|
Abstract:
|
"Generally speaking, watershed management involves harnessing rainfall, improvement measures on barren hill slopes, privately owned lands, commonly owned lands and water recourses in rain fed areas with peoples participation. It begins with two most important resources i.e., water and land. Watershed Management has a strong technological component encompassing conservation of rain water as much as possible at the place where it falls and drainage of excess water safely to storage ponds; avoiding gully formation and putting checks at appropriate intervals to control soil erosion and to recharge ground water; and utilization of land according to its capability.
"However, the medium of watershed management is people's participation. Without people's participation, the technological aspects have limited relevance. In the past, the technical details were emphasized and less attention was given to people's participation.
"Collective management of resources is a prerequisite for successful watershed management and it requires strong village level institutions. In the absence of strong village level institutions, common resources are exploited. Therefore, institutions, be formal or informal in terms of organizational setup are needed for sustainable watershed management.
"As the existing institutions are not performing as expected, the need for evolution of alternative institutions is strongly felt. The process of institution building is essential but is a time taking and difficult task. This is where the role of good non-government organisations (NGOs) becomes crucial for mobilising people for collective action. Initially, confidence and friendship are developed with the local people. Then, they are encouraged to participate in decision making regarding improvement in the watershed. Once a sort of trust is established a somewhat formal institution is built for collective action.
"The Khulgad Micro Watershed case of Uttar Pradesh Hills presented in the paper shows that watershed management activities have made significant progress in reversing the land use trends in favour of agro forestry and social forestry in the study villages. It is optimistic to note that it is possible to reverse the land use dynamics in favour of environment if suitable interventions are implemented with peoples participation. An NGO of professionals, the Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA) played the role of organising people. The changes in land use have been possible with involvement of people's institutions at village level called Gram Sansdhan Prabandh Samitis (GSPSs) (Village Resource Management Committees) and Mahila Mangal Dals (MMDs) (Women Welfare Groups) in the villages.
"The dependency syndrome in participatory mode of development is prevalent almost everywhere wherein people have become conditioned to expecting subsidised inputs from government sponsored programmes of watershed development or any other external agency. Therefore, watershed management activities are carried out as long as there is support from outside either directly or indirectly. Once support from outside is withdrawn, the watershed management activities also come to a halt. This is not sustainable watershed management. For watershed management to become sustainable, the people should own it and should be able to fund it on their own. This can be achieved through the institution of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their linkage with formal financial institutions such as commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks.
"Self Help Groups are informal groups that are formed around felt need and are used for collective action. In the context of making watershed management self-sustaining, these groups promote savings among members and use their pooled savings to meet their consumption, production and investment credit requirements. The group savings are supplemented by outside fund be in the form of bank loan or grant from NGOs who promote them. However, these groups continue on their own even after the withdrawal of the NGO, thus, providing sustainability to watershed management activities. The experiences of Mysore Rehabilitation and Development Agency (MYRADA) in Karnataka and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP (I) in Gujarat amply demonstrate the power of SHGs in this regard.
"For watershed management activities to be carried out on a sustainable basis, it is important to consider the inter-institutional linkages amongst the institutions that need to interact frequently. Basically, two sets of institutions are involved internal and external. For the internal or village level institutions, it is important to form federations and have linkage with panchayats. For external institutions i.e., government departments, NGOs and donors, it is important to work together for synergy and to give top priority to capacity building and financial sustainability of village level institutions right from the beginning."
|