Questions/Answers

Banda, a district in Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh India, suffers from acute water shortage. Evolving lifestyle has moved people away from using natural and self-regenerating sources of water. Hence, rivers, ponds, and wells remained neglected. According to a study by Ground Water Board, more than 71% of wells under observation were found to be depleting at alarming rates, adding to the water woes of people. There was no awareness, knowledge and sensitivity towards water conservation among people, leading to household stress, low agricultural and commercial productivity and overall impaired societal growth. At the center of this water crisis were women who were incharge of domestic family duties and bore the burden of unpaid care work increase, leading to household stress. Water woes affected Banda’s middle and lower income groups the most, bringing to the forefront wide-spread social and economic inequity Banda's 85% drinking water needs are dependent upon ground water. Lack of public awareness & insensitivity towards water conservation, has resulted in dangerously depleting water level, making the situation extremely dangerous. Objectives: • To resolve the perennial water crisis for all 471 Gram panchayats and 8 urban bodies of Banda and reverse the inequity in accessing safe and affordable water for all. To dig proverbial ponds and wells in the ‘Dil-and-Dimaag’ (Heart & minds) of people, helping them re-establish old relationship with water bodies, as practiced in the past. To sustainably increase water-use efficiency and supply of ground-water to address water crisis and sustainably reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity. • To educate and facilitate people about conserving water and using natural and self-regenerating water sources thereby, supporting and strengthening the participation of local communities in sustainable water management • To conceptualize, lead, facilitate and monitor tangible action to increase awareness and encourage initiatives.

This campaign on water conservation is aligned to SDG 6 of the Agenda 2030 that calls the world to action to Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. All efforts, initiatives, programs, and activities were directed towards increasing public participation for sustainable water management, raising awareness about sustainable use of water resources, building capacities and eliminating inequalities to accessing water by increasing the productivity of natural water resources.

In 2015, countries adopted the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17SDGs. Universal, inclusive and indivisible, the agenda calls for action by all countries to improve the lives of people everywhere. Though the initiative supports SDG 6 to Ensure availability and sustainable management of water for all, it is closely related to other SDGs. Achieving SDG 6 is essential for making progress on all other SDGs. Sustainable management of water underpins wider efforts to end poverty and advance sustainable development. The initiative of Bhoojal Badhao, Peyjal Bachao Abhiyaan and Kuwan Taalab Jiaon Abhiyaan successfully induced a socio-behavioral change amongst the communities, taking roots as Jal-Aandolan and transforming into a Jan-Aandolan. It helped achieve all the set objectives and sustained efforts that would potentially completely eradicate the water crisis in Banda through sustained participation of local communities. To ensure its success, a collaborative approach was adopted and community participation and ownership was prioritized as the fundamental strength, starting-off by creating a formal district level Water Committee comprising of key officials from all water related departments, civil society members and technical water experts. This committee became the epicenter of activities under the visionary leadership of Sh. Heera Lal, District Magistrate, Banda.

Approach: Aforementioned water conservation initiative was designed to reduce social inequalities by making water a common resource accessible to all - rich and poor, reducing gender and economic inequities so as to leave no one behind. Sustainability: Since the initiative of digging trenches was undertaken completely by communities based on triggers towards community action in Jal Chaupal around drinking water sources, the upkeep and ensuring that trenches are in place to recharge ground water rested with local rural communities, therefore ensuring sustainability. Accountability: The campaign called for people to be accountable for ground water stress situation based on how their practices (of mismanaging water) and take action for its recharge.

Any public initiative faces roadblocks due to fragmented governance systems and divided fiscal spaces. To eliminate this gap, the initiative called for collaboration between various government departments and various fiscal budgets were aggregated. The DM of Banda worked tirelessly to improve inter-departmental communication and cooperation to ensure that all individual departments working on different aspects around water could come together to achieve a larger common goal - to eradicate the water crisis of Banda. An inclusive system with an objective of bringing about socio-behavior change was created, enabling great participation and multi-stakeholder engagement. This not only enabled achievement of great results, it also helped create a model that could be scaled up and replicated in most of the problems that hinder the progress towards the SDG agenda 2030 . Cross functional Project Authority-Accountability system: Core committee: Chief Development Officer District Development Officer Dy. Director, Agriculture District Panchayati Raj Officer Adhishasi Abhyanta Laghu Seechai Adhishasi Adhikari, Jal Nigam Bhoomi Sanrakshan Adhikari Policy Manager & Program Coordinator, Water Aid Director, P.S.I Director & Project Coordinator, A.B.Samaj Seva Sansthan One nodal officer per village & urban center, supported by members of gram panchayats and voluntary organization workers at the ground level.

At the center of the water crisis were the women of Banda, who were bearing the burden of unpaid care work and more so, because of the water crisis and increasing household stress. The initiative ensured local-community participation as a priority, focusing on women as they are key influencers. More than 50thousand women from self-help groups became the principal flag-bearers in popularizing the campaign. It gave them better decision-making powers, an improved opportunity at increasing household income and increasing female workforce participation, by having more spare time to work for income generating opportunities.

The largest target group were vulnerable communities and farmers, who were at the bottom of the economic pyramid. They were the biggest consumers of ground water but were unaware about a scientific approach towards water conservation. Through this campaign of educating them on water budgeting, protecting and reviving of natural water resources like lakes, ponds, wells, hand pumps etc benefitted them with amazing results. This increased income potential for each, helping remove inequities and bringing in social justice. This innovative campaign engaged the relevant groups at the ground level and community participation ensured that they delivered and enjoyed benefits of water conservation.

The initiative was implemented by following the below mentioned key steps: 1. Situational analysis - to assess the crisis & it was found that 71% of wells under observation were found to be depleting at alarming rates. 2. Expanding departmental cooperation for better efficiencies within the government structure to improve inter-departmental communication & cooperation to ensure that all individual departments working on different aspects around water. 3. Integrated water management by a bottoms-up approach to ensure sustainability Trench digging: Digging water-retention trenches around h& pumps & ponds. Rejuvenation of old water sources: Many old hand pumps, wells & ponds had dried & become unusable due to negligence. Our project took their repair, beautification & complete rejuvenation at war footing. Creation of new ponds: Local ground parcels were identified & transformed into ponds. Rain-water harvesting: Systematic rain-water harvesting systems were built, starting with government office buildings. Enhanced public participation capacity through innovative campaigns that included: River Bage, Yamuna & Ken Aarti: Taking a spiritual route, this Aarti event was organized to inspire & mobilize masses. Jal March: A mass walkathon was organized across the city of B&a in which students, professionals, local traders, NGOs, residents of B&a & many others participated. Deep Daan: was conducted again to re-emphasize the significance of natural water bodies. Tree plantation & Medb&i: Tree plantation on the banks of river & ponds along with Medb&i of farm boundaries. Jal par Kavita & Mushaira Sammelan: Trying innovative ways of reaching out to people, we organized a dedicated Kavi sammelan & mushaira on ‘water’ as the theme. Jal Hasya Charcha: A mass-participation initiative by organizing Jal Hasya Charcha with celebrity comedian Raju Srivastava. 5. Institutionalization of local water governance structures called Jal Choupal Training & awareness were camp held at each gram panchayat & urban center.

Obstacles: Lack of awareness and sensitivity. Disregard for natural water resources. No scientific approach towards water consumption and conservation. Lack of synchronization in public resources. Unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles to any program implementation. These challenges were overcome by: Designing a master campaign with defined mission objectives. Setting up of a cross-departmental team of officials to spearhead the campaign. Creating a platform for mass public stakeholder participation. On-boarding of technical partners for knowledge driven planning. Smart pooling of existing resources for productive utilisation.

Innovation was driven in the following ways: APPROACH - Water has always been optimally utilised and governed by people. But since this changed due to exponential usage, people-participation for sustainable water management was forgotten. This initiative strived to reconnect that link and revived people-water relationship. MESSAGING - Reconnecting with natural water bodies - a fresh approach. PROJECT DESIGN - The project was designed in a community-collaboration format. LOW-OR-NO-COST MODEL - Implementation encouraged 'Shram-Daan' and resource pooling. WATER BUDGETING - First time the concept of Water Budgeting was introduced. People at mass level participated and engaged with the concept. ACCOUNTABILITY – This approach was designed to make people responsible and accountable for reducing water crisis. GOVERNANCE EFFICIENCIES - Integrating and streamlining the water management model into an inclusive one brought great synergies in efficiencies. PEOPLE ENGAGEMENT - Mass participation through innovative people engagement to make sure that no one is left behind.

This campaign was a unique, first of its kind initiative and hence did not have any precedent to take inputs / inspiration from.

Since the district where the work was done is one of the most backward districts of India, technology was instrumental in spreading the message at scale and making the interaction more engaging and immersive. Social media, instant messaging and digital communication tools were used to create memorable outreach.

The initiative is a one-of-its-kind initiative and is ongoing. This campaign has been shortlisted for India’s Prime Minister’s Awards for Innovative Excellence in water conservation. The great results as shown by the initiative are sure to be adopted to other districts of India.

This initiative has a widely-adaptable structure since it operates at the fundamental level of water conservation by strengthening public participation. Therefore, if applied to other geographies, it would fare equally well. Likewise, the same concept will hold true when applied to other cultures as well, since the basic consumption mindsets, patterns etc are fairly universal. The model being extremely low cost and less-resource-dependent, has wide scalability and replicability.

Wanting to operate on a No-Or-low cost model, funds were pooled-in and resources were made available from different departments, channelizing their synergies towards this campaign. The first phase was initiated with voluntary work and in phase two, resources were used from institutionalized public service programmes like MGNREGA, Khet Taalab Yojna, RWH etc.

An idea expected to transform consumption behavior of an entire district demands a simple yet scalable implementation model. Given the demonstrated leadership at district level, the model is scalable to conduct Jal Chaupal and digging of contour trenches around drinking water sources and in other districts too with meager resources and full public participation. The model does not require heavy funds to implement the campaign and is aligned with local self-governance processes. Since the model does not include extensive budgets or heavy resources, it proves to be extremely sustainable. It also drives home the key message of water budgeting, which fundamentally impacts people’s perception towards water and its conservation. This model of Jal Chaupal for triggering peoples demand for water conservation has been integrated in implementation plan of Jal Shakti Abhiyaan and Atal Bhujal Yojayana in all districts of India. Due to its easy implementation character, it has good potential to be institutionalized across geographies. 


Yes

The impact was evaluated by government’s Minor Irrigation department and an independent think-tank SKOCH. As a standard measurement procedure, the designated department evaluated ground water level pre-activity and post activity for each year, and each year an average increase in the ground water level was noticed.

The government designated department measures the ground water level twice in a year, with a gap of 4 months apart. This enables them to measure ground water status pre-monsoon and pre-interventions and then post-monsoon and post interventions. This helps evaluate the impact of various factors, including this particular intervention on the ground water level.

OUTCOME 
 1. Jal choupals in 471 gram panchayats. 34732 villagers benefitted directly; 15 lakh indirectly. 2. 2605 trenches around 2443 hand pumps & wells. 3. 572 old ponds revived; 2233 new ponds created. 4. 82 rain water conservation structures built. 5. 1536 recharge pits in schools; Medbandi at 1311 locations. 6. Mass awareness program in 130 villages targeting 6,50,000 villagers located on the banks of rivers Ken, Yamuna & Bage. IMPACT GROUND WATER LEVEL INCREASE Badokhar --> +1.88 m Mahua --> -0.22 m Kamasin --> +1.67 m Vissadda --> -1.30 m Jaspura --> +2.69 m Tindvaari --> +2.01 m Nairaini --> +1.92 m Baberu --> +2.12 m Net average increase in water table - 1.34 m *Data from Minor Irrigation Department. Net average increase in Kharif crop productivity is 18.48% (w.r.t.2018) SUSTAINABILITY The campaign’s less-resource driven and simple implementation model makes it ideal for institutionalization.

The institutional landscape of Banda regarding Water Conservation has historically been more of reactionary to water crisis. However, since the implementation of our innovative water conservation campaign, the unique cross-institutional setup created to monitor the initiative has infused energy into the system, and has changed the approach for a more anticipatory one. This has meant that there is more cohesiveness and dynamism in all concerned authorities, all of which has translated into great results. The style of operation has changed completely to that of an agile team, rather than a ‘system’ approach. Also, the results have motivated the entire chain of command and is encouraging further innovation in the implementation.

The crux of Banda’s water crisis was the unnatural disconnect of people with natural water bodies, their insensitivity towards significance of water conservation, and lack of leadership to tackle the water crisis. This also meant that this crisis impacted almost every section of the society. With India being such a diverse country, to unite everyone with a common goal was a near impossible task. The entire initiative was built around the idea of collaboration, partnership, engagement and inclusion as underlined in the sustainable development goals. It relied heavily on collaboration between the various government departments working on water and bringing together of resources to avert Banda’s water crisis. It created a platform of engagement that bought together various sections of society at the individual, household, village and block level and made them engage with subject matter experts and civil society organizations that helped them establish a relationship of trust and confidence. The administrative authorities led the campaign as facilitators. It worked on public participation with inclusiveness at its heart -it bought together people, be of any age, gender, culture and societal section be it administration, domain authorities, everyone was brought together to fight for a common goal, which was to eradicate Banda’s water crisis.

Some key lessons learnt were as follows: Inclusivity - The campaign touched lives across gender, class and other societal bifurcations. The greatest common - water - made way into people’s hearts and minds through the scientific approach of water budgeting and then through other inspiring engagement activities. Influencer targeting - Each community has some natural-leaders to offer and communities look up-to them. Therefore, the initiative banked heavily on identifying and including such influencers with the campaign, and the campaign continued showing great results. Resource pooling - typically, mass campaigns fail to even take-off due to lack of dedicated resources. This innovative approach of pooling available resources from different schemes/programs and channelize them into a common project helped it remain free from any administrative roadblock and implement to produce the best result. Women participation - This campaign gained momentum as more and more women became flag-bearers of the movement and carrying it forward. This helped drive home the message to every household with an honest commitment to achieve the common goal.