Don Bosco Development Society - DBDS Mumbai, INDIA

Programmes - Watershed Development

Watershed Development is a holistic programme founded on community participation that aims at improving soil and moisture conservation and productivity of the degraded land, and thereby increases the income of people.

The unavailability of water for both domestic and agricultural purposes has greatly hampered the social and economic development of the people. In order to meet the communities demand for water a number of practices can be adopted. For example, building of check dams, gabions, gully plugs, bunds, continuous contour trenches (CCTs), ponds, wells, irrigation tanks, percolation tanks, etc. are proven methods of water harvesting and conservation. In addition to this roof rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation, and some other measures of water conservation can also be introduced for meeting the domestic demand for water consumption. Planting of trees also forms and integral part of such an intervention.

Availability of water not only removes the drudgery of water duties from the shoulders of women and children but also contributes towards the economic development of the area. DBDS and its partner organizations are involved in a number of pre-watershed and watershed-based activities in many villages in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Area	Watershed Programmes
Kawant, Gujarat	3 villages
Narukot, Gujarat	4 villages
Chhota Udepur, Gujarat	3 villages
Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh	1 village
Ahmednagar, Maharashtra	21 villages