We work with farmers to improve water management practices: Pearl Tiwari, Ambuja Cement Foundation

A CSR initiative by Ambuja Cement is working in the area of water resource management. The foundation works hand in hand with local communities to plan, implement and manage projects to harvest rainwater and ensure all-year-round water for farmers, families and communities. It constructs new structures, reconstructs and renovates old structures to harvest rainwater. The foundation takes an innovative approach to rainwater harvesting, interlinking rivers and water bodies to capture precious ‘run off’ so that it is not wasted, and harnessing old ‘mined out’ pits as large water storage facilities.

Pearl Tiwari, Director, and CEO, Ambuja Cement Foundation shared with Rusen Kumar, Editor, India CSR on how the foundation is helping the communities in various regions. Excerpts of an interview:

What are the locations of the ACF water resource management program?

Our Water Resource Management Program has been our flagship and largest program for the last 28 years beginning in Kodinar in 1993 to now being present in 18 locations across Rural India.

When we started our initiative on water, our focus was on communities surrounding our plant areas but today with like-minded partners, organizations and the government we have been able to expand to 18 different locations across 11 states of rural India.

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These locations include Kodinar, Sanand, (Gujarat), Rabriyawas, JaitaranChirawa and Marwar Mundwa (Rajasthan), Darlaghat and Nalagarh(Himachal Pradesh), Nadikudi and Vishakapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Sankrail and Howrah (West Bengal), Roorkee (Uttrakhand) Tilda, Ambikapur, Bhatapara and Raigarh in Chhattisgarh Bathinda and Ropar in Punjab.

Such locations are shortlisted based on exercises undertaken with community participation with the help of tools like Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs) which ensures a better understanding of local nuances and hence efficient implementation in varied geographies.

How ACF is helping in eradicating the water problem of those areas?

ACF takes a holistic approach to ensure water is available for drinking water purposes as well as for growing crops, raising livestock and earning a living. This is carried out through coordinated efforts with the community, government and like-minded organizations who work hand in hand as partners to bring out impactful results. ACF identifies local water problems and solutions in the community, listens closely to the community for inputs, identifies partners and collaborators and finally executes and monitors the project. ACF also takes care of demand management by involving the community to efficiently use the harvested water.

The program focuses on three different areas: 

Water Harvesting: It closely works with local communities and families to plan and implement projects to harvest rainwater, and ensure all-year-round water for farmers, families and communities.

Drinking-Water: Through its Drinking Water Initiatives it facilitates in building Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RRWHS), ensures proper distribution of drinking water and also conducts quality surveillance and awareness building. ACF also encourages the communities to enroll in government water schemes and has also lately aligned with the HarGharJal Scheme of the central government.

Water Use Efficiency: Under the Water Use Efficiency initiative, ACF creates awareness and educates communities, farmers and organizations on using water sustainably and ensures optimum efficiency. 

Before ACF could begin its work in Kodinar, Gujarat, Salinity had seeped inland up to 15 kilometers contaminating groundwater supplies, adversely damaging agricultural yield, unavailability of potable water and also impacting livestock. After understanding the situation ACF began engaging the community and took a holistic approach to address salinity. Hand in hand with partners, infrastructure for mass water harvesting was built, collectivizing farming using drip irrigation and promoting drinking water solutions. Within a few years, ACF along with partners, the government and community participation were able to bring down the TDS level, farmers grew 2-3 crops a year, agriculture yielded increased income for families and salinity crept back to its coastline leading to better water quality. 

How is ACF building infrastructure for rainwater harvesting?

ACF works hand in hand with various stakeholders and local communities to invest in and create new structures such as Check Dams, Ponds, Dykes and Khadins. ACF also follows an integrated watershed management approach to harvest water and enhance groundwater recharge. ACF learns about traditional water harvesting systems and supports the community to revive and renovate them in the pre-monsoon period. This includes Check Dams, Percolation Wells, deepening and widening of ponds, restoration of wells, and fixing of broken structures.

Sometimes the silt removed from ponds is transported to nearby fields which is of high nutrient value and helps turn the soil fertile. ACF has also been educating families on the benefits of rainwater harvesting and provides technical support in installing rooftop rainwater harvesting systems. Whilst the families invest in the structures, ACF provides subsidies or encourages communities to invest in government schemes.

How did water resource management techniques contribute to the reduction of poverty in rural areas?

In Darlaghat, farmers used to grow only cereal and pulses across 6 months of the year because of a lack of irrigation facilities. But after ACF constructed a series of check dams and irrigation channels, there was an all-year-round water supply to the village. This helped farmers’ average income grow to Rs. 70,000 and helped them invest in profitable cash crops like cauliflower and spinach.

Haribhai from Kodinar also faced issues with his groundnut crop due to poor groundwater which was always saline forcing him to grow only one crop a year. A government pipeline delivering drinking water was also 30 km away. Conditions only improved when ACF dug 4 villages ponds, renovated the waste weir and recharged irrigation wells close to his farm. This not only helped provide water for the community but also helped recharge groundwater and push back salinity towards the coast. ACF was also encouraged to invest in rooftop rainwater harvesting systems and with the partnership of WASMO installed tap connections in the village. Haribhai mentions that earlier his whole village consisted of mud huts but today they all have concrete houses. They grow 3 crops a year, their children go to school, women are saved from drudgery and they have even started animal husbandry. All thanks to the availability of water in the area. 

How far water resource management has helped farmers increase their Income?

ACF works with farmers to improve water management practices by conducting various workshops, training and visits to demonstration sites. They discuss appropriate structures to be developed, promote and support micro-irrigation techniques to farmers (including drip & sprinkler irrigation) to help them harvest and then use water more efficiently and optimize water supplies.

Sharada Devi and her husband from Rabriyawas were not able to maximise their 18 bigha land due to the low groundwater table. When ACF introduced the benefits of Drip Irrigation at a Farmers meeting, the couple immediately installed the water-efficient irrigation system in 10 bigha land and planted vegetables and wheat in the area. Through this practice, their income increased from Rs. 1.25 lakh per year to Rs. 4.98 lakh and also received a bumper crop. They now plan to cover their whole 18 bigha land with a drip irrigation system. 

In some areas, farmers are forced to pay for external sources for water or are left helpless with poor crop production. ACF encourages forming people’s institutions like Water User Associations and Farmer Producer Organizations to ensure proper management and distribution and maintenance of water sources. In Mangi village, Chandrapur, a group of farmers were enabled by ACF to build an open group well two years ago. A group treats groundwater as a shared responsibility and allows equitable distribution to all members of the group. It requires farmers to pool resources and create a shared irrigation system that is managed by the group and not the individual. Thus, a people’s institution is formed with formal agreements signed between farmers that maintain group ownership. These agreements include supply timings, cropping patterns and water distribution quantities and charges. Through pipelines and formal agreements, the water distribution is managed equitably and farmers can cultivate crops throughout the year. Where cotton was the only crop harvested earlier, today the farmers grow high-margin vegetables and pulses. 

What were the ways used by ACF to create awareness among farmers about water management?

India is considered to have the largest irrigated land in the world with the majority of farmers using inefficient flood methods of irrigation. About 78% of water is consumed by irrigation making the agriculture sector a major water-consuming industry. For this reason, ACF invests in educating and empowering farmers on various solutions to harvest and conserve water. This is carried out towards training, demonstration visits, awareness campaigns, linkages with Government schemes, formation of farmer groups which are then registered as Farmer Producer Organizations with members going forth and encouraging many more farmers to join the organization.

Adopting Micro Irrigation: ACF encourages the adoption of drip or sprinkler irrigation which increases crop productivity from 20-50% and also reduces water consumption by 20-40%. ACF is also aware of the available government micro-irrigation scheme which provides farmers with free or subsidized power to pump water. 

Shifting from Water Intensive Crops: ACF has seen that water-intensive crops like Rice and Sugarcane are grown in highly water-stressed regions of ACF locations. ACF had to make farmers aware of this issue and encouraged farmers to grow less water-intensive crops like pulses and vegetables which can save large quantities of water at a minimal cost.

Promotion of Water Harvesting: Most of the farmers in ACF locations live in areas where rainfall is limited or irregular. Overexploitation of the available water also leads to salinity ingress compounding local problems. In such areas ACF encourages farmers to build small and large structures including farm ponds which can be used for irrigating crops, recharging groundwater, and providing drinking water for farm animals.

Watershed Development: ACF encourages watershed development as effective conservation of soil and water conservation which helps in agricultural production and biodiversity as well. ACF also highlights the government agenda for watershed development to provide an assured water supply for agriculture in rain-fed areas.

To ensure the sustainability of the above practices, ACF forms Water User Associations in the communities to create a sense of ownership amongst farmers to judiciously maintain the use of water, ensure proper distribution with equity and preservation of the structures.

What other locations ACF is targeting for water resource management in the future?

Our water resource management program will be expanded to a few more locations in Rajasthan, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Being a CSR implementation organization, we are also able to easily replicate our program model in locations outside our core geographies thus working with more governments and partners and reaching out to maximum beneficiaries.

We also have plans to focus on special interventions like greywater management, participatory groundwater management and increase water storage capacity. We will also focus on water literacy amongst children and adults, community participation in water surveillance, promote efficient irrigation technologies, gender sensitization and strengthen community groups.