A Seminar Paper on

WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT

A REVIEW OF LIVELIHOOD, SUSTAINABILITY AND

EQUITY ISSUES

by

Abhinav Sharma

(Roll No. 128080011)

M.Phil in Planning and Development

Guided By:

Prof. Sarmishtha Pattanaik

Department of Humanities & Social Sciences

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

November 2012

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Table Of Contents

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 3

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................. 5

CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS ..................................................................................... 6

What is Sustainable development? ............................................................................ 6

What do we mean by Equity? ..................................................................................... 7

What do we mean by livelihood? ............................................................................... 7

WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN THE LIGHT OF EQUITY, LIVELIHOOD AND

SUSTAINABILITY .............................................................................................................. 8

Equity Issues ................................................................................................................ 8

Livelihood Issues ....................................................................................................... 16

Sustainability issues .................................................................................................. 19

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 25

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 26

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INTRODUCTION

Water scarcity and poor water quality are a major concern in numerous countries,

which mainly depend on agriculture for the livelihood of the people .Fresh water

availability, is already a major factor in sustainable use of resources. The water

scarcity is further accentuated by the ground and surface water pollution. So it is

impertinent to note that the management of water resources plays a pivotal role in

food & environmental security in the world characterized by increasing conflict over

water resources. The concept of watershed is very important in this regard and as it

is a basic hydrological unit and hydrological and ecological processes govern the

quality of soil and water in the area of watershed. Technically speaking the term

watershed is defined as the drainage basin or catchment area of a particular river

stream or an area from where the water flows into a particular drainage system, but

over the time it has acquired a broad meaning and is now considered as a biological,

physical, economic, and social system too (Menon, 2012 ).

As seen from above, watershed development is required to be holistic concept which

integrates several components like soil and water conservation, forestry

development, agriculture and livestock and other livelihood options, hence touching

broad contours of environment and public life. This kind of integration in turn leads

to environmental and social sustainability. But the question arises, how far have we

have been able to succeed in achieving Equity, sustainability through watershed

development? And how far this has succeeded in providing livelihood sources to the

people?

Though the watershed development approach was adopted as early as 1949 yet

status wise as today it stands fragmented in terms of activities, programs and

funding sources (Vaidyanathan, 1991). There had been a tendency for proliferation

of activities with special area, rural development and employment programs.

Departments namely agriculture, forests, rural development, National Waste Land

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Development Board and voluntary organizations are working on different programs

like soil conservation, land shaping and development, minor irrigation, silvipasture,

social or farm forestry and afforestation. MoRD has been implementing watershed

development projects only since the late 1980s. It deals with non-forest wastelands

and poverty alleviation programmes having components of soil and water

conservation. Watershed programmes implemented by MoRD include the Drought

Prone Areas Programme, Desert Development Programme, Integrated Wastelands

Development Programme, and Externally Aided Projects (EAPs). Since 1989, the

MOEF has been implementing the National Afforestation and Eco-Development

Project, with the intention of promoting afforestation and development of degraded

forests within an integrated watershed approach.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Broad objectives of the present review are as follows:

To review the literature on watershed development with emphasis on the

issues of equity, sustainability and livelihood.

Examine the experiences of the various watershed programmes brings to light

the issues through the lens of a normative framework adopting three

important interconnected themes of sustainability, livelihoods, and equity.

To emphasise upon the importance of interconnectivity of the themes of

sustainability, livelihood and equity and the impact of watershed development

on them.

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CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS

What is Sustainable development?

Sustainable development has been defined in many ways. While it refers to the

minimisation of entropy in the production process according to quantum mechanics

principle, it is reworked to ascribe a development which is environmentally non-

degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable [FAO

1991]. Operationally this definition has been further amended to take into account

the ecological sustainability in the case of renewable resources as managing the

environmental resources to ensure the long-term sustainable utilisation of species

and eco-systems, minimise the survival risk and generally keep open as many future

options as possible [IUCN 1980]. Hence, the concept of sustainability gradually gets

diluted to sustainable utilisation. Also, the Famous Bruntland commission also

defines sustainable development as.

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present

without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own

needs". (Brundtland, 1987)

As the problem is in situ and man-made, the people of the region hold the key for

dispensing with the problem. People participation for management of Common

Pooled Resources (CPRs) becomes an important ingredient to translate the goals of

sustainable development in an organisational context at the local level. With the

growing realisation that development should be woven around people and not the

people around development (Haq, 1993), the concept of sustainable development

has attained a centre-stage. The important role of community participation in the

field of ecological, biological, technical and socio-cultural and economic context on

sustainable development is being realised.

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What do we mean by Equity?

The term Equity is used in many fields ranging from finance, & accounting to law,

economics to the social issues. Equity here implies fair access to livelihood, education

and other resources; full participation in political, cultural & economic life of

community and self-determination in meeting of fundamental needs (President's

Council on Sustainable Development, 1996). The concept of equity is related to equal

life chances regardless of identity and membership to any particular caste, class or

group. The principle of equity applies to wide ranging issues relating to access to

natural resources and sharing of gains, and it requires one to take cognizance of the

disabilities created by class, gender, caste, and ethnicity. (Sen, Shah, & Kumar, 2007)

What do we mean by livelihood?

The dictionary definition of livelihood defines it as a means of securing the

necessities of life. In social sciences the concept of livelihood extends to include

social and cultural means i.e. the command and individual family, or other social

group has over income or resources that can be exchanged to satisfy its needs. This

may involve information, cultural knowledge, social networks, legal rights as well as

tools, land and other physical resources. Livelihood encompasses building

capabilities and assets to generate activities to support a basis for living. Some

distinction has been made between basic needs and livelihood needs on the basis of

whether they are unmediated or imposed with relation to production. In the field of

watershed development we are mainly concerned with the physical resources of

livelihoods (Sen, Shah & Kumar, 2007)

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WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN THE LIGHT OF EQUITY,

LIVELIHOOD AND SUSTAINABILITY

There is plethora of literature available on watershed management programme

covering wide range of issues. However, In this section an attempt has been made to

review the literature on different issues related to equity, sustainability & livelihood

to arrive at a coherent understanding of Watershed development in light of these

issues.

Equity Issues

Equity issues are intrinsically linked with nature of participatory institutions built

within watershed development initiatives. Natural resources that are not privately

owned have the potential to play a key role in reducing disparities across households

within a watershed. While it is desirable that the entire stock of natural resources is

shared equitably, the least that the participatory institutions ought to ensure is that

the incremental resources generated through the interventions are shared fairly.

As put by Sangameshrawan (2006) in most natural resource management

programmes, considerations about collective action, efficiency and sustainability

have tended to get primacy over equity concerns. This is in spite of the fact that the

importance of equity in all developmental programmes has now been emphasised in

a variety of forums, for its linkages with sustainability and efficiency. In the case of

watershed programmes also, adequate attention has not been paid to equity

concerns.

Evaluation reports of watershed projects have very clearly brought out the fact that

successful watershed projects which have sustained over the years were designed in

such a way that every individual residing in the watershed area came to have a stake

in the successful completion and maintenance of the watershed project. This is an

important area, which many watershed projects have tended to neglect.

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Inequities arise in watershed programmes due to a number of factors, some of them

important ones are

Approach to Watershed development (i.e. integrated approach vs landholder

centric approach)

Spatial location (i e, upstream versus downstream)

Differences of class, caste and gender

A landholder centric approach tends to align with the technical point of view but has

severe ramifications on the equity concerns. Gains from a watershed project largely

accrue to the landholders. Marginal farmers and agricultural labourers only benefit

from the project on account of increased agricultural activity, which increases

opportunities for employment. If flow of benefits from the watershed is not

specifically channelized to these groups in terms of greater access to Common

Property Resources (CPRs), fodder for their cattle and fuel requirements, little

incentive remains for these groups to cooperate in rejuvenation of the CPRs through

the mechanisms of social fencing or any other method which the community might

choose for regeneration of non-agricultural land. The issue of equitable distribution

of gains, therefore, is crucial to the sustainability the project in the long run. In this

regard, providing access to land to the marginal and landless agricultural labourers

through the mechanism of rights on harvested water could be one alternative. It may

be desirable to incorporate sharing of water by all residents in a watershed project as

one of the preconditions for selecting a village for watershed development project.

The rain-fed regions in India are typically in undulating, hilly or mountainous terrain.

Such landscapes are characterised by great agro-ecological diversity as soil conditions

and water availability may vary markedly even within a village. The great variation in

rainfall across the country is the other source of ecological diversity in the rain-fed

regions. Such landscapes also tend to be ecologically "connected" - what happens

upstream affects the downstream and isolated actions bear no results (Deep Joshi,

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2006). This interconnected nature of the upstream and downstream areas raises

another concern for equity, because of uneven distribution of benefits of watershed

development between them.

The inequities arising out of the membership of persons to a particular class, caste or

gender is another aspect of several watershed development programmes. This kind

of inequity is a result of certain existing power structures in the region which tend to

get challenged by the community programs like watershed development. The

dominant groups then try to assert their dominance over the resources and try to

corner maximum benefits from the watershed development programs, leaving the

other groups (class, caste or gender) deprived of these benefits. The role caste and

class has been evident in many studies related to watershed development and has

been highlighted as a cause of success or failure in many examples. While a

democratically constituted watershed institution should be in a position to intervene

in the issues regarding encroachment of CPRs for cultivation, or sharing of forest

products, it may be difficult to do so in heterogonous societies ridden with class

and/or caste conflicts. In relatively homogenous societies, the participatory

institutions would have far greater potential to apply the principle of equity in many

of the above-mentioned settings. Also there are examples of unsuccessful projects

due to huge inequities and resulting conflict of interest among the heterogeneous

class & caste setup (DSilva & Pai, 2003). The role of women and the inequities faced

by women in the watershed development programs has also been studied and the

impact of these programs enabling women to participate on an equal footing with

men in the decision-making process regarding watershed management is highlighted

in sample studies from Madhya Pradesh by Action for social advancement in their

paper Watershed Development in Madhya Pradesh: Implications for Women,

wherein they have the problem of inequity due to gender and the ways of tackling

this exclusion. (ASA, 2007).

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Some of the important examples highlighting the issue of equity in watershed

development programs are given below:

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The Sukhomajiri Experience

This watershed development program in Haryana introduced a new approach to

equitable water resource sharing in line with the traditional methods of allocation

called Warabandi . As per the method water was allocated first to people and then to

land. Even a landless had equal share in water available for the irrigation in the dam.

Thus as a result of this watershed development program the village has achieved

ecological and economic sustainability, people have achieved food security. In about

3 decades the villagers have faced problems of drought even in drought period. This

model was further replicated in parts of shiwalik and Punjab and had a profound

impact of the people participation and equity in the dimensions of income, resource

distribution etc. in the watershed development (Grewal S.S 1995, Krishna 1996).

The Hivre Bazar Experience (Sangameshwaran, 2006)

An important example of equity in watershed development has been given by Priya

Sangameshrawan in her study of the Watershed program in Hivre Bazar,

Maharashtra. The project has led to at least some improvement in the lives of most

villagers. In addition, measures such as the targeting of developmental schemes and

provision for fodder via turns on the common grazing lands have meant that even

those traditionally excluded from the benefits of a watershed development

intervention or those losing out from it - usually the lower landholding classes such

as marginal farmers, and the landless - have benefited in some way. Increased

demand for wage labour - one of the indirect effects of watershed development - has

benefited the landless households. Further, watershed-plus measures such as better

access to health and education facilities and improvement in drinking water facilities

have contributed to improving the quality of life of the landless. SHGs provide the

means to overcome temporary monetary shortfalls; along with developmental

schemes, they may also increase access to assets like small animals. Also, that this

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targeting of the landless and marginal farmers while implementing watershed-plus

measures took place without any "demands" for the same emanating from them.

According to her the equity concerns in any project are influenced by a many of

factors such as the different concepts of equity by the various agents involved,

macro-level factors such as government policies and laws on relevant subjects, and

the nature of the development process that people are interested in setting in

motion. The equity potential of watershed development is limited by certain

minimum requirement of land-holding by the beneficiaries; while the logic behind

this is that without a certain level of landholding, the water would not be optimally

used, the result is that marginal farmers find it difficult to avail benefits of the

schemes. There is also the question of whether the indirect gains of watershed

development as well as watershed-plus measures offer an adequate substitute for

access to significant assets such as water and land

The Hivre Bazar experience is quite inspiring despite of the constraints, not only in

terms of its equity outcome, but also in terms of improvement in livelihoods and the

impact on sustainability. The measures to minimize the negative impact of measures

like the ban on grazing, the restrictive rules about use of water and the careful

targeting of watershed-plus measures have resulted in balancing out the equity

concerns of the watershed program .

The lesson on equity learnt from Hivre bazar Watershed development program:

Hivre Bazar therefore gives an important lesson, that some of the inequities

considered "inherent" to watershed development projects can be partially remedied

by local-level initiative, and it is important to think about ways in which this

experience can be used to improve the equity outcome in other watershed

development projects. At the same time, it would also be useful to reflect upon the

limitations in equity in Hivre Bazar and the questions raised by them about the kind

of development one is aiming for, the best way to meet the livelihood requirements

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of the landless and marginal in rural areas as well as to empower them, and how to

reconcile different notions of equity( Sangameshwaran, 2006).

The success of watershed projects depends to a large extent on the ability of the

watershed community to address issues of equity, maintenance of watershed

community structures created and the sustainability of such arrangements. It has

been observed in a few cases that the initial cooperation of the community in a

watershed project had come about as all stake holders in the area were more or less

similarly placed economically. With the successful implementation of watershed

projects, land owning families experienced higher level of income which created

fissiparous tendencies in the community. The sections left out have very little stake

in maintaining Watershed structures or adhering to the strict conventions that

watershed community imposed on itself in the initial years of the project for natural

regeneration of grasslands or forests within the watershed. Reports of trees being

cut and grasslands being put under extreme biotic pressures have been documented.

These issues would need to be adequately tackled if the movement is to become

self-sustaining in the long run. (Sangameshwaran, 2006)

To address these issues the approach to these watershed programs needs to be

modified. One of the approaches may be where; the landholders in the watershed

get water for irrigation. However, the non-land owning families in the village get a

larger share of output from the Common Property Resources (CPR) which gets

rejuvenated after successful completion of the project. This will enable many

families to take up animal husbandry as an occupation and meet their fodder and

fuel requirements from the CPR. Fishing rights on ponds constructed as part of the

watershed project are only given to the self-help groups of the landless. These

arrangements will effectively increase access of poor to the land and other sources of

livelihood and improve their standard of living. These innovations have yet to be

adopted widely and need to be up scaled. (Sangameshwaran, 2006)

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Decentralisation of Watershed development programs and equity

In India a kind of decentralisation approach which involves the panchayats and

village based institutions has been studied by M. Gopinath Reddy and M. Srinavas

Reddy (2006), wherein they have tried to understand the process issues of

institutional assessment of the institutions like village panchayats given their

emergence at the centre stage of the management of the natural resources as

mandated by the constitutional amendments (73rd amendment) and policy

guidelines (Harayali guidelines, 2003) which necessarily have equity as their

objective.

The decentralised approach to watershed development is being studied by many

authors. I J Fidelman have brought forward the examples of decentralised natural

resource management from New South Wales, Australia. The paper provides a

detailed account of Catchment management strategy at different levels, wherein the

policy and the organisational levels are more centralized and involve the formulation

of acts, regulations and several authorities and committees, while the at the

operational level decentralisation strategy is adopted and the local bodies and user

groups play a larger role. The author has also tried to approach challenges through

an evaluative framework for this kind of decentralised natural resource management

strategy. The increased involvement of the local bodies and user groups has positive

implication on addressing the equity issues arising out of the watershed

development programs. (I.J.Fidelman, 2000)

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Livelihood Issues

In the normative framework, natural capital is accorded primacy over social, physical,

human and financial capital in supporting livelihood needs. The relationship between

natural capital and livelihood is not predictable; a decrease in the base of natural

capital may not always lead to an adverse livelihood status. For example, a reduced

natural resource base may induce a farmer to adopt better cultivation management

practices. (Sen, Shah, Kumar, 2007)

Watershed management has been conceived basically as a strategy for improvement

in agriculture, prevention of soil erosion water harvesting etc. and is mainly centred

around land development. But as suggested by the Hanumantha Rao committee

report (1994) that if the watershed development programmes is viewed as a rural

livelihood rather that land development programme, women and poor marginal

farming households will benefit, given their dependence on many non- land based

activities. Also the Parthasarathy committee report (2006) has made contribution the

report makes is to introduce the word" livelihoods" into the watershed development,

to give watershed development a larger social perspective and purpose. By focusing

on livelihoods watershed development can be the main poverty alleviation

programme, given the varied contours of poverty in India. It would then also become

the driver of decentralised growth, growth with distribution. Unfortunately,

livelihoods come out in the report as an add-on, a kind of "water-shed plus" rather

than the core objective of watershed development programmes. To that extent, the

report has been shackled by contemporary programmes and practices. The Harayali

Guidelines (2003) brought out by Department of Land Resources for the

implementation of watershed development programmes under IWDP also envisage

Employment generation, poverty alleviation, community empowerment and

development of human and other economic resources in rural areas as the objectives

of watershed development.

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The detail of watershed scheme is determined by what one wants from it and what

can be obtained sustainably. Livelihoods are the objective function which is to be

maximised through watershed development and sustainability is the constraint that

sets the boundaries. The specific interventions or "treatment" in the watershed are

dictated by the objective function of livelihood, and not vice versa. (Joshi, 2006)

According to Deep Joshi, this shift in emphasis towards livelihood is a new paradigm

and calls for a great deal of creativity and innovation. It has major implications for

the kind of agency required, the processes to be followed, equity, potential for social

conflict/cooperation, etc. Multiple plans can be made for a given watershed, each

with different implications for local livelihoods. For example a check dam may be

built to harvest rainwater and then begin to worry about fisheries as a livelihood, or

one may conceive of fisheries as a livelihood on the basis of objective analysis carried

out jointly with the watershed inhabitants and then plan appropriate water storage

structures to rear fish; clearly, the two are fundamentally different approaches.

Without the focus on livelihoods, water-shed development practice would continue

to follow the old paths and techniques. (Joshi, 2006).

Nevertheless, despite all the above concerns, the watershed development strategy

has contributed a great deal in enhancing the livelihoods of people in the areas

where these programmes were implemented. There are many examples arising out

of different parts of country where there was a considerable positive impact on the

livelihood of the people. Some of these stories are illustrated below:

The Sukhomajiri experience

This was a successful watershed management project in Haryana and it also gets

credit for the evolution of the concept of social fencing which is essentially the

strategy for protecting soil in the common areas of village. The main occupation of

the Gujjars living in the village was cattle and goat rearing and hence grazing was

rampant in the region leading to degradation of the land in the nearby forest. The

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impetus of the watershed program was to protect the land from degradation and

increase the irrigation facilities to the villagers. After the increase of irrigation

facilities the crop yield increased and villagers gave up goat rearing. Due to reduced

grazing the land as well as the forest cover increased. The experiment was successful

in providing alternative occupation to the villagers for their livelihood and was

successful in increasing the household incomes as well. The other places where this

model was replicated also experienced a profound increase in the incomes and new

livelihood opportunities. For instance the farming community income increased by

around 21 percent in kandi watershed in Punjab, also additional incomes from milk

production accrued to the farmers. (Iyer and Roy, 2005)

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Sustainability issues

The understanding of sustainability, in our view, is limited to environmental

sustainability as mediated by human intervention, and this is consistent with our

assumption about the primacy of the role of natural capital in supporting livelihoods.

Thus, from this perspective, watershed development should focus on conserving

natural capital. A possible conflict may arise between the aims to increase

productivity by increasing physical or financial capitals on one hand and conserving

the natural capital on the other. The primacy accorded to the natural capital would

require that the productive planning of the watershed. In bad years some transfers

from the stock of resources may be permitted to sustain livelihoods, with the

understanding that the stock would be replenished in the good years.

As discussed in the conceptual underpinning the concept of sustainable development

acquired prominence after it was formulated by the World Commission of

environment and development (Bruntdland Commission, 1987) in its reports our

common future .This concept of Bruntdland Commission has an implicit assumption

that development based on human plunder of natural resources is inhuman and

development with human face is only sustainable. However it neglects an important

issue of global equity and gives way to certain inequity. The concept of sustainable

development in the context of watershed development raises the issue of inequity

and advocates for the development with people participation and Equity as basic

ingredient of sharing of natural resources. This concept of sustainability is broad

based and incorporates ecological, economic and socio-cultural sustainability. By

ecological sustainability we mean the basic function of watershed development

programmes like regeneration of forest cover, reduction of soil erosion, increasing of

soil water potential by employing efficient natural resource management practices.

The economic sustainability would ensure sustainable livelihood in terms of

economic productivity, food & fodder security, fuel security and employment

security. Further, the socio-cultural sustainability include the formation of new

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institutions and strengthening of existing socio-cultural institutions, the main

components of socio-cultural sustainability are promotion of social equity and social

empowerment. (Iyer, and Roy, 2005)

The socio-cultural sustainability has many ingredients some of which are facilitating it

like the building up of local level institutions for CPR management, equitable

distribution of resources, consistent government support, participation of people

organisations, dynamic leadership, improved education status and people

participation in every stage of the watershed development; class, gender and caste

euity etc. ; while others hindering the growth like conflicts in CPR management (both

inter & intra village), lack of government support, lack of unity among people, lack of

motivation and illiteracy, hoarding of benefits by influential people, flow of

migration, gender-caste-class inequity etc. (Iyer & Roy, 2005)

Social Capital formation and sustainability

The relation between social capital and sustainability is being analysed by Chopra

(2006). An evolving and increasing stock of social capital forms a necessary input for

sustained development. The paper examines concepts of social capital, and its role as

an index of synergy between agents located in different formal sectors. Development

is seen as the policy objective in a large number of developing countries. Achieving it

with sustainability of resource use shall require formulation policy interventions

which use formal institutions in conjunction within informal institutions like village

level communities etc. The concept of 'social capital' is useful when interpreted as

the networking between sets of agents located in different sectors, which is critical

to the success of such development interventions. This networking creates the

ground rules for sustainability in watershed development interventions and develops

trust and coordinated actions for development (Chopra, 2006)

Watershed development has emerged as only a way of developing and managing

natural resources to make the most of the elements from the land-based portion of

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the water cycle, in a sustainable manner. But there are some basic issues to be

tackled first i.e. What should be sustained? A range of answers could be found in

different texts ranging from sustaining the existing level of production, sustaining the

current level and quality of productive resources and the symbiosis to sustain the

current well-being of the people. (Joshi, 2006)

A Contrast to conception of Sustainability in Irrigated and Dry regions

All the aspects mentioned suit perfectly to the irrigated region where the current

quality of life and the current level of productive resources as well as production

appear to be in conformity with the socially acceptable standard of living. On the

contrary, the prevailing situation neither is conducive nor provide for a socially

acceptable living in the dry region. In addition, the poor economic condition and

erratic weather further aids to the degradation process both in the quality of life and

quality of the natural resources. Hence, the sustainable development in the dry

watershed region has to be reworked to comprehend the situation completely. There

are evident changes in cropping pattern and the shift towards a set of lucrative

commercial crops. While most of the coarse millets noticeably have lost their

significance, the more drought resistant oilseeds gained more land than other crops.

It appears to be a common trend in both scarcity and transition zones, which

according to environmentalists, appears to be the beginning of an end. In such

situation watershed development prepares the ground for sustainable agriculture.

The considerable positive change in the tree crops also supports the environmental

aspects of agriculture by facilitating the rain water to leach greater depth along-the

roots of the trees which in turn ensures moisture retention for a longer period. This

emphasises the linkages among agricultural production and environment to have a

sustainable agriculture.

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IWDP and Sustainability

The Integrated Watershed Development Project (IWDP) for rainfed (plain) regions is

a manifestation of the shift in the policy approach which emphasised long-term

environmental sustainability rather than enhancing farm productivity. It deviates

from the earlier approach of the model watershed projects for the dry land area

which was heavily focused on mechanical Soil water conservation measures along

with a comprehensive package of agronomic practices to bring significant increase in

farm productivity. Unlike the earlier strategy, the new approach adopted by IWDP is

to achieve sustainable productivity gains over a longer period of time. Therefore, the

project lays special emphasis on in situ conservation.

An analysis to examine the performance of IWDP from the two micro-watersheds,

viz, Vatrak and Narmada in the dryland regions of Gujarat has been done by Amita

Shah. At the time of the survey (i e, in July 1994), the project had completed three

years of implementation which is rather a short time span to ascertain the impact on

crop productivity. Therefore, besides quantitative estimates, qualitative information

was also collected to capture farmers' perceptions. The analysis is based on a

primary survey of 200 cultivating households, "with and without" the project's

interventions. The major issues addressed by the study are: (a) what kind of

traditional Soil Water Conservation measures were adopted by the farmers? (b) To

what extent vegetative measures have contributed to yield gains? (c)What are the

farmers' perceptions about the impact of vegetative measures, and what kind of

support do they expect from the project? (Shah, 1998 )

As per the authors, the above analysis suggested that in a farming environment,

where a large number of farmers have already adopted soil water conservation

measures along with fairly wide adoption of improved seed varieties and chemical

fertiliser, vegetative measures alone cannot make any significant impact on crop

productivity. What they need therefore is a set of measures which they cannot

23

manage with their individual resources. Hence, external intervention to overcome

financial as well as organisational constraints becomes essential for facilitating

farmers' investment in land and water resources. Vegetative measures, having

environmentally favourable impact but bringing limited yield gains create divergence

between the private and social returns. Hence, these measures cannot be promoted

in isolation of the measures that improve farm productivity on private land; provision

of subsidy or motivational efforts may bring only limited success which also may not

last for long. (Shah, 1998)

Institutional Approach to Sustainable Watershed Management

An institutional approach to watershed management has been proposed by V.Ratna

Reddy with main emphases is on the sustainability of the approach. The paper has

analysed the theories of Collective Action related to watershed development and has

focussed on critical evaluation of approach and its evolution. The paper also focusses

on problems & dilemmas related to the management of common pool resources

(CPR) and the issues related to equity in these programs, and propose an innovative

institutional approach to the above problems which is also conducive to the

evolution of watershed management as a sustainable process. (Reddy, 2003)

Some of the important examples highlighting the impact on sustainability in

watershed development programs are given below:

The impact on sustainability in Punjab

The impact evaluation studies on sustainability were conducted in Punjab in 1998 in

12 villages of 2 watershed areas, and the major points that were highlighted in the

studies were related to all the three types of sustainabilities discussed above. In the

realm of ecological sustainability, afforestation was a major achievement which

resulted in increased vegetative cover and restoration of degraded hill slopes and the

deployment of soil conservation measures was also successful. In Economic

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sustainability the increase in irrigated area (29.6 % to 55.1 %) resulted in change in

cropping pattern and increased yield, also the livestock was increased resulting in

increased milk production (25-50 %). On the social sustainability front both positive

and negative outcomes were observed. Among the positive outcomes was the

increased awareness level about the village development committee (VDC), among

the negative outcomes was the minimal participation of women, no NGO

participation, no participation in microplanning and siphoning off of majority of

benefits by the farming community. Hence we see that the watershed development

strategy touches every aspect of sustainability in some or the other way. (Roy & Iyer,

2005)

The impact on sustainability in Bundelkhand Watersheds

The Bundelkhand region represents transition zone of tropical dry sub-humid and

tropical dry arid regions. In view of the fragile status of the natural resources in the

region, there is no alternative to their management than on a watershed basis. The

watershed development in this arid region of bundelkhand had a profound impact on

sustainability in the region. On ecological front the measures for increasing the

vegetative cover and reduction of soil and water loss, increased water availability for

future use by storing in ponds, increased water table , on the economic front it was

through maximising productivity, and stabilizing the income of people through

integrated crop-livestock-tree-people development. Also on socio-economic front

the people were integrated together by ensuring their participation in the watershed

program and the effects on the ecological and economic sustainability further

percolated in the socio economic upliftment of people in the watershed region.

( Solanki, Karimulla & Dadhwal )

25

CONCLUSION

The issues of equity, livelihood and sustainability interplay with each other and

thereby play and important role in making a watershed development scheme a

success or a failure. These issues are quite overlapping and cannot be put into

separate compartments. Therefore a holistic approach is required when an attempt

is made to review the watershed development schemes with focus on equity,

sustainability and livelihood. Also, there is a need to recognise water-shed

technology as a common good, which needs participatory development. For a long

time Water-shed development programmes have been treated like any other

programmes, emphasising spread rather than sustainability. Unlike in the case of

individual based technologies like HYV the watershed technology is subject to the

constraints and hence the results are not dramatic. Unless this constraint is

recognised and given due importance, it is unlikely to achieve the desired objectives.

The recognition of importance of the intertwined nature of these three factors and

accordingly planning the implementation would go a long way in making the

watershed development a success story. Apart from that the realisation of

importance of social capital formation at different levels and forms would further

boost the impact of watershed development on the issues of equity, sustainability

and livelihood. Any perfect example of watershed development is difficult to find,

because it is contingent upon the local conditions, the social setup etc. but there is a

visible trend towards overall development the gradual evolution of watershed

development as a strategy for sustainable development with a profound equity in

outcomes and a positive impact on livelihood generation. The need of the hour is to

insulate this evolved and rejuvenated strategy for watershed development from the

detrimental factors like political influences, caste/class polarisations, hoarding of

benefits by influential groups and prevent it from losing its core focus on overall

development.

26

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