Recent Events

ACWADAM forms a strategic partnership with UTSAAH, a UK based charity to enhance its groundwater management programmes in the Himalayas

Community Dialogue in Bhubhui (Ramgadh District), Talaburu (West Singhbhum District), Jharkhand and Churins

Community meetings were held in all three research villages under the ACIAR supported programme ‘Improving livelihoods with innovative cropping systems on the East India Plateau’. The aim of the dialogues was to specifically understand the community’s perceptions on water resources and understand their views on possible interventions for sustaining water resources. The meetings provided clear directions in terms of the strategies that could be developed for each village.

Drinking water security is paramount in all villages and this was discussed with the project implementation partner PRADAN teams and the villagers who acknowledged that any change in their water resources would affect their domestic water availability. The way forward was based on developing management plans for each village with drinking water security as the primary goal followed by improving access to and equity in irrigation which when coupled with the alternative cropping practices developed under the project will ensure improved livelihoods.

Some of the recommendations put forth during the meeting was revival of dug wells for drinking water, maintenance of dug wells, sharing of dug wells, tanks and check dams for irrigation, crop management and regulating the construction of dug wells and drilling of bore wells. Sanitation issues were also highlighted from a drinking water security perspective.

Gram Sabha meeting at Gadakwadi, Khed, Pune, Maharashtra

A gram sabha was conducted on the 2nd October 2017 in order to finalise the groundwater management plan and cropping plan for the village. More than 50 community members were present during the gram sabha. The gram sabha was attended by teams from ACWADAM and Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA).

During the sabha, different programmes implemented in the village were discussed such as Jalswarajya-II, Jalyukta Shivar along with various CSR backed interventions. The nature of all interventions in the village being supply side, it was discussed that there is a need for demand management for sustainable use of water resources. During an earlier gram sabha, villagers from Gadakwadi had presented a demand management plan which included the following points:

The gram sabha unanimously accepted the above 7-point groundwater management plan.

Advanced Training – cum - Workshop on Springshed Development

Venue: Directorate office, Kohima

Like any other Himalayan states, the people of Nagaland are dependent on springs and sub-surface flows for domestic and irrigation purposes (NSAPCC 2012). Lives and livelihoods of rural people in Nagaland are more dependent on springs and streams rather than big rivers. However, the impacts of rainfall variability caused by climate change and multifarious developmental activities have jeopardized the perennial flow of springs. The state has been badly hit by the scourge of water scarcity.

With this background, Department of Land Resources, Government of Nagaland had organised an advanced training cum workshop on springshed development for its staff to address the critical issues related to springs in the state with support from ACWADAM, Pune and PSI, Dehradun. District Programme Officers (DPO’s) and Assistant Programme Officers (APO’s) from all 11 districts of Nagaland along with a few new recruits in the department participated in the training. The training was conducted for four days (21st-24th August 2017) covering all the concepts and approaches related to springshed development and management with an emphasis on field related activities like mapping geology, measuring spring discharge and water quality parameters.

Positive feedback was received from all the participants regarding the content and delivery of the training material. Participants were keen on having future trainings entirely in the field to gain more experience in practising hydrogeological mapping and identifying potential recharge sites.