Watershed Voices -

Bhangadewadi Watershed Project

The Bhangadewadi village lies in the Parner Taluka of Ahmednagar District, which, being a rain-shadow zone is chronically drought-prone. The area receives rainfall in the range of 400-500 mm, and this too is often uncertain and untimely. Recurrent drought had made the situation in the village grim with severe scarcity of water for drinking and agriculture for most part of the year. During the summer months water would be supplied by the Govt. tanker. Only 10% of the entire area of the watershed was irrigated and the rest was unirrigated, fallow or waste land. With livelihood opportunities almost nil within the village, the villagers used to migrate to nearby villages in search of work.

During the years from 1989-1994 many of the villagers of Bhangadewadi worked as labourers at the watershed work of the neighbouring Ranmalawadi, which was being implemented by the Social Centre. While working on the various treatments being undertaken there, they saw for themselves the transformation that this village had undergone and wanted very much to do the same for their own village. They also became aware of the need for watershed development and understood the various activities involved.

The watershed development process:

Wishing to better their own lot and improve the situation in their village, the villagers of Bhangadewadi approached Social Centre to undertake watershed development in their village. After a number of visits and Gramsabhas, during which the rules, regulations and social discipline of the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme (IGWDP) were explained to the villagers and their acceptance obtained, Capacity Building work began in Bhangadewadi in May 1994 with a community shramdan in which trenching was done and gully plugs constructed. Since Bhangadewadi itself did not form a technically complete watershed, the balance area falling in Hingandara hamlet of the neighbouring village Hiware Korda, the two were combined after obtaining the consent of the villagers, to form the complete Bhangadewadi-Hingandara watershed (1199 Ha).

During the Capacity Building Phase (CBP) [funded by the GTZ through WOTR] which lasted upto June 1995, the watershed community underwent quite a transformation, in that various new village level institutions were set up like the Village Watershed Community (VWC), the Forest Protection Committee (FPC) and men’s and women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs). With a view to strengthening the capacities of the village community and enabling them to plan, execute and maintain the watershed work, several trainings like Project Planning and Management, nursery raising, enterprise development, etc. were conducted. Exposure visits were organised to other ongoing or completed watershed projects like Kasare and Kalamkarwadi as well as to the Agriculture University at Rahuri and Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Bhenda factory. Practical aspects of undertaking watershed development were understood by the ‘learning-by-doing’ method, in which an area of 160 ha. was treated as planned by the Net Planning Method. This activity helped the villagers learn the process that would be applied to the rest of the watershed, as well as see for themselves the resulting impact.

After the project was sanctioned for being undertaken in the Full Implementation Phase (FIP) [funded by the KfW through NABARD] treatment of the balance area of 1039 ha was completed. Besides the regular watershed work, various government schemes like horticulture, biogas, etc. were also implemented in the village. The FIP was concluded in January 2001.

A concerted effort was made to involve the women in the developmental process and ensure their participation in the village level institutions. The women’s SHGs gave the women the opportunity to come together, undertake various social development and income generating activities and, in the process, helped build up their confidence. Today, among the 21 members in the VWC, there are 5 active women participants. 3 women are also members of the FPC, which has a total strength of 11 members. There are a total of 6 SHGs having 82 members and a total saving of Rs. 196,111. An apex body of the women’s SHGs was formed called the Samyukt Mahila Samiti (SMS) through which loans to the SHGs were disbursed.

Various trainings and camps were held for the women in areas like poultry management, health, adult education, kitchen gardening, tailoring, etc. and an exposure visit too was organised. With loans from the Social Centre the women undertook income generating activities like nursery raising, poultry, goatery and tailoring. The Women’s Development Fund, which is available under the IGWDP (5% of project measures), was used towards the construction of a Community Hall and the initiation of a milk dairy as a group income-generating activity.

Difficulties encountered and overcome:

• A large area at the Hingandara ridge (40 ha.) belonged to the Forest Department and permission for treating this land had to be obtained from the Forest Department. Since this was among the first watersheds where permission for treating Forest lands was granted, it involved many trips to the Forest Department office and much effort to obtain their permission. Another 40 ha. was common land belonging to the community and permission for treating this land was necessary from the Hiware Korda village respectively. A Gramsabha resolution was obtained and the land treated. The ridge-to-valley principle of the IGWDP was thus adhered to.

• The Shramdan for work done in the forest land had to be contributed by the villagers themselves. Continuous Contour Trenches (CCTs) and Water Absorption Trenches (WATS) were dug, the total cost of which came up to Rs. 72,000.

• In 1997 the area experienced a very severe drought. With no agriculture activity possible, the number of labourers turning up at the watershed sites increased considerably (around 350-400 labourers daily) from the watershed as well as from neighbouring villages. In order to ensure a fair distribution of the labour work, it was decided that only 1 person from each family would be given work and a maximum work of 3 cum per person per day would be allotted per person.

Innovative ideas:

• A family-wise Shramdan register was maintained which showed details of those who had and hadn’t contributed Shramdan. Hence when work in a particular farmer’s field was started, if the farmer had not contributed Shramdan, then the required Shramdan was first recovered either in cash or in kind and only then was work started there.

• In order to prevent grazing on new plantations, trenches of 1x1x1 m were dug across the regular path taken by the cattle in the plantation areas. This prevented the cattle from encroaching in the plantation areas.

Learnings:

• Because of the strict rules, regulations and pedagogy of the IGWDP there was high quality of community involvement as well as of the watershed work.

• The regular monthly meetings of the VWC and SHGs helped bind the community, improved their planning and organising skills and fostered accountability.

• Regular support and monitoring visits of WOTR and NABARD also helped in guiding the work.