ISSUE NO.

1
NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2018

WATER PRACTITIONERS’ NETWORK

www.waterpractitioners.org
email: waterpractitioners@gmail.com
Dear readers,

We are extremely delighted to bring to you the first issue of the bi-monthly Newsletter of the
Water Practitioners’ Network (WPN). The newsletter is an attempt to document and communicate
to the practitioners and communities in general the emerging approaches to equitable, sustainable
and democratic management of water in different bio-physical and social contexts. We intend to
regularly come up with such stories of change and provide you an enriching virtual tour through
the diverse water practices of different practitioners across the nation. This issue documents some
of the developments that have happened in the network so far and the directions coming out of
the work done by water practitioners in rural as well as urban spaces. We hope to reach out to
more practitioners in the coming time and consolidate their valuable experiences and share it with
our readership. Our attempt is to make water everybody’s business. Thank you for joining us in
this pursuit.

Inside this issue:

• about WPN.................................................................3

• WPN meetings...........................................................4

• our advisory board ....................................................5

• our website................................................................8

• interesting stories from the WPN visits ....................9

• our partners.............................................................14

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 What is WPN?

Today, we live in a world where demands for freshwater are ever growing, and where limited water
resources are increasingly stressed by over-abstraction, pollution and climate change. Over the past
century, demand for water world over has grown substantially, fuelled by strong income growth,
diversification of economic activities and rising living standards of
a growing middle classes (World Water Development Report,
2015). By 2030, global water demand is projected to
increase by 55% and the world is projected to face
WHO IS A a 40% global water deficit under the business-as-
WATER PRACTITIONER? usual (BAU) scenario (2030 WRG Report, 2009). In
India, too, the demands of a rapidly industrialising
Community Based Organizations, economy and urbanising society come at a time
Government departments, scientists , when the potential for augmenting supply is
universities, policy makers, limited. The crucial issue is that of sustainable
academicians, farmers, community and equitable access to water by all, which is
mobilisers and media persons. related to how water is distributed and used by the
community of users. With limits to enhancing the
availability of utilisable water resources and increased
variability in supplies due to climate change action is
necessitated on demand-side in particular, in order to
ensure equitable access to water for all. Since agriculture
is the largest consumer of water, this would mean enhancing
water use efficiency in agriculture, through suitable cropping patterns, adoption of ecologically
sustainable and climate-smart agricultural practices, utilisation of soil moisture and crop rotations.
It also requires that vibrant and well informed community institutions are set up to carry forward
the agenda of democratisation of water. The five themes related to water management are
included in the network.
1. Participatory Irrigation management (PIM).
2. Participatory Groundwater Management (PGWM).
3. Demand Management of Water in Agriculture
4. Water and Building Climate Change Resilience
5. Water Quality
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 THE VISION of WPN is to bring together
experiences of water practitioners from across
the country to conceptualise an alternative and
eco-system based understanding of water. We
believe that the elements of this new, eco-
system based understanding of water are
present in the work of practitioners. While
there is a large number of organisations and
individuals who are engaged, both at the levels
of policy as well as practice, with these issues
in the water sector, there is limited dialogue
between these diverse sets of stakeholders.
We believe that the network of practitioners
put together is a huge storehouse of valuable
experience of working on the theme of water
for common good. Hence, within the group of
water practitioners themselves, there is the
possibility of cross-learning from each other, which the network could facilitate. Consolidation of
experiences would help various constituents of the network to think in terms of expanding and
scaling up their efforts, individually and collectively. On the basis of such detailed documentation
of and cross-learning from diverse experiences, we hope to create policy dialogues on water
between different agents of change and bring about lasting alterations in the way we view water.
At a much broader level, there is the need to embed the idea that water is a common good
and is part of an interlinked ecosystem within the social fabric. For this, water education has an
important role. There are very few universities or institutes in India which try to articulate a holistic
and integrated view of water. The WPN would identify such educational institutions and try and
work towards embedding the ecosystem understanding of water in their systems and processes.

What will WPN do?

1. Document diverse experiences of practitioners in the water sector from across the country;

2. Synthesize learning from these experiences and come up with recommendations to inform
policy making on water;

3. Share the learning regarding equitable usage of water through appropriate platforms and
policy discussion fora; and

4. Develop a common understanding of water as a common good and generate awareness and
participation of the stakeholders for equitable and sustainable water use in the country.

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 WPN ADVISORY BOARD
DR. BADRISH SINGH MEHRA
Executive Director
Central Himalayan Rural Action
Group (CHIRAG)
Nainital, Uttarakhand, India
Email: badrish@chirag.org
Web: chirag.org
DR. DEBASHISH SEN
Director
People’s Science Institute (PSI)
Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
Email: debu_manu@yahoo.co.in
Web: peoplesscienceinstitute.org
MS. NIVEDITA BANERJI
Founder Member
Samaj Pragati. Sahayog (SPS)
Bagli village, Dewas , Madhya
Pradesh
Email:banerji.nivedita@gmail.com
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MR. SACHIN OZA
Administrative Director
Development Support Centre
(DSC)
Ahmedabad (Gujarat)
Email: sachin@dscindia.org
Web: www.dscindia.org
DR. SUNDERRAJAN KRISHNAN
Executive Director
India Natural Resource
Economics and Management
(INREM) Foundation
Anand, Gujarat
Email: sunder@inrem.in
Web: www.inrem.in
DR. YOGESH JADEJA
Arid Communities and
Technologies (ACT)
Bhuj, Gujarat
Email: yogeshjadeja@gmail.com
Web: www.act-india.org
FIRST PARTNERS’ MEETING
The first partners’ meet held in Indore in July
set the ball rolling for the Water Practitioners’
Network. An enriching round of discussions
on the best practices in water sector was
made by the partners with a collective
understanding of water as a common good.
Dr. Mihir Shah (Samaj Pragati Sahayog) and Mr.
Ravi Puranik (Hindustan Uni-lever Limited) put
forward the thinking behind the WPN. All the
partners have committed to make WPN a strong
and credible voice of civil society organizations
working on water for constructive change and
informed decisions. The network inculcates
spirit of inquiry into water as a resource going
beyond legislation and brings out changes in
individual practice. This network demands a
self-mandate to be given for implementation
mechanism to bridge the disconnect between
practice and policy. The partners’ meet facilitated
coming together of experienced organisations
in addressing challenges in the water sector.
Mr. Romit Banerjee of WOTR presented a concept
of shared well and shared irrigation systems that
provide water for irrigation in case of extreme
climatic events like prolonged dry spells, late onset
of monsoon, extreme cold waves in winter etc.
In its attempt to demystify technocratic science,
FES has come up with Composite Landscape
Assessment and Restoration Tool (CLART) to
empower rural communities. Mr. Chiranjit Guha
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(FES) explained how the tool will help commu-
nities in location and context specific planning
and decision making on soil and water con-
servation related structures based on hydro-
geology. FES also demonstrated experimental
games to trigger collective action for resource
understanding and planning crop water budgets
taking Gram Panchayat as a governance unit.
Mr. Debashish Sen from PSI talked about their
work on reviving springs in the Indian Himalayan
region. Being major source of water in hilly regions,
spring-shed management tries to bring science,
ecosystem and livelihoods for water security.
Mr. Shashi Bhushan from PANI introduced us to
methodologies for water conservation in agricul-
ture. Multi cropping, raised bed cultivation, drip,
zero tillage are some of the methods applied on
crop like wheat has reduced water footprints.
With newer innovation from traditional knowl-
edge and sciences like machan, Pusa hydrogel
in mint has not only seen increase in produc-
tivity but savings in water required and diesel.
Mr. A Gurunathan from DHAN emphasized on
Vayalgam’s Comprehensive Tank Management
System for irrigation and other benefits. The
role played by tank systems in village ecosys-
tem is immense and can be evolved with inno-
vations and advancement based on grassroots
experience. Through the story of Dang village
in Gujarat, Mr. Apoorva Oza from AKRSP spelt
out how practice, research and policy advocacy helped them to influence the state government.

Explaining root causes of poor quality water and its impact on health, crop and food cycle, Dr.
Sunderrajan Krishnan of INREM Foundation showed a way forward with “community based water
quality management plans” . It involves community based water testing, mapping and time trends
of water quality along with health survey. It provides low cost, sustainable solutions for safe water
and vegetation. Dr. Uma Ashlekar from ACWADAM presented a participatory process by integrating
science, data and community participation in creating groundwater management plans. With 5 to
7% of total watershed implementationbudget, Participatory Ground Water Management provides
enhanced outcomes for issues on groundwater.

Mr. T Pradeep of Samuha successfully demonstrated integrated crop management interventions

to save waterand stressed the importance of demand side water management. Mr. Raghav
Chakravarthy from SPS brought forth the importance of water sharing agreements for institutional
arrangements in water related projects. Participatory and shared use of water by community along
with NPM agriculture package is a way forward for sustenance. A discussion on building vocabulary
to inculcate people’s voices in decision making and inclusion of Social Return on Investment (SROI)
and evidence based stories in the framework of the network also took place.

FIRST ADVISORY GROUP MEETING

The Advisory Board of the Water Practitioners’ Network held its first meeting in the HUF regional office,
Delhi on 3rd August, 2018. The advisory group had come together to facilitate multi‐stakeholder
interaction, arrive at a collective understanding of the water crisis and to forge an informed road
map for WPN.

At the very outset, Mr. Vijayshankar addressed issues of growing demand for water, the increasing
gap between irrigation potential created and utilized, water quality and the increasing incidence of
extreme climate events like floods and droughts. Hence, it was deemed necessary by the board to
get representation from areas which have been neglected and can leverage from the network. Great
emphasis was placed on customization of solutions for common challenges, going beyond command
and control towards participatory approaches and bringing in-house grassroots experiences of
partners for policy advocacy.

The need for water education found a resonance in the room as a social, political and ecosystem
view of water is crucial for aspiring practitioners. For instance, Shiv Nadar University’s s two year
Masters programme on Water Science and Policy (WSP), ACT’s 6 month course at Kutchh, Bhuj
University, ACWADAM’s groundwater training courses are some of the existing initiatives running on
the same line of thought. These efforts need to be scaled up to provide an opportunity for students
to learn about water at the university level.

Ms. Nivedita Banerji made recommendations to create social media engagements to capture urban
areas through facebook, instagram and visuals. The board also, deliberated upon the missing data
related to water sector and how this lacuna could possibly be filled by drawing inspiration from the
work of ACWADAM who have created GW data while water quality data is spread across pollution
control, NRDWM etc.

Dr. Debashish Sen shared PSI’s work in the North Eastern states which included conducting workshop
on hydrogeology, capacity building, implementation and demonstration towards National Mission on
Himalayan Studies with MoEF and CSIR on springshed rivers and watershed approach.

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One of the crucial operation decisions involved finding some regional anchors to spread the
message in regions where they are working and develop ways of bringing smaller NGOs into
the network. These Regional Anchors would play the role of initiating discussions on WPN’s
objectives and strategy in respective regions and conduct promotional workshops (in the model
of promotional workshops organized by Support Voluntary Organisations like SPS and PSI for the
CAPART Watershed Programme). This would help the Network expand its base and its presence
by reaching out to many more practitioners.

WPN WEBSITE

Dr. Jitendra Thakur formally launched the

WPN website in the presence of the Advisory
Group in Delhi on 3rd August 2018 (https://
waterpractitioners.org/). He further explained
the key aspects and features of the website and
outlined a broad strategy of taking the website
to a large number of water practitioners. To
form the social media engagement strategy for
WPN, a sub-group led by Ms. Nivedita Banerji
will be formed.

The Advisory board was then invited to register

themselves on the website giving the website
its first members.
The website is a unique platform for the water
practitioners and other users where they can
get information on the best water conservation
practices of their interest while simultaneously
linking them to the relevant organizations and
people. Open Membership is also available on
the website where users can register themselves
and connect with other users. Registered
members can then upload digital content like case studies, projects, articles, study materials, events
and news.

The five themes related to water management are included in the network.
• Participatory Irrigation management (PIM).
• Participatory Ground Water Management (PGWM).
• Demand Management in Agriculture.
• Water and Climate Change Resilience
• Water Quality Network

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 SPRINGING BACK TO LIFE- TOWARDS WATER SECURITY IN THE HIMALAYAN
VILLAGES

Springs are significant sources of domestic water in the Himalayan region. However, due to drastic
changes in land use patterns, deforestation, climate change and increasing population, there is a
depletion of the ground water table resulting in the drying up of springs. Nainital and Almora are
two of the seriously affected districts in terms
of water availability in the Himalayan region.

Springs in this region are not only water

sources for the villages but also are major
representatives of their culture and traditional
practices. A visit was made to the Baanja Village
of Nainital district to understand the system of
spring recharge and distribution system that
is being supported by Chirag. Baanja Village
is located at 1350 – 1650 (meter) sea level.
The average rainfall of the village is 750 mm
having average temperature 15 degrees to 30
degrees Celsius. It has a mixed forest which is
also identified as majorly affected by deforestation.

The village has an approximate population of 50-55 families constituting 300 people. Most of these
families fall below the poverty line and are dependent on springs for their domestic needs.
The coordinator of the foundation, Mr. Laxman Singh mentioned how snow forms a major source
of recharge. However, decreasing snowfall in the area because of increased temperature is also a
key factor for the drying up of springs. Currently, this spring is discharging 1 liter water per minute
providing sufficient and quality drinking water to the people of Baanja village.

Kulgarh is another village located in the Kosya Kutauli Tehsil of Nainital district in Uttarakhand. There
are about 18 houses in this village with a total population of 78. There is only one spring available
in the village which is the source of water for all the residents.
Chirag’s programme on spring recharge and distribution began with creating awareness among the
villagers about spring conservation and management. Water user groups of nine members in both
the villages were formed in the year 2016 and 2013 respectively. People’s participation and contri-
bution in the spring conservation program is a key factor for the success of this work.

To understand the hydrogeology of the area, a detailed survey for the geological mapping of the
spring area was supported by ACWADAM. It helped to understand the recharge points of the spring
where conservation work can be implemented. The interactions between the team of geologists and
the villagers was beneficial for them to understand the geology of their own village.

The formation of a Water User Group and geological mapping played a significant role towards
providing strength to spring recharges. In the following stages, various conservation practices were
performed in the recharge areas of the spring which were identified during geological mapping.
Discharge point of the spring is also maintained properly to enable people to get the water easily
and also manage water distribution in a systematic way. Some of the conservation practices include
contour trenches, gabion check dams, plantations and deep recharge pits.

A detailed survey and training for monitoring the quality of groundwater was done which had a
fewsignificant outcomes for both the springs. There was a recognizable increase in the discharging
capacity of the springs after the spring rejuvenation activities.

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Conservation practices are also improving the soil and vegetation cover in the treatment area con-
trolling soil erosion and deforestation while, the Water User Group is actively working to protect
traditional water practices in the remote Himalayan region. The involvement of the community in
conserving the traditional water practices is an exemplary step towards maintaining water security
in the region.

Chirag (Central Himalayan Rural Action Group) is a rural development organization based in the Kumaun
region of Uttarakhand in India. Founded in 1986 by Late Shri Kanai Lall, our goal is to improve the quality
of life of the families residing in the Central Himalayan region with special emphasis on women, children and
the disadvantaged.

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO ORGANIZE URBAN SPACES

- working with the urban poor of the Bhuj slums.

The scarcity and poor quality of drinking water perpetuates

the water crisis in Bhuj, the capital of Kutch, a semi-arid region
in western Gujarat. With an average rainfall of 358 mm for a
population of 14 lakh, there’s a dire need to put efficient water
management systems in place to combat this water crisis.
The water situation is worse for people living in the slums as
it leaves the basic demand of thousands unmet making their
plight more precarious. To tackle this alarming situation, Bhuj
Municipality and Arid Communities and Technologies planned
a water distribution and management scheme for Madhavray
Nagar.

One of the historical wells named Viro is about a kilometer

away from the slum area which hasn’t been in use since
the 2011 earthquake in the city. This well basically gets its
recharge from a nearby historical lake called Deshasar.
A detailed study of the area to assess the water quality, ground water information, water availability,
distrbution and management was carried out by ACT which revealed that viro has sufficient capacity
to provide good quality of drinking water in the slum area.

Following the concept of participatory water management, Madhavray Pani Samiti (Madhavray
Water committee) was formed which then opened its own bank account. Each house in the area
contributed to support the construction of water distribution structures in the area. After being
granted the permission by the Municipality, a storage tank having capacity of 15,000 litres was
constructed which was linked to the well by a pipeline.

To distribute water in each house, five water posts were constructed at suitable locations in
Madhavray Nagar and it was decided that the whole water distribution will be managed by the local
committee. A schedule was also planned for regular monitoring of water quality and recharge in the
well and cleaning. The Committee also charges 100 rupees per house for the maintenance of the
water distribution system. Now, this water practice is successfully working ithe Madhavray Nagar
slum area providing enough and quality water to poor people.
It also demonstrates a model of urban ground water management and water distribution that
challenges the top-down approach of urban planning and paves way for alternative ways to organize
urban spaces.

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 SUBVERTING KNOWLEDGE HIERARCHIES THROUGH PEOPLE’S SCIENCE
– the remarkable local para hydro-geologists of Kutch

Rural people’s indigenous knowledge and modern

scientific knowledge are complementary in their strengths
and weaknesses. Together they can achieve what neither
would alone. ACT’s cadre of local para hydro-geologists
or parabs are a testament to the aforesaid. In Gujarati,
the word ‘parab’ means a water hut or a place on a
public road that serves free water to thirsty wayfarers
or travelers, especially during summer. Para Hydro –
Geologist is a team of experts in the field of ground
water mapping developed by ACT.

The para hydro- geologists work with local communities

to help them understand the science behind groundwater
management and develop technical plans to manage
their local water resources. The team has been registered and established as a Para Water
Management Company, a limited company to provide their services in the rural area for the
ground water management. During our visit a meeting and discussion were set in motion to
understand the approach and processes adopted by these experts to know how they implement
their services on the ground.

Para Water Management Company has worked in 90 villages in the Gujarat. They basically provide
their services for ground water assessment and training. These experts are known by different
names such as ‘para water engineer’, ‘barefoot hydro-geologist’, ‘bhu jal jankar’ etc. They also
work with various NGOs and agencies working on ground water management.

A.C.T is a Gujarat based organisation that works to strengthen livelihoods of communities in arid and
semi-arid region by resolving ecological constraints through provision or facilitation access to technologies
and engendering technologies and institutional solutions in collaboration with communities.

SHARING WATER, SHAPING SOLIDARITIES: COMMUNITY BASED INITIATIVE ON

PARTICIPATORY GROUND WATER MANAGEMENT

Kali Ratdi is an extremely isolated village in the Dewas District of Madhya Pradesh. The village is
positioned next to the submergence area of the Indira Sagar Dam, which is 14km away. Most of
the people living in Kali Ratdi are part of the Barela tribe; however some also belong to Korku, Jat,
and Gouli communities.

The people of the village are generally very poor, most owning only around three bighas of land.
Two Samaj Pragati Sahayog’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) exist in Kali Ratdi. The village has no
available surface water or shallow aquifers; however, a few deep aquifers are available in limited
patches. Besides these intermittent deep aquifers, the next closest source of drinking water is
10km away. Kali Ratdi has relatively good quality black soil. The people currently grow maize and
soybean in the Kharif season, wheat and chana in the Rabi season, and some are even able to
take Moong in the Zaid season.

The village currently uses almost exactly as much water annually as is recharged into the underground
deep aquifers. If the people increase their water consumption in the future they will tip the scales
and a water crisis will surely develop.

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SPS worked in two mohallahs to expand on and streamline the existing water sharing infrastructure
and introduce a more formalized and comprehensive sharing agreement. The project worked with
29 farmer households in addition to a wealthy landowner to connect water from seven existing
borewells to farms through an underground pipe system.
SPS, with financial support of ACWADAM, worked to help the people of Kali Ratdi lay down a high-
quality, underground pipe system to replace the old, inefficient, aboveground water sharing pipes.

In total the project laid down 300 pipelines to connect six existing bore wells to farms, and a seventh
bore well of a larger landowner to one mohallah center to provide drinking water for people and
cattle. The fact that a wealthier, larger landowner volunteered to help and provide water for free
was especially unique as it is quite uncommon in the area for wealthy landowners to help smaller
farmers.

The 29 water-sharing farmers contributed one third of the project cost and ACWADAM bore the
rest of the costs. In total, the villagers contributed Rs.54000 towards the project costs while
ACWADAM spent Rs.1,09,375. Additionally, the farmers provided voluntary labor to help prepare
the pipes before they were put into the ground. This project is an example of how investments in
infrastructure (pipelines in this case) and agreements can shape and strengthen collective action
around groundwater. Farmers of Kaliratdi ,already affected by iniquitous geological conditions, found
it economically viable to pool in their resources to develop shared groundwater sources.

Samaj Pragati Sahayog has grown to be one of India’s largest grassroots initiatives for water and livelihood
security. The organisation is head-quartered in a drought-prone, tribal area in the Dewas district of Madhya
Pradesh, which typifies the most difficult problems facing the country. The organisation believes in location-
specific watershed development combined with low-cost, low-risk agriculture, other nature based livelihoods
and women-led micro-finance institutions can result in sustained higher incomes and empowered communities.

A CONJUNCTIVE APPROACH TO WATER CONSERVATION AND LIVELIHOOD SECURITY

The WPN team also visited Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) to understand its interventions
made in agriculture water management and demand side regulation of water along with other in-
novative components of their work. The project sites were at a distance of 20-25 kilometres from
Sangamner taluka in Ahmednagar district. The organization started its watershed work in these
villages back in 1993. This part of the district witnesses rainfall of about 450mm-500mm on an
average with many villages in this area recording rainfall as low as 200mm. The major source of
livelihood is agriculture. The first project site visited by the team was Gunjalwadi - a village where
work under Indo-German watershed programme was started 10 years ago.

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It has a watershed area of 1600 Ha where gully
plugs, plantation drives, CCTs, farm bunds and
other watershed development activities were
carried out.
Over the years, the cropping pattern has shifted
from bajra and pulses to crops like onion, tomato
and pomegranate which consume more water.
Under the CCA project, the organisation has built
around 400 farm ponds in 16 villages costing
around Rs.80000 a unit. The pond was built with
a contribution of 25% from the
beneficiary. The farm pond
(of dimensions 10ft*10ft*3ft)
has a LDPE plastic liner and is
fenced on all sides.
Water is drawn from a nearby
well and stored in the farm
pond so that there is an
assured supply of water even
in cases of power outage and
voltage fluctuations which are
frequent in this place.
These power cuts are frequent in the Rabi season
and hence, in some places, solar panels have been
installed to draw water from the wells. The water
is supplied to the field through drip pipes which
are connected to the pipeline from the farm pond.
Although this involves creation of an intermediary
source of supply, irrigation is regulated at both
supply side and demand side.
This data, after getting processed, is further sent
to India Meteorological Department (IMD) which
creates locale specific short range weather fore-
casts for villages and clusters for a period of three
days. WOTR’s AGRIMET service makes use of
these three day forecasts to come up with advi-
sories for crop management. The User Profiling
System employs GIS based farmer database to
ensure that these advisories are tailor-made for
farmers’ specific requirements.
The advisory includes recommendations on
irrigation, nutrients, pest and diseases and soil
health management. The recommendations
also emphasize on using traditional knowledge
systems. These are directly sent to farmers
through SMS in the local language.
These recommendations are announced on
public address systems and are also displayed on
notice boards, though not addressed to farmers
individually.
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Periodically, feedback is obtained from farmers
to fine tune the advisories and ensure that they
stay relevant and accurate. This intervention
not only facilitates effective use of water for
irrigation but also promotes an integrated plan
for agriculture. Towards the end of day one,
the WPN team visited a tribal hamlet called Sa-
tichiwadi which is loThe farmers belonged to
Thaker, Kohli and Bhils tribes. Before water-
shed work had begun here, there used to be
heavy migration and no agriculture.
Water needs were met by
bringing tankers. But now,
agriculture patterns have
changed drastically. The
farmlands are dotted with
farm ponds and drip lines.
This village has 3 water user
groups of 5 farmers each.
The farmers share the
water from the well using
pipelines. Although the groups have not signed
any formal agreement, the farmers collectively
ensure that no one irrigates pomegranate for
more than 20 quintals and everyone gets their
fair share.
The next morning, the team visited Kumbalwadi
where the village comes together at the gram
sabha to plan the crop water budget for the
season. The method that is employed for crop
water budget is based on observed rainfall. The
available water is first calculated by taking into
consideration the surface run off, soil moisture
and groundwater recharge. The remaining
is first budgeted for drinking water purposes
for humans, cattle and poultry. Kharif crop
water consumption is then taken into account
to estimate the total water available for rabi
crops. Based on water consumption data for
each crop, crops and cropping area is decided
WOTR is currently operating in 7 Indian
states dedicated to transforming the lives of
millions across India in participatory watershed
development and eco-systems restoration, adaptive
sustainable agriculture, integrated and efficient
water management, and climate change adaptation,
with a special emphasis on vulnerable communities,
farmers, and women.
 CIVIL SOCIETY PARTNERS OF WPN

Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and

Management (ACWADAM), Pune, Maharashtra
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), Ahmedabad,
Gujarat
Arid Communities and Technologies (ACT), Bhuj, Gujarat
Bharti Integrated Rural Development Society (BIRDS), Kurnool,
Andhra Pradesh
Development Support Centre (DSC), Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Anand, Gujarat
India Natural Resource Economics and Management (INREM)
People’s Action for National Integration (PANI), Faizabad ,
Uttar Pradesh
People’s Science Institute (PSI), Deharadun, Uttarakhand
Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), Noida
Safe Harvest Private Limited, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS), Dewas, Madhya Pradesh
Samuha, Koppal ,Karanataka
Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD),
Udaipur, Rajasthan
Water Aid, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR), Pune, Maharashtra
Watershed Support Services and Networking (WASSAN),
Secunderabad, Telangana

Secretariat:
Water Practitioners’ Network (WPN)
Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS)
Village Jathashankar, Bagli,
District Dewas, Madhya Pradesh
455227, India
Telephone: 07271-275757, 275550, 282453
Website: www.waterpractitioners.org
For any inquiry please email: waterpractitioners@gmail.com
or contact to secretariat office address