In the heart of Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, the women of Mhaswandi village have taken a bold step to secure their water future. Situated about 93 kilometers from the district capital, this small community faced a severe water shortage last year due to scanty rainfall, which left their primary water sources perilously low. In a remarkable display of foresight and unity, the women proposed a resolution to the Gram Panchayat in April, urging residents to use tap water on alternate days to conserve their precious supply. This proactive measure highlights the resilience and resourcefulness of Mhaswandi's women as they navigate the challenges of water scarcity.

"We did this to make sure we had enough water saved for the dry months," Chaaya Rajaram Bodke, 45, stated. She claimed that Mhaswandi had very little rainfall in the previous year, which caused the three lakes that serve as the village's primary water supply to drop in level. Thus, this year the women made the decision to not take any chances. But the people abandoned the alternate-day plan by the first week of June. "Last week, we had 40 mm of rain," Bodke said to IndiaSpend on June 10. "We'll be OK according to our village's water budget."

The practice of comparing the overall amount of water needed by a community for agricultural, residential usage, and drinking to the total amount of water available from various sources is known as water budgeting. The Mhaswandi community was taught how to calculate their water budget by Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), a non-profit organization based in Pune that works with rural communities to reduce poverty via efficient management of their ecosystem.


Water Scarcity: Holding Back Rural Women (Source: Google Images) 

Bhagwat Ramrao Gavande, a farmer in Kolegaon village, Jalna district, is certain of the amount of rainfall their hamlet received the week before. He explained that the purpose of this calibration is to educate the community about the importance of conserving rainwater and other resources, like "switching to crops that are not water-guzzlers," so they won't experience water scarcity during the dry months. "Our village's wells used to have water in them for roughly six to eight months during the hotter months, but that ended a few years ago," he said. "But that isn't the case anymore."

The Jalna district has areas that are in the Guaranteed Rainfall Zone. However, in recent years, this area has experienced more frequent instances of water scarcity and summertime drought-like conditions. In the five years between 2017 and 2021, Kolegaon experienced just 458 mm of rainfall, according to a WOTR analysis. According to Eshwer Kale of WOTR, this is almost 27% less than the region's typical of 630–640 mm. Jalna is not the only place seeing the effects of changing weather patterns. A severe water scarcity affected many regions of the nation, including Delhi, the nation's capital, during the height of this summer. However, the implementation of a water budget, rainwater collection, agricultural modifications, and even aquifer management has assisted Jalna settlements in gradually becoming more adaptable to climate change and self-sufficient in water.

Plugging the hole with water stewardship ~ 

The Water Stewardship Initiative (WSI) of WOTR is important in this regard since it empowers communities with the knowledge and ability to use the water resources responsibly and sustainably. After starting with 100 drought-prone villages in Maharashtra and six in Telangana, this effort has expanded to 356 villages in four states, including Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. A few villages in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan have also adopted it.

There are four primary parts to the Water Stewardship Initiative, which sees community members as water stewards:

• assisting in the community's evaluation of the village's water quality, which includes a groundwater level assessment and a surface water body analysis
• Pre-summer water budget preparation, which involves calculating the amount of water needed for all household and livestock uses over the entire agricultural year, which runs from June to April.
• Rainwater gathering, crop variety, and water-saving irrigation techniques are all part of the water harvesting and conservation plan.
• establishing societal norms for water management, such as limiting the use of water-intensive crops, regulating borewells to prevent overexploitation, and prohibiting the direct pumping of water from shared surface water bodies.

Changes Made in The Cropping Pattern ~ 

• According to Gavande, cotton cultivated on 2.5 acres of land needs 10 million liters of water, but with drip irrigation, only 6.5 million liters are needed. "Although it took some time for people to accept these modifications, our village's 458 acres of arable land are now 313 acres under drip irrigation. Soybean production has grown but cotton production has decreased. Also, we are cultivating multiple crops rather than simply one." For example, Gavande grows cotton, maize, soybeans, and chilies on his four acres of property.
• According to 23-year-old Gopal Gajanand Jadhav, "70% of farmers now rely on drip irrigation" in the same district's Bori hamlet. Not only that, but the water-guzzling crop, sugarcane has almost completely stopped being grown here by the farmers who originally farmed it. Rather, they cultivate a variety of crops, including cotton, chili, and soybeans. Farmers in the Dharashiv district have also been able to plant more fruiting trees, such as mango, guava, and dragonfruit, thanks to their excellent understanding of water regulation. The majority of farmers in Dharashiv produce soybeans, but an increasing number are now planting fruit trees, which use less water, according to district superintendent agricultural officer Ravindra Mane, who spoke with IndiaSpend.Jadhav continued, saying that they have almost completely halted drilling wells in Bori village in order to extract groundwater.

Water Stewardship Also Has The Potential to Alleviate the Increasing Privatisation of Water for Drinking and Other Domestic Purposes ~

For example, the Kolegaon water management committee, of which Gavande is a member, was taken aback when the village's water health was initially rated as "ill." There was not a major shortage of drinking water in the village. The community did, however, come to realize that during the dry summer months, there was a significant reliance on private water tankers. As part of their water harvesting plan, the community chose to fix abandoned water collecting facilities, build some new ones, identify farmers who practice water conservation, etc. A total of 102.6 million liters of water were harvested in 2016, 143.1 million liters in 2018, and 356.3 million liters in 2021.

The good news is that communities embrace water management wherever it is introduced. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is introducing climate-resilient agricultural methods, one of the many government initiatives centered around water harvesting and groundwater rejuvenation. Adapting to the rapidly changing climate, with more heatwaves and a corresponding rise in water consumption, is a challenge.