Community-led rainwater harvesting, enabling people to unlock their potential, break free from poverty and change their lives for good
WaterHarvest was founded in 1987 by Dr Nicholas and Professor Mary Grey, in response to terrible drought conditions they witnessed that year on a visit to Rajasthan, NW India. Our first work was deepening 100 wells in Dudu Block, near Jaipur. Today, 31 years later, we’re still working in Rajasthan in the most remote areas, and our work has evolved to focus on rainwater harvesting. Water-Harvesting offers a low-cost, environmentally friendly strategy for people whose lives and future opportunities are crushed, simply by lack of water.
The charity’s primary aim is to provide urgently needed safer drinking water. To do this we combine our technical expertise gained over many years, with local traditional knowledge, to capture and store the annual monsoon rain where it is needed. Simple technologies such as roof rainwater harvesting systems, underground water tanks with a catchment and land treatment are highly effective and offer a sustainable and viable solution for people living with water scarcity.
Our work relieves poverty, improves health and livelihoods and sets women and girls free from daily water procurement.
A lifetime of drudgery
Although we’ve recently started work in Gujarat, our main focus remains Rajasthan. In the Thar Desert (which is known locally as ‘Marwar’, meaning ‘land of death’), persistent water scarcity and poor food availability have caused deep-rooted poverty. Women and girls spend a third of their time fetching water, usually from unsafe sources, which is head-loaded home. The burden causes untold anxiety and distress. Water-borne disease is widespread. Large-scale government water pipeline schemes ‘have failed to supply a single drop’ (our Field Report) – they simply do not reach the scattered villages where we work. People depend on the annual monsoon rains which are becoming increasingly unreliable; drought occurs four years in ten.
In the Sambhar Salt Lakes area, the limited water has dangerously high levels of salinity and fluoride. Drinking it daily has irreversible health consequences including dental and skeletal fluorosis, recurrent malnutrition and diarrhoea which causes stunting in children – 38% of children in India suffer from stunting. Contaminated water is the biggest cause of India’s high child mortality.
Certain regions of India, particularly the arid zones of Rajasthan, have serious fluoride problems, which has become a serious health hazard in many villages.
WHO
The people with whom we work are from the historically discriminated Tribal and Dalit communities who form an impoverished underclass. Devoid of education, abysmally low skills-base and zero credit rating, they are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges they face. Women especially suffer.
Millions of Dalits in India still face discrimination, especially women and girls. Ban Ki-moon 2016
32.9% (1.4 million) of all children who die before their fifth birthday is in India. These children die as a result of poverty and water-related illness.
UN MDG Report 2014
What we are doing to address this need
To address the most urgent need for safer drinking water we are building water tanks and installing household roof rainwater harvesting systems. This year we plan to build 190, which will directly benefit 1,330 people by providing a source of drinking water at home. The roof systems cost £280 each; the tanks £450. In the last 31 years, we’ve built 1,695 water tanks, resulting in safer water at home for 11,900 people. This includes 7,200 children who are growing up with better health, and the increased chance of an education, especially for girls.
Providing more and safer water is just the first step.
Our work aims to build community capacity and increase peoples’ resilience. Our training and education programmes include water management to use water wisely (water-saving irrigation systems), revolving funds, improved and organic farming methods, gender equity, livelihood skills, cooperatives, and hygiene and sanitation.
As a result of our work farmers are growing double the crops using half the water, and doubling their income. Debt and distress migration have reduced. We raise peoples’ awareness of their rights to government services and funding, offering help with form-filling to access employment and disability benefits, pensions etc.
Our work strengthens communities and brings stability to people and the environment.
All our projects are implemented by dedicated local Indian partners, and monitored by our own India Liaison office, headed by our Director Om Prakash Sharma who has been with us for 18 years. Although we’re not overtly faith-based, Gandhian principles underpin and guide all we do: our primary aim is to work alongside people – together we ‘sit on one carpet’.
Only by counting the uncounted can we reach the unreached. MDG 2015 The future depends on what you do today.
M K Gandhi
Our current programme
In 2018 we have nine projects in 90 villages with 45,956 people. Last year’s audited income was £290,480, of which 82% was spent on charitable activities. We rely heavily on individual donations and regular standing order donors and are fortunate to have many loyal supporters who have visited the projects and seen for themselves the impact of our work. We leverage an additional 91% from local and government funding in India, so every £1 we get is worth £1.91 to us.
2017 was our 30-year anniversary, and we celebrated working in 1,562 villages and providing a sustainable water supply for 1.6 million people.
The need for work such as ours
Global awareness is growing for the need for sustainable solutions to the issues surrounding water scarcity. Increasingly, water-related disputes are upsetting the harmony of regions. India faces a growing water crisis with demand outstripping supply: 15% of aquifers are in a critical condition and this is set to rise to 60% by 2030. Harnessing enough funds will enable us to continue our vital work to maximize the provision of water at home through low-cost, sustainable water-harvesting. The availability of enough water – or lack of it – impacts on every aspect of life.
www.water-harvest.org
nmehta@water-harvest.org