schools, they needed water. At that time, the region was in the midst of a severe drought. Village wells had dried up completely, and urban migration had reached a peak of 3-4 people from each family. Patel offered to show him how to repair a used traditional water structure known as a johad-- a water harvesting structure that traps the monsoon rains, recharging the groundwater that supplies the village wells. It was difficult to get younger village men to volunteer their labor to the project, as it meant giving up wages in town. Finally a "test case" on an existing johad was launched with the technical help of the irrigation department. Within two years, the results of the work were apparent. The monsoon of 1986 came and went, leaving water tables higher for a longer period of time than before. This prompted the villagers into the more ambitious task of masonry repair of an irrigation dam. The same engineer gave them further guidance along with encouragement from TBS. For this project, some villagers sent for family members working in the towns. The structure was completed in time for the 1987 monsoon. This success sparked interest in neighboring villages. The next year, more new structures were built or repaired. Eventually critical mass was achieved, and today there are over 10,000 johad water harvesting structures in the region. Badri Prasad, a local landlord, eventually donated some land near Bhikampura village to TBS. Over the years this headquarters has grown from a two-room building to a complex which houses an Ayurvedic clinic, guest house, kitchen and administrative office.

Because the villages lie along the Aravalli mountain range, the topography is complex. One study, “Johad” (1998) states that “it would not be right to make any statement regarding the exact increase in ground water level.” At the same time, it acknowledges that “Johad construction plays a major role in recharging groundwater.” It cites a survey collaborated on between TBS and Action for Food Production (AFPRO) which was conducted first in 1988, which suggested that out of 970 wells in 120 villages, only 170 wells were operational and the rest were dry. The same team conducted another survey in 1994, 6 years later, and found that all 970 wells were in use and supplying water year-round. Another evaluation report suggests that in the regions harvesting rainwater, groundwater has risen by 20 to 50 feet in 10 years. A TBS study finds that between 1987 and 1997 in Gopalpura, where the project started, the water column of the village wells increased during the monsoons from 15 feet to 55 feet. Dry season levels also increased from 10 feet in 1987 to 35 feet in 1994.

Spin-Offs

Just as the deforestation of the hills caused the social system and ecosystem to slide into an unhealthy stability domain, this catalytic action of building the water harvesting structures has had multiple spin-offs. First, it significantly improved the quality of life for the women. Freed up from the drudgery of walking many kilometers to fetch water, women had more time and energy to spend on priorities such as health and child care. Female children, no longer needed to help their mothers at home, began to go to school. With a year-round supply of water in wells, new fields, formerly "wasteland," were opened up for cultivation and a second--and sometimes even a third-- annual crop were added. This dramatically increased food security. When the water table is higher, less diesel fuel is used for the pump to extract the water, so fuel use is reduced. Also, high groundwater levels mean less water is needed to irrigate cropland.

Meanwhile, with livestock able to drink from johads, and with more agriculture, there is more crop residue to be used as fodder for animals. In this way the health and productivity of livestock improved. With this extra income and security, and new responsibilities for men in the villages, migration to the cities slowed down. This has helped restore family and social bonds, and has relieved some of the agricultural burden on women who were compensating for absent family members.

Among TBS and villagers awareness grew of the need to protect and regenerate the forests to prevent soil from silting up the newly built johads. This rekindled a holistic perspective and began to revive forgotten communal forest and water management institutions. It also recreated a sense of ownership among villagers who had now invested their energy and time into these resources. It motivated them to come together against the power structures that were threatening them. In the region’s Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary, marble mining had seriously impacted the forests and water supply. The villagers living in the reserve joined forces with TBS to oppose the mining and stop poaching, and in 1991 successfully managed to stop mining in the reserve. This has helped the water tables to rise, the forest to regenerate, and has increased the amount of wildlife in the sanctuary, including the endangered tiger.

An unexpected result of the rise in groundwater levels is the revival of two seasonal river basins, the Arvari and the Ruparel, which now flow nearly year-round. When the government of Rajasthan sold a fishing license to a commercial fisher, villagers united in opposition and forced it to rescind the license. This prompted all the villagers living in the basin of the Arvari to form the Arvari Sansad, or Arvari River Parliament, to make rules on its use and take measures to protect it from other outside interests. Some villages also began their own independent councils, where they discussed the water and forest resources and set up regulations governing their use.

These developments have had benefits which reached from the ecosystem into the social system. The solidarity and confidence gained by the villagers, encouraged by TBS, have triggered the launch of other projects and village councils that regulate the use of water and forest resources. At least one member from each household is part of these village councils, or Gram Sabha. While they can create regulations governing use of water and forests and enforce penalties, they are not recognized by the government and have no legal power outside the village. An example of rules governing forest use, for example, is the limits on areas where people may bring animals for grazing. Sometimes certain areas of the forests are off-limits for given periods, or the age of the trees may be used as limits for particular animals. For example, sheep are allowed only after trees are tall enough for their leaves to be out of the reach of the sheep. Similarly a cow would not be allowed in a given area until trees grow out of their reach, while longer periods would be given for camels, and so on. Some Gram Sabha have also set up a village fund, or Gram Kosh, which is put towards village maintenance or investment in income generation or other future projects. This has given villagers the financial means to achieve common goals.

Another democratic structure emerged after the revival of the Arvari River in 1994, when villagers realized there was a need to protect the newly revived river from commercial interests. After banding together to successfully defeat efforts by the Fisheries Department to issue a fishing license to a commercial fisher in 1996, they went on to form the Arvari Parliament. The parliament is made up of 70 villages along the river basin, with one or two representatives from each village. Currently there are 150 members, 30 of whom are female. The parliament normally meets for two consecutive days every six months. These biannual meetings are held in different places each time, usually in a village which is facing some water or forest management problem. This provides motivation and inspiration to the host village as they hear members from other villages share their success stories. Outside of these regular meetings, a core group of 22 meet more frequently. One coordinator and two vice-coordinators are nominated every five years, but the membership can decide to change the coordinator if they’re not satisfied, or if he/she misses more than two meetings, as sometimes happens.

With the Gram Sabha and the Arvari Sansad, the villagers have de facto control over the river and forests. For the time being this reinforces the institutions of communal management. However, because they do not have official government authorization of this control, there is always the possibility that they will lose these rights should the government or commercial interests enforce a claim to them.

The emergence of women’s Self-Help Groups has had a huge impact on the community. A group of village women contribute a certain amount of money to a pool and deposit it into a cooperative bank. This acts as a "revolving credit" fund where whoever needs it can borrow money at low interest. They must then pay it back as quickly as possible for the next person to borrow it. The resulting increase in solidarity and entrepreneurship among women has encouraged them to play a more active role in this deeply patriarchal society. Some of the micro-enterprises developed include soapmaking, selling milk and milk products such as ghee, carpetmaking, spinning and weaving. Improvements have been made to education and health care. There has been a shift in priorities away from the conventional symbols of progress such as electricity and roads, and towards self-sufficiency, reinforced by the summer padyatras, or foot marches, which promote this value. There have also been some changes in socially oppressive customs. The dowry system, ostentatious, costly weddings, purdah where women must cover their faces and stay inside, and child labor in the carpet industry have all been actively discouraged. As community cohesion strengthened in Gopalpura, they became the first village to give up the making and consumption of alcohol and it is still today a "dry" village.

Replication

TBS and villagers have disseminated their approaches in several ways based on using local customs. One of these is known as the foot march, or padyatra, which has very old roots in India’s spiritual traditions. In the past, people would wake up early, around 4 a.m., and make a "morning march," walking door to door through the villages singing religious songs to wake up, for example, Krishna, or whatever gods, goddesses, or nature-based spirits were locally worshiped. Sometimes it is also symbolic of awakening not only the body but the spirit. Pilgrims who had a religious message would walk from village to village to disseminate it. Gandhi used and popularized the foot marches as he went through the villages mobilizing them against the oppression of colonial rule, and one of his disciples, Vinoba Bhave, used them during his famous land redistribution movement where he managed to get rich landowners to donate over a million acres of land to landless peasants. Politicians also use the padyatras as a way to get rural votes.

TBS has been involved with three kinds of padyatras. One starts at the beginning of summer, one comes at the start of the monsoon (technically July) during the Rakshabandan festival, and another in October. The people joining the march, the "padyatris," are made up of available TBS workers and other people somehow related to the particular area or village where the padyatra was held. The march begins in one village, where the group stays a few days, and then moves on to the next one as a group. In each village there are ceremonies, cultural events, and discussions on whatever the subject of the march is. If the region chosen is very large, sometimes they break up into groups. Within 40 days they go from village to village. Depending on the distance between villages, anywhere from 15 to 50 villages may be visited.

Funding for the work of building rainwater harvesting structures is usually divided between TBS and villagers, who contribute a quarter to a third of the costs in cash or in kind. Generally the contribution TBS makes is for contracting skilled work such as masonry or specific engineering tasks. Over the years, the contribution of TBS has contracted as that of the villages has expanded. Physical labor is provided by people in the recipient villages. Sometimes villages have a system where grain contributions are sold by the Gram Sabha and the proceeds put toward johad construction or other projects.

TBS receives funding from various sources, from both groups and individuals. It has also been funded for specifically-designed projects by various agencies in Europe, as well as the Ford Foundation, OXFAM India, and some government agencies such as the national Department of Science and Technology, and the state Watershed Department. Sometimes TBS has solicited the contributions of local business. There are some 50 full-time TBS workers, about 200 part-time workers, and hundreds of volunteers spread out across villages in Alwar and neighboring districts. Many are either from villages or stay in the field long-term, returning to the Bhikampura campus from time to time. A few staff members and volunteers also stay at the campus year-round. Rajendra Singh won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community in Leadership in 2001. At the campus there is a showcase with various other awards displayed in it. The award given to Bhaonta-Kholyala, the “Down to Earth Joseph C. John Award” in 2000 is documented on the painted map of the water harvesting structures in the village (see photos). TBS continues in its work in the villages but has increasingly extended its reach into the arena of advocacy and influencing policy on water and the environment. It has been instrumental in the formation of a nationwide coalition of civil society groups called the Jal Rasthryia, National Water Coalition, with Rajendra Singh as the head.

Challenges

There will always be important challenges that threaten to derail the progress made in this district. Every time new assets are created, a fresh dilemma emerges over how to manage these assets and protect them from powerful interests from both outside and within. As well, the relationship between various government agencies and these newly mobilized villages has been rocky. It’s important to note that "the government" is not just one entity but a vast array of individuals and agencies among layers of bureaucracy from forest rangers, local police, Gram Panchayat (the elected village councils, different from the self-organized village councils or Gram Sabha), the irrigation department and engineering staff from the latter. A few have been sympathetic from the beginning (like the engineers who donated their technical assistance to repair the first johad in Gopalpura), some have initially been unsupportive but over the years have come to trust and work in partnership with TBS (like the forest rangers of the Sariska Tiger Sanctuary), and others may remain unsupportive if not outright hostile still today. Worse, the bureaucratic tangle of fragmented administrative and legal entities has created ambiguity and confusion for all communities and organizations doing water-related projects. For starters, the Drainage Act (that says that all groundwater and runoff is the property of the state), the Fisheries Act, and the Panchayat Raj Act all have conflicting definitions of both control and ownership of water resources. At the national level, the overlapping Ministries of Rural Development and Agriculture, and the underfunded Ministry of Environment and Forests all work haphazardly at cross-purposes with little coordination among them. As one article states, “In India, water seems to be everybody’s turf but nobody’s responsibility.” Nevertheless, TBS has received financial support from government agencies at the state and national level, and gradually over the years relations have thawed somewhat.

TBS members and villagers have been threatened with arrest, fines and even violence on numerous occasions. In 1987, they were given a notice which quoted the Irrigation Drainage Act, saying that no stream or canal water could be stopped as it "belonged to the government." Villagers and TBS protested that the rain belonged to them and all they were doing was stopping the rainwater from draining away. In 1989, the Alwar district administration slapped a fine of Rs 5,955 (US $150) on Rajendra Singh for planting trees on government land. They fought this for two years, saying that they were planting trees not for any one individual’s benefit but for the common good. In the late 1980s, Rajendra Singh said about legal 377 cases were brought against TBS workers, although he never went to court over any of them as they all collapsed on their own. The legal maneuvering simply strengthened their resolve to continue their work. There were also three rape charges against Rajendra Singh later dropped as baseless. He was also accused of poaching tigers in Sariska, but on the day he was said to have been seen in the reserve, he was in a meeting with government officials about building water harvesting structures.

While building structures in the Sariska Tiger Sanctuary, the government used the Wildlife Protection Act against TBS workers, saying that they were illegally building ponds on forest land. But after realizing the decrease in poaching and noticing the positive changes in the reserve, one official requested them to continue their work, and Rajendra Singh asked for some authorization that they could do so without fearing future accusations of breaking the law. The official, risking a jail term, gave his authorization. This was a groundbreaking change between forest officials and TBS. Their relationship has changed over 17 years from being antagonistic to cooperative. During their campaign to close the mines in Sariska, TBS’s coalition brought a petition to the Supreme Court against the mining, and the judge ordered 417 mines to be closed. At this time they faced intense intimidation by the agents of the mining companies, known as "the mining mafia." They were attacked three times, once in the presence of a retired judge. Because of this, one miner was sent to jail for contempt of court. There was also criticism that TBS’s efforts were insensitive to the needs of workers from the mines who were local villagers who depended on the mining income. However, this ignored the important reality that these mine laborers were formerly farmers or herders forced out of their livelihood due to destruction of their resource base by activities such as mining to begin with. Because life in Bhikampura had become tense and difficult, a padyatra was begun in October of 1993 from Gujarat to the Delhi ridge, which was able to boost the eroding morale of workers. As recently as 2001, the government requested TBS to destroy one of its water harvesting structures at Lava Ka Baas village or face arrest within seven days although no warrant was issued. The people held a vigil over the structure, and two months later the government backed down. In the article “Water Harvesters of Rajasthan,” journalist David Nicholson-Lord writes that Rajendra Singh explains the government’s antagonistic attitude by saying that “officials were hostile to johads because there was no rake-off for them and because self-governing villages are hard to manipulate.”

In a more ominous incident in June of 2002, Rajendra Singh was badly beaten up at a public hall in Aligarh town in Uttar Pradesh State, where he had been invited by a chapter of the Society Towards Ecological Protection to talk about water harvesting. In his speech, Singh talked about how people should depend on their own power and not the government to solve their water problems. During the question and answer session, a man known as Tejvir Singh got up and attacked him as the horrified audience, his young son among them, was forced out of the building by thugs who had accompanied Tejvir Singh to the lecture. An unconscious Singh was rushed to hospital where he spent several weeks in the neurosurgery ward under treatment for a blood clot in the brain. Police caught and arrested the assailant, a known criminal with strong political ties, who had already been implicated in cases of murder, assault and fraud. He has since been imprisoned where he remains today.

Another issue which has implications for the future is the commercial interest in regions rich in groundwater for industrial purposes. Because there is no legal protection to villages who have invested their resources in recharging groundwater levels, they would not be entitled to payment for the use of this water, say, through the generation of royalties. This is relevant because within the last decade the central government has issued notices to medium and major industries to relocate production from the Union Territory of Delhi in an attempt to control pollution and reduce pressure on the environment. As Alwar is outside of the Union Territory but accessible to Delhi, there has been an increase in construction of industrial units along the Delhi-Alwar highway and more projects are being planned, with industries looking to buy land at rates well above market rates. Some of the big farmers have been trying to motivate other farmers to take advantage of this opportunity, with some villagers reporting that the price offered for their land is ten times higher than the market rate.

Another area of concern is the lack of female participation in the village councils or Arvari Parliament. While efforts are being made by TBS staff and villagers to include more women, social norms and customs are strong limiting forces. Of course, responsibility lies on the men to encourage and support the women, and also on women to override these social conventions. There have been some real changes in this regard over the past two decades, but because men and women’s knowledge systems are different, their inclusion in decision-making needs to be made top priority. In “Bhaonta: A Village Wildlife Sanctuary,” Ashish Kothari writes, “Another... concern, though not articulated by the villagers themselves, is the lack of involvement of women in the decision-making. The gram sabha meetings are almost always exclusively male affairs. Women undoubtedly influence decisions via their husbands, but their absence from the direct participation may not be conducive to the kind of participatory decision-making that villagers pride themselves for.”

These challenges will continue to require flexibility and innovation on the part of the village networks and supporting organizations and of course, TBS. Conditions in the Alwar district vary from village to village, and life in this poor region is far from ideal. Change is frustratingly slow and has required patience, courage, and imagination at all stages. There are also the added obstacles–sometimes life-threatening--thrown up by the government and private sector, who will likely continue to do more of the same. The pressure of modernization will have as yet unseen impacts on this region. And of course conflicts and power struggles exist at the local level as much as anywhere else.

It’s not clear whether community cohesion and social action would have mobilized spontaneously or as quickly without the trusted presence and perseverance of TBS members although many of them do come from the villages themselves. Nevertheless, this case has shown how a society can avert socio-ecological crises such as urban flight, famines or resource-based conflicts, and is a rare, living example of alternative development and sustainable, self-sufficient rural existence.

Feedback Analysis of the Rajasthan Story

~ Gerry Marten

The negative tipping point in this story was introduction of commercial logging. A system of interconnected and mutually reinforcing vicious cycles was set in motion by the cascade of effects from the logging:

Rajasthan Negative

As one can see in the diagram, the four vicious cycles listed above were interconnected and mutually reinforcing.

The end result was disappearance of the johad and loss of the local water supplies and village forests. Women and children were cast into a nightmare of walking long distances to collect water and fuel wood. Children had no time for school, and women had little time for other family responsibilities and economic activities.

The positive tipping point was the restoration of a single johad in Gopalpura village, along with restoration of the traditional gram sabah village council to manage it. The ensuing cascade of effects reversed three of the feedback loops in the negative tip, transforming the vicious cycles to virtuous cycles:

Rajasthan Positive

The virtuous cycles continued until all village wells were flowing and the village locked into a sustainable water supply. Women and children no longer had to spend long hours getting water and fuelwood. Children returned to school and women returned more attention to family and economic activities. A new virtuous cycle was set into motion when people from other villages heard about the success in Gopalpura and came to see what happened. Johad spread to hundreds of villages.

What Does the Rainwater Harvest Story Tell Us About EcoTipping Points?

  1. Strong local democratic institutions are both a prerequisite and a result of successful catalytic actions. In the communities which had not formed Gram Sabha, (independent village councils), the construction of the johads either failed or were less successful than those which created them. The labor-intensive work of building johad and planting trees demanded unity and commitment from the beneficiary communities. This cooperative effort in turn strengthened village solidarity. This is significant as strong communities are better equipped to deal with powerful interests who are in a position to exploit newly created assets such as regenerated forests or groundwater. In this case, revival of the Arvari and other rivers attracted the attention of the state government. It began offering licenses to commercial fishers, but the villagers mobilized and successfully blocked this action. This prompted villages sharing the Arvari basin to form an Arvari Parliament to coordinate use of the river and prevent further power plays from outside or within.
  2. Initial short feedback loops--or quick results--motivate and inspire people toward further action, even if the longer-term process of "tipping" ultimately involves more effort. The johads began yielding results within one to three years of construction. In the context of development, fast results are an important motivator as resources are few and people may be too impoverished to make choices for the long term. The construction of johad increased water levels in wells after the first monsoon, which fulfilled immediate needs. This provided encouragement and stimulus to build on the early successes by making improvements on other areas of the watershed through repairs to existing structures, bunding, terracing, planning of more johads, or reforestation efforts.
  3. ETPs involve natural and social forces doing much of the work. While construction of johads was labor-intensive, once completed, natural processes took over when monsoon rains caused water to be captured and to quickly percolate into the soil, raising the water table and village wells.
  4. A perceived sense of crisis will motivate people to act. Lack of water was pushing people toward the edge of malnourishment, leaving them vulnerable to crises such as drought, and forcing able-bodied people into cities for work, children out of school, and women on increasingly longer walks to find water sources. While the villagers knew that this was a priority, there was no sense of collective organization to strategize and find solutions to the problem. When TBS came to work on health care and education, a village elder pointed out that long-term necessities were unthinkable in the face of the urgent need for water. By identifying the problem, TBS was able to focus on this higher priority, and eventually enlist support of the villagers in a way they were not able to with their previous development projects.
  5. The ETP draws on both social and ecological memory. Reviving the tradition of building johads was possible as elders in the village remembered when they were still used and maintained, and were able to offer accurate knowledge of the technical aspects of construction, such as the location, height, and position of the johad. The local custom of "shramdan" or voluntary labor, was crucial in getting the johads built with limited resources. As TBS expanded its operations, other traditions such as padyatra, or foot marches, were key in spreading the message to other villages. Johads had evolved to suit this hilly terrain, and so these features of the landscape helped to capture and store rainwater underground, especially when combined with reforestation of native species.

Appendix 1: Visit to Tarun Bharat Sangh in March 2005

~ Amanda Suutari

Some new information from our most recent visit to Rajasthan:

Sariska Tiger Sanctuary: In January 2005, the news broke that there have been no tiger sightings in the Sariska reserve and that 18 tigers are reported missing in Ranthambore (another tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan), putting it on red alert. This crisis has gotten a lot of media attention which sparked public outrage, prompting the central government to order the Central Bureau of Investigation, the CBI, to set up a task force to launch an investigation. As suspected, poaching has been found to have played a major role, with a gang of poachers admitting to having killed at least 10 tigers between 2002 and 2004.

Differences in Landscape between last visit (December) and most recent in March:

The change in season between late December and mid-March is visually dramatic. In December, the fields were bright green and full of mustard and wheat. This has now all or mostly been harvested, and the landscape is brown and dry, the water level in the johads is lower. This is important in that it highlights how influential first impressions can be.

TBS Manual: This was a book published by TBS that we picked up in Hindi which describes finer details of the technical aspects of johad construction as well as legal details on a specific Act related to common forest and water management in India. One section of diagrams showed projections of major trends of land use, resources and farming in the Alwar district (described below). Trends without intervention:

Johads as explained by Gopal Singh, TBS worker who works mainly with hydrology and johad construction in villages: Normally a half to one-kilometer area experiences groundwater increases with the construction of an average-sized johad. A johad begins to yield results between one and three years after it is built. A third of the costs of the labor come from the village, and the rest from TBS, although through successive projects the villages contribute increasingly large amounts and some villages, like Bhaonta-Kolyala, are self-sufficient. The average johad costs about 70,000 rupees (about 1,600 US dollars), takes about 30-40 people 3 months to build (or about 60 work days). The average wage for one eight-hour day of work is 60 rupees but it may also be higher or lower depending on how light or heavy the work is. The number of workers can go up to 100 and sometimes camels, tractors or other machinery are used.

For the crescent-shaped embankment, a trench is dug and new soil taken from a deeper place is put in the area and compacted with a machine. Sometimes rocks are used under the surface for extra stability and drainage. Small trees are planted on the embankment to further stabilize it. For overflow, a weir (or overflow channel) is dug from just above one of either of the ends of the crescent-shaped embankment. Otherwise a stone structure is set directly into the embankment itself, whose level is lower than the embankment to allow overflow to release. This is a "safety valve" so that the structure is not damaged by overflow caused by heavy rains.

Johads are normally made from earth because it is a locally available material which costs nothing but labor. One bag of cement, on the other hand, costs 150 rupees, or approximately three days of work. This highlights how much more cost-effective it is to use local materials wherever possible. Also, villagers are more self-sufficient in this way because if stone or cement is used, they would have to depend on skilled professionals for repair jobs.

According to Mr. Singh, one of the main differences between TBS-built structures and those initiated by the government is that the TBS-assisted johad are technically better designed for a particular site in terms of structure, size and location in a way that government johads are not. Also, the social institutions are in place before the work is undertaken, whereas the government does not put priority on community participation. Without any sense of ownership over the johads, villagers are not motivated to maintain the structures.

Some problems/challenges: Some obstacles or challenges TBS and villagers face are political factions eroding village unity, the educational system being removed from the practical realities of everyday village life, and technical problems such as how to dig spillways in sandy or rocky soil. Sometimes TBS projects have failed if they have started prematurely, i.e. before proper creation of a village council.

Why haven’t some villages adopted the TBS model when they’ve had the opportunity to?

Either there is a lack of social organization in the village, or little trust in TBS’s process.

Is there a difference between villages who harvest rainwater and those who don’t?

One difference is that in the villages that don’t, there is a high level of pesticide use among farmers. Possibly they reject TBS’s values of Gram Swaraj, village self-sufficiency, including use of natural fertilizers, which is the focal point of one of the three padyatra TBS organizes.

Village Councils (Gram Sabha): (According to Ghopal Singh, TBS worker)

  1. In the report the creation of Gram Sabha was included as something which emerged after villages began working together on water and forest management. This is not completely accurate, at least with the TBS-associated villages. TBS works only with villages which have functional Gram Sabhas. Their creation becomes the entry point for work on water or forests.
  2. Classification system of personality types in the Gram Sabha. According to Mr. Singh, Gram Sabha members can be put into roughly five types:

Certain pairings of personalities can either be very productive or destructive (as with the first and fifth type). Gram Sabha members are given this model and asked to consider where they fit, as a way for them to understand some of the common group dynamics in the Gram Sabha meetings.

Our Site Visits

The first day we were together with a group of panchayat (district council members) from different states who had come to get a very introductory taste of the work in the area. Gerry wrote down the names of the places. We visited about 5 sites. The johads we saw were much larger than average. One was very old, very large, and had been built before British occupation and was still in use. We also visited a village tank attached to a temple, which had a wetland in the middle of it. People used the tank for bathing and washing clothes.

The next day we visited Gopalpura village, the village where the first johad had been repaired. We were taken around by a local man who lived in Bhikampura who spoke no English. We had a map which gave us a rough layout of the village. Gopalpura was located in roughly a basin shape, with highlands on the north, east and west sides. Many of the johads or other structures were located in the north, which captured water in successive intervals. Some structures also captured runoff from the east and west sides. The fields were separated by ‘med bundi’ (the local name for bunds, or raised columns of earth arranged in terracing patterns to hold runoff on the fields). The village was largely southwest of the fields and structures.

In the full report from December, I mentioned that I did not see any children begging. This may have been because this behavior is situation-specific. In the December visit, I was the only foreigner accompanied by TBS workers or villagers known to be closely involved with TBS work. Although the curious kids flocked around us then, they didn’t beg. However in Gopalpura village where Gerry, Ann and I were accompanied by only one man from a nearby village, we were soon followed by several boys, who, while cute, became quite cheeky and aggressive, asking for a few rupees every ten seconds or so. This continued until we left the village. The kids knew that begging would not be tolerated in the first situation; in the second, absent of similar social constraints, this might have been normal, even expected, behavior. As Gerry said, “They’re working.”

Appendix 2: Notes from an Interview with Gopal Sing (TBS Engineer) in March 2005 - Gerry Marten

  1. Fifty years ago there was plenty of water. Main crops: rice and sugar cane. Then the water table declined, wells dried up and only rainfed agriculture was possible: dal, chick peas, mustard, and some vegetables such as cash crops. Farmers were forced to expand cultivation onto grazing lands not suited for agriculture. Before they used draft animals (oxen and buffalo), but now draft animals are decreasing, while sheep and goats are increasing. They sell the wool and export sheep/goats to other parts of India for meat. Most of the local people are vegetarians.
  2. Before, the people were self sufficient, but they became more and more dependent on employment (adult males) in cities. A bad situation. Now many are returning to the villages.
  3. Before, they got medicine, seedlings, and wood from trees. No timber left. Now only fuelwood and leaves for goats.
  4. Everyone has some land, but some only have enough for their houses and not for farming.
  5. Many johads were built by government (past and present), but are not working because: Wrong location, poor construction, or no maintenance ~ When government builds johad, it gives money to people for labor but doesn’t check for quality of the work. TBS doesn’t pay money until work is done properly ~ Government johads are often poorly located because choose the place based on what wil benefit the village headman or his cronies.
  6. There was deforestation under the British, but it accelerated after independence. Before independence, forest lands belonged to villagers, who used and managed them. After independence, forest lands belonged to the government, which started selling timber rights. People then started cutting as much as they could because they had no stake in the forest. Before, there was a king (local rajah) who made rules and enforced them. After independence, there was a loss of local authority in the king. The government made rules but nobody enforced them or paid attention to them. Religion and sacred groves declined.
  7. Johad requires slope and right kind of soil. Can’t do it in some parts of India.
  8. Some strengths of TBS: Increase ground cover on the watershed to reduce siltation of johads ~ Re-initiate or strengthen village cooperation. Gram sabha went down after 1970, but TBS has revived them ~ Helps to establish and maintain village cooperation in other areas (e.g., watershed and forest management).
  9. Problems: Factional politics in villages. Factions now going to court instead of discussing their local problems ~ Starting johads with a village that is not ready socially. This has wasted a lot of money. TBS requires gram sabha organization before working with a village ~ Social conditions such as alcoholism, dowries, and child labor. TBS now requires a pledge of no alcohol, dowries, or child labor before working with a village ~ Some professionals (e.g., engineers, doctors) can’t relate to villagers and work with them ~ Educational system doesn’t teach them practical things and makes them feel that they shouldn’t have to do manual labor ~ Soil too sandy for dam to hold up when there is overflow ~ Soil not suitable for bypass construction.
  10. Main reason villages don’t do TBS: Too many factions ~ No community organization.
  11. TBS strategy is to try to get village types 4 and 5 (described by Amanda) working together.
  12. TBS has learned from villagers: Technical knowledge about water ~ Traditional medicine. (Rajindra Singh is interested in traditional medicine because he was originally a doctor.)
  13. At monthly gram sabha meeting people review what good has happened and discuss mistakes.
  14. Forest management: Gram sabha makes rules and can impose fines or punishments ~ Forest management is part of TBS package. TBS initiates making forest rules after building johad ~ The forest improves if there is discipline in the village. Otherwise it deteriorates. Village factionalism is a problem.

References

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