Managing Groundwater Use and Sustaining Aquifer Recharge through Village-level Interventions

MARVI project has been running for more than seven years in Rajasthan and Gujarat. There have been a number of important outputs and they are being launched widespread use by Shri Rajendra Singh ji, The Water Man of India:

1. Our Groundwater – Resource Book for Water Literacy

2. Groundwater Stories – Villagers Tell their groundwater experiences

3. MARVI Research Findings Summary

4. MyWell app – an app for collecting groundwater level, rainfall, water quality and check dam water level data;

The above outputs are produced in English, Hindi and Gujarati.

1. Background and concept of the initiative

The MARVI project is focused on developing a village level participatory approach, models and tools to assist in improving groundwater supplies and reducing its demand through the direct involvement of farmers and other affected stakeholders.

A unique feature of MARVI is the use of scientific measurements by citizens through the engagement of Farmer volunteers, called BJs (Bhujal Jankaar – a Hindi word meaning ‘groundwater informed’). With appropriate training and capacity building, BJs monitor groundwater levels and quality, making sense from a village perspective of what is happening to village groundwater availability. BJs convey this information to farmers and others in their own language.

Groundwater level represents the integration of recharge, pumping and flow processes and is a direct measure of groundwater availability and the success of any collective management practices. BJs are an effective, trusted and valuable interface between village communities and government agencies, NGOs and researchers.

2. The duration of the program

The first phase during 2011-2017 and the second phase is for another three years.

The total funding from Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) was $1.28 million over four years.

The additional funding of $223,000 has been provided by ACIAR and Australian Water Partnership (DFAT) for second phase of the project.

3. Who were involved in this project?

MARVI project was led by Western Sydney University and the Project Leader is Professor Basant Maheshwari. CSIRO Land & Water was a collaborative partner from Australia. The partners from India included Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, International Water Management Institute, Development Support Centre, Arid Communities and Technologies and Vidya Bhawan Krishi Vigyan Kendra. The other partners who joined later were Mekong Futures Institute (Laos) and Carnegie Melon University (Adelaide).

There were a total of 32 researchers and 36 farmer researchers in this project

4. The nature of work undertaken

The research in MARVI project focused on two multi-village watersheds, the Meghraj watershed in Aravali district of Gujarat and the Dharta watershed in Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Both watersheds have hardrock aquifers.

The main aims were: (i) enable local villagers to monitor groundwater (ii) design participatory processes to assist village level discovery and implementation of solutions for sustaining groundwater use and improved livelihoods; (iii) establish a comprehensive database about groundwater level fluctuations, availability and river bed structures to augment recharge (iv) advance groundwater knowledge and understanding of farmers, local communities (including schools) and decision makers; and (v) provide tools for estimating annual groundwater recharge, water availability and crop demand. Overall, the focus is to improve cooperative decision making for sustainable groundwater use.

Watertable fluctuations in 110 wells in the Meghraj watershed and 250 dug wells in the Dharta watershed were monitored by BJs and groundwater sensors over four years. A number of checkdams were monitored to understand their recharge performance and effects on groundwater availability on nearby wells.

An SMS based data collection system and a smart phone app called MyWell, for both Android and iOS platforms, was developed to assist in the easy collection of watertable depth and rainfall data and to visualise data and make them available on the web.

A detailed socio-economic study, alongwith crop demonstrations, engagement through PhotoVoice and community forums, was conducted to understand farmers’ needs and capacities and explore what changes will work for future groundwater management strategies.

5. The geographical spread of the activities

Aravali and Udaipur districts at the beginning and now it is spreading in different parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

6. What were the baseline water scarcity conditions?

13031. groundwater levels were declining and farmers were in despair as to what is the way forward to maintain their livelihood. Farmers in the two watersheds had hardly any data on the groundwater level fluctuations, rainfall and water quality for their villages. As such, they were feeling hopelessness in terms of their groundwater futures and many of them have given up hope and encouraging their children to go cities in search of employment.

7. The villages and districts benefited by the MARVI Project

The MARVI project helped them to monitor groundwater level and understand how groundwater is fluctuating, what are the options to use less water and still produce crops and improve livelihood.

8. Funding

The funding for this study was provided by Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; $1280000.

9. Impact of the initiative on the livelihood of the local communities

14. approach for community based, participatory groundwater monitoring and management has been developed through a close collaboration with research and development agencies and village communities.

Watertable data monitored by both farmer volunteers and sensors have enabled the estimation of local hydro-geologic parameters and the development of a simple groundwater balance. The monitoring of rainfall and water levels in checkdams has led to partition of aquifer recharge due to checkdams and natural recharge in relation to subsequent groundwater use.

The MyWell App developed will help in easy collection of watertable, rainfall and checkdam water level data from any location in India and making those data available on the web.

Local farmer volunteers are proving to be significant change agents and through their scientific measurement, understanding and communication in the two watersheds. They are also an important interface between researchers and village communities.

As result of the effective engagement of village communities and evidence shown through local data collected over the last four years, there is an indication that farmers now have started to understand their local groundwater system, accept that groundwater is limited and that the falling watertable is a village level issue and it needs to be tackled at the village level.

The work through MARVI has strengthened the farmers’ view that individual effort alone will not work to solve their groundwater problem. The groundwater level data reveals that deepening wells or installing deeper tubewells is like snatching each- others’ groundwater, and overall no extra water is to be gained by drilling deeper. They have already taken measures to stop deeper drilling, to remove sediment from recharge structures, to determine rabi crop areas from post-monsoon groundwater levels and to improve mulching and water use efficiency, and diversify crop types.

The farming community in the two watersheds is now debating the concept of sharing groundwater through ‘village groundwater cooperatives’ (VGC). The concept of water productivity, rather than crop productivity, is gaining momentum among the farmers. These are important outcomes from MARVI.

10. How the self-sustainability of the initiative is ensured?

The formation of Village Groundwater Cooperatives by local communities in both watershed is a sign of moving towards self-sustainability of MARVI in the two watersheds and beyond.

11. Outscaling of MARVI in other parts of India

There have been several visits by government agencies at the State and Central for replication of MARVI in new Jal Shakti initiatives in the country. There have been some follow up from individuals in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and other parts of India.