WOTR Annual Report 2011 2012 Uploaded

7/29/2019 WOTR Annual Report 2011 2012 Uploaded

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Annual Report2011-2012

UNDER THE CLIMATE LENS...

Watershed Organisation Trust


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CoNTENTSSectin I 5Philosophy, Vision, Mission 6

Board of Trustees 7

Foreword 8

List of Abbreviaons 11

About WOTR 12

Consultancy Services and Products Oered 13

WOTR Involvements 14

Area of Operaon 16

Training Outreach 17

Overview of Acvies (Cumulave upto March 2012) 18

Sectin II 23

Acvies 2011-2012 24

Capacity Building Support for Watershed Development and Rainfed Natural

Resources Management 24

Direct Implementaon of Projects 25

Climate Change Adaptaon Project 28

Drinking Water and Sanitaon 41

Renewable Energy 43

Womens Empowerment 44

Health & Nutrion 45

Community Managed Rural Tourism 47

Knowledge Management 47

Communicaons & Outreach 50

The School of Sustainable Living and Livelihood (SSLL) 50

Sectin III 53

Networking and Linkages 54

Highlights 55

What Visitors Say 57

Financial Statement 59

Our Donors and Enablers 60

Contact Details 61


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Sectin I


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Missin

To provide commied development support that

movates, energizes and empowers individuals,groups, communies and other organizaons to

undertake integrated ecosystems development for

enhancement of well-being on a sustainable basis.

Philsphy

WOTR believes that land degradaon and water

scarcity are the most intense and commonly felt

needs of a village community that can bring dierent

groups of people together to begin their development

process. Community restoraon of the natural

environment makes sustainability happen. Such

community-led eorts help combat challenges and

adapt to climate change and migate its impacts.

Visin

Communies, especially the poor within, are empowered

to live in dignity and secure their livelihood in sustainable

eco-systems.


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Fr. Hermann Bacher

Founder Chairman

He is known as the father of watershed

development movement in Maharashtra and the

reason is obvious enough. Born in Switzerland, Fr.

Bacher made Maharashtra his home early in life.

Having come into close contact with villagers whose

lives had been turned upside down for lack of water

resources, he iniated watershed development

acvies and subsequently co-founded WOTR. His

favourite lines have been: Without watershed

development, there is no soluon to drought and

Water is the problem; WOTR, the soluon.

Bard f Trustees

Mr. Crispino Lobo

Co-Founder & Managing Trustee

An alumnus of the Gokhale Instute of Polics

and Economics, India, and the Kennedy School of

Government, Harvard University, USA, Crispino

has ve academic degrees covering the elds

of philosophy, theology, psychology, economics

and public administraon. He is well known

in development circles for his knowledge and

achievements in the elds of natural resource

management, parcipatory watershed development

and integrated water resources management. He

co-founded WOTR, together with Fr. Bacher. He

now heads the Sampada Trust, a micronance and

entrepreneurship development centre.

Members:

Mr. Asoke Basak

IAS (Rered)

When it comes to an understanding of the funconing

of government agencies, there is none beer than

Asoke Basak, now a rered IAS ocer who served

as the Addional Chief Secretary of the government

of Maharashtra, Chairman of the Maharashtra State

Electricity Board, Chief Execuve Ocer of the

Zilla Parishad-Bhir, Collector of Nasik and Nanded,

Dairy Development Commissioner and has worked

with the Maharashtra government in various other

posions. He has two Masters degrees in Geology and

Business Administraon and a Diploma in Systems

Management to his credit. His diverse experience in

various elds of development administraon is whathas proved to be of immense benet to WOTR.

Dr. G.G. Parikh

Chairman (Yusuf Meherally Centre)

A well known freedom ghter and champion of the

poor, G G as he is known to his friends, Dr. Parikh

is one of the mainstays of the Yusuf Meherally

Centre, a centre for rural re-empowerment, located

in Tara village, Panvel. At 84, he travels the 90 or so

kilometres to Tara in Raigad district, near Mumbai,

on a weekly, and somemes bi-weekly, basis and

connues his medical work at his clinic in Mumbai

for the rest of the week. Dr. Parikh is also working

on a Khadi Gramodyog Andolan. He has been on the

Board of Trustees of WOTR since 1996.


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Frewrd

WOTR has historically had a systems-based approach to Watershed Development

aware of the increasing fragility of ecosystems and strengthening these through

people-centric, parcipatory intervenons.

Since 2008, WOTR has been reorienng, re-organising and equipping itself with

respect to strategy, approach, focus, intervenons and measurable indicators in

order to specically address the challenges (and opportunies) posed by climate

change to vulnerable rural communies. In the process, it has introduced new

approaches and intervenons bringing Adaptaon into the focus-forefront.

We have introduced several new concepts and intervenons:

Ecosystems-based Watershed Development - which is a means to reduce risks,

migate the impact of extreme meteorological events, increase producvity,

conserve biodiversity, improve quality of life, and stabilise and enhance nature based

livelihoods.

Adapve Sustainable Agriculture promotes low external inputs and use of

indigenous seeds to increase land producvity and reduce cost of culvaon. This

is combined with agro-meteorology and water budgeng to make agriculture

sustainable, ecient and adapve keeping in mind food security, nutrion security

and market demands.

Agro-meteorology uniquely combines locale-specic Met-advisories (weather

forecasts) and Agro-advisories that provide mely informaon to farmers so that

they can plan their agricultural acvies accordingly. This is supported by a Content

Management System that electronically archives crop related informaon, weather

condions aecng major pest and disease incidences, and cultural pracces of crop

management supported by crop-calendars.

Water Budgeng helps communies visualize and plan their crops based on their

exisng needs and requirements of water and water availability, ensuring opmum

and ecient use of water by opmizing irrigaon, equitable sharing of excess water,

and considered decisions on groundwater withdrawals.

Integraon ofBiodiversity concerns builds awareness in the community about the

importance of promong, conserving and protecng the local biodiversity, helps

them keep a record of it through parcipatory mapping, idenfy and sustainably


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promote biodiversity-based economic acvies, and address likely adverse

biodiversity-related impacts of decisions taken by local bodies.

This process of change has been a long-drawn out one and has crystallized over the

last 4 years from our own ground-level experiences of successes and failures.

We have been rethinking convenonal development and have introduced

approaches like Systems Thinking and Complexity in analysis and programming and

are developing strategies to incorporate these.

Keeping the above Complexity and its ramicaons in mind we have been

developing tools and frameworks while adapng exisng ones. These help us move

from acvity based project design & management to framework based project

design, management, and monitoring & evaluaon that are indicaons based rather

than indicators based, especially of impacts that may not be visible in the short-termbut will emerge in the long-term.

We have simultaneously redesigned and adapted our research methods where

members of local communies become researchers observing, measuring, and

assessing for themselves not only problems but also the improvements that a project

brings about. We have also been taking up new researches at the ground to assess

climate related impacts.

Since these are new areas of thinking and approaches, our own eld and

research teams have undergone a series oftrainings over the last 3 years. Similar

capacity building sessions have also been carried out with key people from the

local communies. We are now designing and conducng training modules

on implicaons of Climate Change, vulnerability assessment, climate-smart

project planning, implementaon, and monitoring, for other implementers and

development praconers.

We have also ramped up our communicaons to put together informaon quickly,

in dierent formats that highlight indicaons and experiences at the local level and

the causal relaonships for these in a non-linear fashion. For this WOTR uses all theavailable web media and technologies to publicise issues as well as experiences.

Since ecosystems and communies are interlinked, WOTR has adopted a cluster

based approach in which regenerated and sustainably managed ecosystems provide

the bedrock onto which all other intervenons are anchored.

In order to increase the producvity and eciency of the farmer, land and water

available amidst changing local weather condions, we are developing integrated


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crop-water-nutrient-pest management schedules for specic crops. An iniave

to provide weather related crop advisories regularly is also underway. A Content

Management System called Agrimate which aims to electronically archive crop

related management pracces and automate disseminaon tailored to farmer needs

is ready now.

Local Biodiversity mapping using modied Peoples Biodiversity approach is being

undertaken so as to idenfy, describe, and conserve local seeds, ora and fauna with

a view to building resilience of local communies and ecosystems to extreme climate

events. Such resources can also become sources of alternave green livelihoods

and sustenance especially in mes when tradional resources fail.

We have developed various community-centred, IT enabled tools to map

vulnerability and its drivers, and idenfy migave and adapve responses: CASDAAT

- Climate Adapve Sustainable Development Assessment & Adjustment Tool andLM3 - Local Money Mulplier; Vulnerability Assessment Tool (VAT), Parcipatory 3D

Modeling for Climate Change Adaptaon, Modied Peoples Biodiversity Register,

AgriMate, and Water Budgeng are in the works.

We are grateful for the immense support of the Embassy of Switzerland in India, the

Swiss Agency for Development Co-operaon and NABARD who have partnered us in

our eorts.

Dr. Marcella DSouza Crispino Lobo

Execuve Director Managing Trustee


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List f Abbreviatins

AHB AndheriHilfe, Bonn

BMZ German Ministry for Economic Cooperaon

CASDAAT Climate Adapve Sustainable Development Assessment &

Adjustment Tool

CBOs Community Based Organizaons

CBP Capacity Building Phase

CCA Climate Change Adaptaon

DTC Darewadi Training Centre

ECOs Ecological Community Organisers

GoM Government of Maharashtra

GP Gram Panchayat

GTZ German Agency for Technical Cooperaon

IGWDP lndo-German Watershed Development Programme

IRHA Internaonal Rainwater Harvesng Alliance

ILRI Internaonal Livestock Research Instute

IT Informaon Technology

KfW German Development Bank

MDGs Millennium Development Goals

MPs Mahila Pravartaks

MREGS Maharashtra Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MREGS)

NABARD Naonal Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

NGO Non-Governmental Organisaon

NHWDP NABARD supported Holisc Watershed Development Program

NREGS Naonal Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

NRM Natural Resources Management

PIAs Project Implemenng Agencies

PPCP Public Private Civil Society Partnership

PRIs Panchaya Raj Instuons

RSO Resource Support Organisaon

SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperaon

SHGs Self-Help Groups

SIED Sanjeevani Instute for Empowerment and Development

SMS Samyukta Mahila Sami

SPS School of Public Service

SRTT Sir Ratan Tata Trust

SSLL School for Sustainable Living and Livelihoods

ST Sampada Trust

UNCCD United Naons Convenon to Combat Desercaon

VDC Village Development Commiee

VPM Vidarbha Panlot Mission

VSHGs Village Self-Help GroupsVWCs Village Watershed Commiees

WASUNDHARA WOTR Aenve to Social Unity for Nature,

Development and Humanity in Rural Areas


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Abut WoTR

Watershed Organisaon Trust (WOTR) is one

of the premier NGOs tackling water scarcity,

rural poverty, and food insecurity in the dry

lands of India today.

WOTRs specic objecves are to regenerate

the natural ecosystem with a strong

parcipatory, people-centric approach that

will simultaneously repair the torn social-

fabric of communies; address severe water-

scarcity, recurring drought, low-agricultural

producvity, resulng in chronic hunger and

mal-nutrion, maladaptaon; alternave,

diversied livelihood opportunies through

partnerships between diverse groups: villages,

NGOs, Government within India and across countries.

In the current climate of a changing Climate, WOTRs endeavour is to now see

development through a Climate lens that focuses on a development paradigm that

strengthens the adapve capacies of the Ecosystems and the communies living

within them. The eort is to build resilience in communies that can take growthparadigms towards compassionate and eco-system based ones. The perspecve

is now broadened to address resource-scarcies that usually leave communies

spiraling in economic and climate vulnerabilies.

In all, WOTR has worked in 2,531 villages in 33 districts of the ve states of

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. In its 19

years it has organized 1,145 watershed development and (currently) climate change

adaptaon projects 53 villages, covering over 695,226 hectares and impacng 988,465

people. Its womens SHG promoon, micro-nance, trainings and other iniaves

5,045 self-help groups, which use micro-nancing to empower villagers with a desire

to work but no resources to get started. Over 65,783 women have improved their lives

through these ground-level organizaons. This is either by direct implementaon or by

handholding NGOs and village commiees in implementaon. WOTR has 184 NGOs

and government Project Implemenng Agencies (PIAs), which are vital partners in

WOTRs extensive development network.

WOTRs CCA project is specically implemented in 53 villages of Maharashtra,

Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh covering an area of 33,242 ha (332 sq.kms),

directly beneng 52,000 people from 9,800 households. The learnings crystallized

from these will be taken forward in all our future intervenons.

WOTR does:

Capacity Building and

Implementation Support

Direct Project

Implementation

Expertise and Service

Provisioning

Knowledge Management

Action research Networking and Policy

Dialogue


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Cnsultancy Services and Prducts offered

With competencies in Watershed Development and Natural Resource Management,

Integrated Water Resources Management, Rural Development, Community

Mobilizaon, Gender and Womens Empowerment, Systems Development and

Capacity Building, WOTR oers a variety of consultancy services to various

stakeholders such as forest departments, corporate houses, government

departments and NGOs.

Trainings and Exposure Dialogue:Designing and conducng need and demand-

based trainings in natural resource management, parcipatory and integrated

watershed development, community mobilizaon, applicaon of IT to project

management and entrepreneurship development.

Capacity Building and Instuonal Development: Upgrading the nancial,managerial, technical, social, organizaonal, team building and communicaon

skills of developmental agencies and primary stakeholders through custom- made,

systems- based and outcome- oriented pedagogies, with hand-holding and on- site

accompaniment.

Project Proposal Preparaon and Advisory: Project design, proposal formulaon,

feasibility studies and project proposal preparaon.

Project Supervision, monitoring & evaluaons:Supervision, monitoring, review and

evaluaons studies.

Programme Management: Management of projects and funds on behalf of donors

involving mul-stakeholders such as civil society actors, NGOs, corporate and

government agencies.

Informaon Technology and Soware Development Support

Development Communicaon and Documentaon such as audio, video and

photographic documentaon of the process and project works, as well as

preparaon of themac documentaries. Learning Systems: Development of processes, instruments and mechanisms

that help individuals and organisaons to capture, archive and process data

and informaon in a manner that promotes and facilitates learning, insight,

adaptaon and behavior change, increasing eciency, eecveness and

sustainability and makes the organisaon into a learning and knowledge enty.

Corporate Consultancy: Designing of survey and esmates, project formulaon,

soil and water conservaon measures, supervision and monitoring. The local

communies, NGOs and corporate team are capacitated to promote the

development process in their area.


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WoTR Invlvements

Programme Support

1. Indo-German Watershed Development Programme (IGWDP), Maharashtra

2. Resource Support Organisaon for Vidarbha Distress Development Program inMaharashtra (PM/NABARD)

3. Resource Support Agency for Rural Development Intervenons in South-East

Madhya Pradesh

4. Resource Support Agency in Tribal Belt of South Rajasthan

5. State Resource Organisaon and District Resource Organisaon for IWMP

Projects in Maharashtra

6. Support Training Instute for Hariyali Programme (GoM) in Dhule and Amrava

District

Direct Project Implementaon

Projects directly implemented by WOTR

1. Integrated Watershed Development projects in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,

Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan

2. Water Harvesng and parcipatory Water Budgeng

3. Adapve Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods

4. Health, Water and Sanitaon Promoon

5. Womens Empowerment6. Micro-Finance (taken over by Sampada Trust a sister instuon)

7. Informaon Technology and Management Informaon Systems (IT-MIS)

8. GIS and Remote Sensing -based, MIS-linked Analycal and Decision Support

Systems

9. Renewable Energy

10. Community Based Rural Tourism

Services Provided

1. Capacity Building/Trainings provided to local partners, naonal and internaonal

parcipants

2. IT based Services (Applied Informaon Technology)

3. Program and Project Management (including Feasibility Studies and Proposal

Formulaon)

4. Research and Knowledge Management

5. Training support on Lean Management (Kaizen Methodology) for producvity

enhancement


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6. Consultancy services.

7. Policy Dialogue, Networking and Linkage Building.

Networking and Advocacy

WOTR is/has

1. Supported a network of 184 NGOs/Govt. PIAs

2. Supported over 400 NGOs across India and 200,897 persons from 35 countries in

training/capacity building

3. Co-founder and member IRHA (Internaonal Rainwater Harvesng Alliance,

Geneva)

4. Accredited observer status to the UNCCD as CSO.

5. Close cooperave arrangement with the Govt. of India, Govt. of Maharashtra,

Govt. of Rajasthan,Govt. of Andhra Pradesh and Govt. of Madhya Pradesh.

New Partnerships

WOTR has entered into new partnerships with several organisaons that bring in

their experse for the Climate Change Adaptaon project. WOTR has signed MoUs

with:

(i) The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)

(ii) Central Research Instute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA)

(iii) Internaonal Centre for Research on Agriculture and Forestry (ICRAF)

(iv) Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV)

(v) Bhara Vidyapeeth Instute of Environment Educaon and Research (BVIEER)


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Area f operatin

Rajasthan

Madhya

Padesh

Jharkhand

Orissa

Head Ofce

Project Ofce

Regional Resource Centres (10)

Implementation Units (16)

Training Centres (2)

Maharashtra

Andhra

Pradesh


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Training outreach

Legend

No. of Paricipatns

NA

1 - 20

21 - 125

125 - 400

400 - 1000

1000 - 13000

Tamil Nadu

Andhra Pradesh

KarnatakaGoa

Kerala

Maharashtra

Orissa

Rajasthan

Gujarat Madhya Pradesh

Bihar

Jharkhand

Sikkim

Arunachal Pradesh

Assam Nagaland

Manipur

MizoramTripura

Meghalaya

Chhattisgarh

WestBengal

Delhi

Haryana

Jammu & Kashmir

HimachalPradesh

Punjab

Uttaranchal

Uttar Pradesh


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overview f Activities (Cumulative upt March 2012)

Activities Cumulative up t 31st Mar 2012

Sr. No. Acvies Cumulave up to 31st Mar 2012

Total Operaons 1121 villages

148 NGOs / Govt. PIAs

30 districts (25 dist. Maharashtra, 3 in

Madhya Pradesh& Rajasthan & 2 in Andhra

Pradesh )

674,096 hectares

956,936 people beneed

1. Capacity Building Support (Community management of natural and other resources)

i. IGWDP, Maharashtra / Other Funding 407 villages

25 districts

88 NGOs

220,022 ha. beneng

277,722 people

ii. Resource Support Organisaon (RSO) for Vidarbha Distress

Development Program in Maharashtra (PM/NABARD)

106 villages (24 clusters)

2 districts

11 NGOs

59,337 ha. beneng

70,631 people

iii. Govt. of Maharashtra

DPAP, Hariyali, IWDP, VPM

279 villages

4 districts

46 NGOs / PIAs

173,903 ha. beneng

262,837 people

iv. Resource Organisaon for Rural Development

Intervenons in South-East Madhya Pradesh

8 villages

3 districts

4 NGOs / PIAs

5,027 ha. beneng

4,281 people

v. Resource Support Agency in Tribal Belt of South Rajasthan 6 villages2 districts

3 NGOs / PIAs

3,282 ha. Beneng

9,105 people

Total Capacity Building Support 806 villages

30 districts (25 Maharashtra, 3 Madhya

Pradesh and 2 Rajasthan)

461,582 ha.



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2 Direct Implementaon of Projects

2.1 Watershed Development & Natural Resource Management

Maharashtra

IGWDP, WOTR-WASUNDHARA

110 villages

11 districts

64,418 ha. beneng

78,885 people

PPCP - MREGS-NREGA 109 villages

4 districts / 5 blocks

90,834 ha.


Andhra Pradesh

APRLP, IWMP and NABARD-WDF

38 villages

2 districts

29,254 ha. beneng

77,633 people

Madhya Pradesh 11 villages

1 district

2,881 ha. beneng

5,029 people

Rajasthan

WOTR WASUNDHARA(AHB)

PPCP-MGNREGA

8 villages

2 districts

4,076 ha., beneng

11,393 people

13 villages

1 district

4,647 ha. beneng

5,261 people

2.2 Promoon Of Climate Change Adaptaon

Maharashtra 39 villages

26,062 ha.

31,852 people


2,859 ha.

4,866 people

Andhra Pradesh 6 villages

4,331 ha.

14,642 people

Total Climate Change Adaptaon 53 villages

33,252 ha.

51,360 people


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2.3 Drinking Water & Sanitaon

2.3.1 Drinking Water provisioning 119 villages / hamlets. Beneng over 45,000

villagers

2.3.2 School Environment and Sanitaon Projects Toilet and drinking water system in 119villages / 168 schools

2.4 Renewable Energy for Rural Development Solar Home-lighng systems in 3,478

households

Solar Street Light units at 31 places in 13

villages

Agni biomass stove for 3,563 households

Hot water/smokeless chullahs for 2,658

households

Solar Parabolic Cookers in 19 rural schools

2.5 Womens Self-Help Promoon and Developmental acvies 5,045 savings and credit groups promoted for

65,783 women members

2.6 Health & Nutrion

2.6.1 Health promoon 42 villages

83 MahilaPravartaks (Women Health

Promoters) trained

2.6.2 Child care and Growth Monitoring 2

(0 5 age group)

130 villages

3 districts

7,087 children beneted

2.7 Bio Village Acvity: To build awareness among the communiesabout the problems in current agricultural pracces and

implement organic farming through bio-dynamic methods of

culvaon

Acvies:

Baseline data collecon

Exposure visits to bio-dynamic villages

Trainings on Bio-dynamic farming and cercaon

Demonstraon on biodynamic preparaons

Farmers eld schools

7 villages/ 7 districts from 4 dierent regionsof Maharashtra

3. Consultancies

Consultancies undertaken

Watershed development

Natural Resources Management

Monitoring & Evaluaon

Project Evaluaon

India (in 7 States)

7 Govt. Instuons

7 Non Govt. Instuons

10 Corporate Sectors

Other than India

Somaliland, Kenya , Tanzania , Malavi, Bhutan,

Sudan


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4. Trainings & Educaon

4.1 Trainings

For Implemenng Partners

Naonal Level Programs

Internaonal Level Programs

5,988 programs / 194,270 parcipants

755 programs / 21,467 parcipants

39 programs / 530 parcipants

Total Trainings 6,782 programs /

216,209 parcipants

4.2 The School for Sustainable Living and Livelihoods

WOTR has started the School for Sustainable Living & Livelihoods

since year 2007. Candidates from project villages in rural areas of

Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are being trained

as ECOs (Ecological Community Organisers) and Rural Chroniclers

(RC).

69 (19 females) candidates have successfully

completed their course

38 (7 female) candidates are being trained

Total of 107 (26 female) rural youth are

beneng from this iniave.

4.3 School Strengthening Programme (SSP)

Objecve

To make Teaching and Learning Interesng and Meaningful

(Connecon Between Educaon & Childs Life)

2 clusters / 9 villages in Sangamner and Akole

talukas, Ahmednagar district.

5. Community Managed Rural Tourism It is being carried out in 3 villages of Akole

taluka, Ahmednagar District

6. Research and Knowledge Management Socio-economic Baseline Studies of several

Watershed Villages and

58 Research Studies on various topics have

been completed

7. Communicaon & Documentaon 37 books

60 lms

on various topics have been published/

produced

8. Informaon Technology Soware systems:

DSS

Parcipatory Net Planning

GPS enabled muster data collecon and

reporng system,

Web based GIS soware,

HR Admin System and Weather data

analysis systems

2 mulmedia games (Water Budgeng

and Rural Transformaons) developed for

community mobilisaon


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Section II


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Activities 2011-2012

Capacity Building Supprt fr WatershedDevelpment and Rainfed Natural ResurcesManagement

WOTRs primary focus, since its inception in 1993, has been capacity building of

and support to NGOs and CBOs in Watershed Management. The objective is to

mobilise the self-help capacities of individuals and communities to regenerate

the eco-spaces or watersheds they live in, harvest rainwater wherever it falls,

use it productively and undertake sustainable livelihoods which takes them out

of poverty. This has been done through enhancing capabilities of NGOs, and

other implementing agencies for rural communities to regenerate and managethe watersheds they live in.

Capacity Building Support (community management of natural and other resources)

i. IGWDP, Maharashtra/Other Funding 67 villages

5 districts

13 NGOs

39,090 ha. beneng 60,631 people

ii. Resource Support Organisaon (RSO) forVidarbha Distress Development Program in

Maharashtra (PM/NABARD)

106 villages (24 clusters)

2 districts

11 NGOs


iii. Resource Organisaon for Rural Development

Intervenons in South-East Madhya Pradesh

8 villages

3 districts

4 NGOs / PIAs

5,027 ha. beneng 4281 people

iv. Resource Support Agency in Tribal Belt of South

Rajasthan

6 villages

2 districts

3 NGOs / PIAs

3,282 ha. beneng 9105 people

Total 187 villages

11 districts (Maharashtra-6, MP-3 and

Rajasthan-1)



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Program Management and Resource Organisaon for large-scaleprojects in Watershed Development

NGOs and Village Self-Help Groups (VSHGs) are guided by WOTR to

undertake environmental regeneration through trainings and handholding

support. During the year, 42 NGOs and Govt. PIAs of Maharashtra, MadhyaPradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan were accompanied in bilateral,

government and other donor funded projects, with the objective of increasing

capacities of NGOs and of the local communities, especially vulnerable

groups, to adapt to climate change and to undertake adaptive measures

that mitigate vulnerabilities.

Direct Implementatin f Prjects

Watersheds & Ecosystem Management

While WOTR has carried out a staggering extent of Capacity Building for Watershed

Development for various agencies, the knowledge has come from large-scale WSD

intervenons of its own at the ground. WOTRs Wasundhara Approach, developed

over a decade of implemenng WSD is uniquely parcipatory.The Wasundhara

approach has been implemented in over 287 villages since 2005 with far-reaching

impacts. The process connues beyond the project period. These guidelines are

also followed in all the 270 villages that WOTR and SIED jointly and individually

implement, across funding lines.WOTR connues to improve on these guidelines to

make it more eecve.

Percoluaon Tank - Khama (Jabalpur)


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Direct Implementaon of Watersheds by WOTR

Maharashtra

IGWDP, WOTR-WASUNDHARA

110 villages

11 districts

64,418 ha. beneng 78,885

people

30 villages

4 districts

16,185 ha. beneng

19,152 people

PPCP - MREGS-NREGA

109 villages

4 districts / 5 blocks

90,834 total area ha.

131,071 people beneted

87 villages

4 Districts / 5 blocks

75,425 ha. beneng

105,762 people

Andhra Pradesh

APRLP, IWMP and NABARD-

WDF

38 villages

2 districts

29,254 ha. beneng

77,633 people

22 villages

2 districts

20,825 ha beneng

46,289 people


1 district

2,881 ha. beneng

5,029 people

11 villages

1 district

2,881 ha. beneng

5,029 people

Rajasthan

WOTR WASUNDHARA(AHB)

8 villages

2 districts

4,076 ha., beneng

11,393 people

7 villages

1 district

3,397 ha., beneng

10,238 people

PPCP-MGNREGA 13 villages

1 District

4,647 ha. beneng

5,261 people

13 Villages

1 District

4,647 ha. beneng

5,261 people

New Challenges Watershed Development in the context ofClimate Change

Watershed Development (WSD), classically understood, is basically a porolio of

measures designed to conserve soil, harvest rainwater, and increase vegetaon

and biomass. But since this can only be eecvely and sustainably achieved though

the acve involvement and parcipaon of people living in them, WSD must also

address the sustenance, quality of life and livelihoods needs of resident communies

and other stakeholders.

The challenge however, today, is not only to implement watershed projects

eciently in a parcipatory, comprehensive and integrated manner but to do so

adopng an eco-systems approach that includes viable climate-smart livelihoods.

This is necessary because human wellbeing today is crically dependent upon our

ability to reduce GHGs emissions (migaon), build resilience, reduce risk, manage

change (adaptaon), and drascally reduce poverty (development) in a manner that

is sustainable and widely adoptable, since the crises facing us is intergeneraonal

and universal. Regenerang, enhancing, conserving and sustainably managing

ecosystems (which includes low impact but producve livelihoods) can make a huge

contribuon to migaon, adapon and development.


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Harnessing the water cycle in a watershed has been the primary focus of watershed

intervenons; hence the emphasis on engineering and mechanical structures of soil and

water conservaon. However, the amount and ming of eecve rainfall we receive, the

magnitude of runo and the period of water retenon and availability are itself services

provided by ecosystems. Hence, a climate smart approach to WSD:

adopts systems approach that looks at the watershed as a whole;

takes into consideraon all the key ecosystems subsisng therein;

examines them in terms of their constuents;

assesses their current status and potenal to (i) conserve, sequester and abate

GHGs (migaon), (ii) reduce risk, build resilience and enhance capacies

(adaptaon) and, (iii) generate posive values and economic surpluses;

and traces out the nature of interrelaons between the various subsisng

ecosystems.

This holisc, system-wide analysis would then enable us to idenfy those least-

cost and most benet intervenons that would promote migaon, adaptaon

and sustainable development.

Operaonally, standard WSD pracces follow a ridge to valley approach as the

focus is to harvest as much rain water as possible. However, when one adopts an

ecosystems approach, one would have to complement this approach with that of

a Landscape Approach because ecosystems are embedded within idenable

geographical boundaries or land spaces in a watershed catchment. The landscape

or ecosystems approach would allow for integrated and comprehensive planning

of land, water, agriculture, forests, livestock, grasslands, sheries to ensure that

synergies are properly captured and dysfunconalies idened. The landscape

approach provides a framework for the beer management of ecosystem services

and is useful for addressing the issues of food, water and livelihood security;

responding to the impacts of climate change and contribung to its migaon.

WOTRs Watershed and Ecosystems Management aempts to build both hard as

well so resilience within communies against disasters of slow and sudden onset

such as droughts, moisture stress, infrequent and highly variable rainfall, intense

precipitaon, and pests and disease aacks. It is a mul-sectoral, muldisciplinaryapproach that involves connual interacon and exchange between and amongst

the various sectors and disciplines.

For this, WOTR has brought about the following changes in its WSD pracces:

Redesigning WSD structures to withstand errac and highly variable rainfall

Placing structures with biodiversity in mind

Biodiversity introduced in aorestaon acvity

VDCs role extended to include biodiversity commiees

Wasundhara Sevaks trained in CCA , biodiversity, DRR perspecve

Introducing Parcipatory 3D Modelling (P3DM)for DRR


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Climate Change Adaptatin Prject

WOTR started its Climate Change Adaptaon project with the support from Embassy

of Switzerland and Naonal Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)

in the year 2009.

The project aims at developing capacies of the local communies to beer handle

the eects of climac changes. It seeks to develop the knowledge, strategies,

approaches, measures and processes that would help vulnerable communies to

cope with and if possible, adapt to the impending climac changes and which are

also adoptable, replicable and scalable.

The project acvies are designed such

that they help to achieve specic outcomes

like enhanced ecosystems, increasedproducvity of natural resources,

increased awareness about climate change

amongst people, and eecve governance

mechanism; all of which in turn enhance

communitys capacies to sustainably

manage their ecosystems and address

the climate change issues eecvely in

future. The complexity of the projects

makes it mandatory to follow progressive

elaboraon techniques for some ofthe acvies.

a. Soil and Water Conservaon

Soil and water conservaon acvies were carried out for 2,148 ha., and

aorestaon acvies on 300 ha of land. Social fencing for protecon of trees was

iniated in 29 villages. We completed 409 loose boulder structures and a further 9

gabion structures.

b. Biodiversity Documentaon and Conservaon

Peoples Biodiversity Register (PBR) were iniated in the 3 villages of Khadki

Budruk, Malegaon Pathar, and Khandgedara to address the biodiversity concerns in

WSD and other developmental acvies; to create an awareness in the community

about the importance of promong, conserving and protecng local biodiversity;

to keep a record of the local biodiversity through parcipatory mapping and

recording of the biodiversity, and to capacitate the community to address the

biodiversity concerns in the decisions taken by the local bodies.

Promoon of Climate Change Adaptaon

Maharashtra 39 villages26,062 ha.

31,852 people


2,859 ha.

4,866 people

Andhra Pradesh 6 villages

4,331 ha.

14,642 people

Total 53 villages

33,252 ha.

51,360 people


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Biodiversity Teams were formed in each village and trained in maintaining PBRs and

addressing the biodiversity concerns of the village. Preliminary data was collected

and entered into the registers.

A three day Teachers Training Workshop was organized for Zilla Parishad teachers

with Bhara Vidyapeeth Instute of Environment Educaon and Research, Pune. 19

teachers from various project villages were imparted with concepts such as Climate

Science, Biodiversity Conservaon, impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity and its

consequences, need and how-to document, protect and conserve biodiversity as an

adaptaon approach to CC. These learnings enabled teachers integrate these aspects

in the day-t-day teaching in the classes and engage their students in appropriate

acon projects.

A two-day Biodiversity festival was organized in Shiswad village where more

than 15,000 people participated in the festival from the entire cluster. About17 stalls covering various aspects of climate science and adaptation to climate

Biodiversity Fesval, Shiswad village, Akole Taluka, Maharashtra


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change were established. Additionally more than 50 persons including several

SHGs also set up stalls to show their traditional wares, and exchange and trade

local goods. Local healers and artisans also set up their stalls. Local Bharudgroups and groups of Adiwasis also performed during the festival. An animal

fair of local breeds was also held. There were also extensive exhibits for various

innovations and techniques in agriculture. Several experts held sessions with

farmers and villagers on different aspects of agriculture with special emphasis on

Climate Change. During the preparatory phase various trainings were imparted

to youth groups on biodiversity, DRR concerns, Eco-tourism and climate change.

More than 45 youth from different villages actively participated in preparation

and conduct of the festival.

Balu Bhangre is a young man, who got introduced to WOTR and

its ECO course for the village youth sometime back. There he gained

exposure to issues of Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change and

soon got more and more involved in working for his village.

Most young people his age are now totally disconnected with

traditional knowledge sources of the village- like knowledge of

traditional agriculture, the jungle and traditional arts and crafts.

But Balu has gone the extra mile and collected traditional seeds of

food grains and other crops, wild vegetables and fruits and medicinal

plants; many extra miles, in fact. Due of deforestation and most people

turning to hybrid seeds and cash crops these plants have become very

rare. At times he had to travel 40 km from the village and convince

people from some really remote hamlets, who still practiced traditionalagricultural practices, to give him a sample of their seeds! As Balu

says, People thought we were quite mad, at our age, to be collecting

seeds like little children.

Balu is a meticulous collector and record keeper. He has a neat, detailed

register with records of 300-350 different ora- fauna and also of the

communitys customs and way of life. There is also a herbarium of about

30 medicinal herbs- leaves pressed into a book, with the local names and

uses of the plant. They have craft work done by local artisans, snake skins

and local sh breeds. We realised right at the beginning that there isno point only collecting samples. Social Awareness needs to be created.

This is our attempt to reconnect with our roots. Climate Change is a

reality and in order to cope with that, we need to preserve traditional

knowledge, he says wisely.


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A similar Biodiversity Fesval was celebrated in Partala village, Madhya Pradesh to

show case all aspects of CCA. Over 200 persons visited the fesval.

Clearly the impact was far-reaching: farmers, village elders, womens SHGs, NGOs,

school kids, rural youth and government ocials visited from across the state. And

clearly the message got through: that biodiversity is vital to survival; that biodiversity

embraces everything.

A capacity building programme on Climate Change Science, DRR, Biodiversity, PBR,

Eco-system Services, CASDAAT, LM3 was organized for Jabalpur RRC in Partala village

in February. A 10 day comprehensive workshop cum training for youth of 8 project

villages and Jabalpur WOTR sta was organized.

A Biodiversity Special newsleer was brought out and widely disseminated

highlighng issues, acvies, peoples stories and the Fesval.

c. Alternate and renewable energy

The objecve of the intervenon is to promote alternate and cleanenergy soluons

in the villages, and meet individual and community level cooking and lighng needs.

Solar home-lighng soluons, cooking with solar parabolic cookers, solar& wind

hybrid systems, community biogas plants, etc. are being implemented.

Field evaluaon and post implementaon product assessment were carried out for

all the Alternate Energy installaons. Short case studies based on eld assessmentswere prepared for publicaon.

Demonstraons and experiments with new models of cooking stoves and energy

ecient chullahs were conducted with encouraging response from the community

and SHGs.

WOTR is in connuous search for economically viable stove models for rural

households. Bio char briqueng systems have also been eld tested and are being

evaluated for their livelihood potenal.

Two research reports on the experiences of deploying AE were brought out:

Hot water chullahs: ndings from an assessment

Deployment of parabolic community solar cookers for mid-day-meal scheme in

rural schools

A Renewable Energy Special newsleer was brought out to highlight the issues

involved, acvies and peoples experiences.


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I am telling you from my own experience, anyone can learn how to use the solar

cooker in 15 minutes. Its that easy. I can get all my other work done while the solar

cooker does the cooking. Now I even get some me to rest in the day.- Sangita

Kadale, Pimpaldari, Akoletaluka, Ahmednagar District- Anganwaadi worker

Fuel was a big problem. We had to travel some distance for gas or kerosene

and geng it was also uncertain because of the raoning system... or we had

to go and bring wood from the forest. Now with the solar cooker, we dont need

to destroy the forest and also save on fuel costs. Food gets cooked in half the

me.- Sunita Gandhe, Pimpaldari, Ahmednagar District- Anganwaadi worker

Before, we had to light up 2 stoves to nish the cooking somemes. Now we

can nish all the cooking in me, with just one headload of rewood and getready hot water too. My kitchen is also almost smoke-free. - Vimalbai Ubale,

Kothajahagir, Jalna District

Solar parabolic cookers were installed in 19 ZP schools

solar home lights were installed in 250 households,

31 street lights were put up in hamlets and remote locations,

2 household bio gas plants

A decentralized solar-wind hybrid system was implemented at Darewadi

Training Center powering the entire electricity needs of the center.

d. Sustainable Adapve Agriculture

The year 2011-12 saw a major focus on providing inputs on organic farming. 147

demonstraons of organic pracces were taken up for farmers in all the 7 clusters.

Farmers were trained on preparaon and use of organic inputs like amrutpani,

dash parniarka,jiwamrutand dierent composng and vermi-composng

techniques.

Several lms have also been made in English and Marathi and are available on

WOTRs YouTube channel.

Parabolic Solar Cooker Promo (Marathi; 3.16mins) hp://youtu.be/EKTaDhyHyVI

Parabolic Solar Cooker Demo (Marathi; 5.52mins) hp://youtu.be/F5KT2Vk2Hjk

Hot Water Chullah (1.29mins) hp://youtu.be/wVMl8xwGQ

Greened to GO! (English; 4.08mins) hp://youtu.be/s3fuOwLmRkI


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Field demonstraons were implemented for rice, maize, sunower, onion, tomato,

wheat and groundnut in kharif, rabi and summer seasons. A package of 6 booklets on

best pracces has been prepared on various crops in 3 languages.

58 vermi-compost beds are in place covering all villages in CCA Project area.

WOTR sta was also trained in handling the demonstraon and control plots and

maintaining records for the same.

Exposure visits specically focused on agriculture acvies were organized where

farmers got inputs on how to control pest / disease within their eld, low cost

irrigaon techniques, maintain soil health by changing crop rotaon, etc. Along with

this, farmers also got insights on how to undertake farming acvies using scienc

techniques.

Farmers Field Schools (FFS) have been iniated where farmers from several villagesparcipate regularly. The eort is bring technological advances in organic and

sustainable agricultural pracces to the grassroots. It aims at achieving maximum

yield at the least cost to farmers, while also keeping in mind the long term

sustainability of their lands.

Through FFS, the community has been able to increase the producvity of their

agricultural land, signicantly reduce their expenditure on chemical ferlizers and

increase income from agriculture. A key aspect of FFS is a move towards informed

sustainability - stressing on organic ferlisers and soil health aer soil tesng with

use of appropriate soil nutrients.

Drip irrigaon for water conservaon


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A Village Service Centres/Agri Equipment Banks is established in Khadki Khurd

village of Akole cluster. This Centre provides farming equipment to farmers within

nearby villages for use at nominal charges. The Village Development Commiee

maintains the equipment and its records.

Sciensts from agriculture university (MPKV) visited CCA Project villages to

understand project area specic details to plan future collaboraon. During the visit,

sciensts resolved various queries raised by farmers in villages itself (details given in

agro-meteorology note).

Following the successful implementaon of System of Rice Intensicaon (SRI)

(http://youtu.be/sFsaN8V1WkY) - a method of culvang rice using scienc

but sustainable methods WOTR has gone on to introduce this modied method

for other crops too. Crops like maize, vegetables, groundnut, sunower etc. are

producvely grown by this method, called System of Crop Intensicaon (SCI).This is a move to promote low external inputs, increase land producvity, use of

indigenous seeds, and reduce cost of culvaon. It involves promoon of agricultural

demonstraon plots, vermi-compost pits, training farmers on beer pracces of

transplantaon, crop geometry (spaced planng), soil and manure preparaon,

correct llage operaons, seed treatment, beer sowing methods etc.

CropWAT study was conducted in Sarole Pathar village, Sangamner cluster on

onion and wheat. CropWAT is soware for the calculang water and irrigaon

requirements from exisng or new climac and crop data.

The main objecve was to study dierent irrigaon methods and ferlizer

requirements and compare their water usage and respecve yield achieved from

them. Tensiometers were installed to measure the soil moisture at root depth which

can help in deciding the frequency and extent of irrigaon required.

Constraints/challenges faced and learnings from CropWAT study:

One of the biggest challenges was the mindset of farmers who have a simple equaon

in mind, more water + ferlizers=more producon. They also tend to use all the water

they can spare. Preliminary results and experience showed that, CropWAT would be

more useful when water is really scarce and a farmer has to buy water and has access

to reliable electricity. Pracces for precision farming/water usage will then be easily

adopted. Presently, CropWAT might be more useful for planning.

e. Localized Meteorological informaon

Telemetry transfer of Automated Weather Staon (AWS) data:

Telemetry transfer from 5 AWS staons has been started. AWS data is transferred

by GPRS modems installed at respecve AWS. Currently 2 telemetry units are


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installed in Akole cluster, 3 telemetry units are installed in Pathar II cluster and 1

unit in Pathar I cluster.

Collaboraon with IMD:

WOTR and India Meteorology Department (IMD), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)

have entered into a collaboraon wherein IMD will extend support by providing

weather forecasts (using WRF model) for WOTRs project areas, technical guidance

on installing and maintaining AWSs, train WOTR sta, and experse in relaon to

agro-meteorology. At present, NWP Centre, IMD, New Delhi has started providing

short range 3-day predicons for cluster villages of Sangamner and Akole talukas.

At present, IMD is developing a generic methodology for automac data validaon

and correcons. Once this methodology is nalized, data from all AWSs can be

transmied to IMD for making village level weather forecasts.

Collaboraon with Agriculture University:15 Agriculture Sciensts, Heads of Departments, from Mahatma Phule Krishi

Vidyapeeth (MPKV Agriculture University) visited CCA project villages in September

2011. They responded to various quesons farmers asked during the visit and invited

them for one week residenal trainings on water management and irrigaon

techniques organized by MPKV. More than 50 farmers availed this training at MPKV.

Agro-meteorology bullen:

WOTR began providing and disseminang Crop Advisories for all major crops grown

in the CCA project area from November 2011. The advisories are currently in the

form of wall-paper and are pasted in 4-5 commonly frequented, public spaces in allthe villages. The eld sta discusses the advisory contents with farmers and collects

feedback on previous advisory.

Soware development:

Software modules are currently being developed for preparing crop calendars,

detailed activities carried out at the farm, and for preparing agro-advisory

bulletins.

The module to receive and store telemetry weather data is up and running and

will eventually be linked to the WOTR website. Besides this, the module to update

o-line data received from other AWS staons is also available for eld sta to use.

Module for analysis and reports generaon is in beta release phase.

In addion to these, various other soware have been developed for web-enabled

muster payments (which have enabled wage payment to villages on a weekly basis

rather than fortnightly, as previously), HR systems and web-enabled GIS tools for

planning, data analysis, tracking and monitoring.


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f. Disaster risk reducon (DRR)

Various trainings were held for the villages of Shiswad, Khadki Budruk and Khadki

Khurd to create and foster a culture of Risk Reducon within the community. Over

65 youth and Wasundhara Sevaks (Earth Carers) were sensized to basic concepts of

Community Based Disaster Management (CBDM) and Risk Reducon, empoweringthem to understand various aspects of disaster at temporal and spaal scale. Calendars

of daily and yearly acvies of people were also discussed and put into pracce.

g. Opmized use of water

A process for mapping ground water in CCA Project villages was iniated. System

Dynamics model is being developed for understanding season-wise / annual water

usage and agriculture pracces that can be implemented by individual farmers /

group of farmers.

In addion, Wasundhara Sevaks were trained in water budgeng exercises, which

they carried out in their villages. These Water Budgets were presented in the Gram

Sabhas of 15 villages.

h. Livelihoods

Informaon about exisng livelihood opportunies in the villages have been

collected and idened. Some of the potenal livelihood acvies are seed bank,

fodder bank, rural tourism, plant nursery, goatry, backyard poultry, honey harvesng

and renewable energy.

Some of the tools such as the LM3, CASDAAT have been tested for screening

livelihoods and assessing their impacts (posive or negave) on the vulnerabilies of

the communies involved. These tools will be released in 2012.

A study on Value Chain Analysis of 3 major agriculture produce in Akole and

Sangamner blocks was carried out.

Three cluster level workshops were held with VDC members and community inuencersfor understanding the potenal, resources and opportunies of livelihoods available in

their clusters. Over 230 parcipants were acvely involved in these discussions.

Specialized skill trainings for painng and fabricaon were organized. The sessions

focused on developing the skills to generate addional non-agricultural livelihoods

for the parcipants and thus increasing their resilience in dealing with issues such as

climate change.


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i. Health Promoon

Women and childrens health promoon forms an integral part of this project. The

focus is on parcipatory growth monitoring and nutrion for the children between

0-5 years of age and anaemia detecon and reducon. Wasundhara Sevikas are

trained to assess growth (height and weight of children of 0-5 years), maintainingregisters, lling up growth charts. Awareness building exercises are taken up

regularly in concept, causes, signs and symptoms, treatment and prevenon of

anaemia, importance and demonstraon of balanced diet using locally available

food items, promoon of kitchen gardens, importance of hygiene and sanitaon for

prevenon of various diseases such as vector and water borne diseases etc.. This

cadre then takes the learnings and promotes healthy pracces in the villages.

A total of 405 kitchen gardens were developed but approximately 105 could be

sustained due to scarcity of water. Growth Monitoring of children is now an on-

going acvity and eorts are being made to involve the Gram Sabhas and create

community ownership for this acvity.

Camps for checking Haemoglobin were conducted in all the CCA project villages.

j. Social mobilizaon and gender and womens development

WOTRs Parcipatory development approach essenally is geared to garner

peoples involvement in any given process and also calls for gender inclusiveness.

Frequent contact sessions, corner meengs, Kalapathak(similar to street plays) were

conducted in all the CCA villages to build awareness and mobilize communies to

Climate Change Adaptaon.

Samyukta Mahila Samitees formaon and trainings connued during the year. In

all 157 Self Help Groups with 2,114 members now are acve in the village and

trained to handle documentaon of records, record keeping, and resolving issues/

conicts. 50 training sessions and exposure visits were conducted during the course

of the year for SHGs, SMS, and Wasundhara Sevikas. Over 1,800 women and men

parcipated in these events.

k. Gender Inclusiveness and womens empowerment

A study to understand Womens development preferences, roles and constraints

vis-a-vis Panchaya Raj Instuons and Climate Change was taken up. The study

clearly brought out that womens role in PRI needed to be improved. In order to

strengthen womens role in PRI, various other intervenons and social development

acvies have been iniated and will connue in the next year. A study on food

security of women is also in progress.


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Another key insight for us was that while most of our intervenons in womens

empowerment are focussed on women, we also need to workshops for men. This

would be essenal in improving the gender sensivity of the community as a whole

and thus improve the social fabric that binds them. A framework for this has been

prepared and acvies based on this framework are expected to be implemented in

the coming year.

l. Research Studies

The following research studies were completed:

1. A Study on traditional open field burning (Raab) practice prevailing in Akole

block of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra in the context of climate

change and finding out perceived rationale of farmers for continuance of

the practice.

2. Integrated domesc water management project: Process documentaon and

evaluaon

3. Study on test applicaon of CROPWAT soware under eld condions of

semiarid Maharashtra (study done in Sarole Pathar village).

4. Three years project compleon report on Responsible Parenthood II submied

to Becker Cordes Foundaon

5. Assessment of Health and Responsible Parenthood Programme from

Villagers Perspective in 21 villages from Ahmednagar, Nasik and Aurangabad

region

6. Outcome Evaluaon of Haemoglobin and Growth Monitoring Intervenons of

WOTR

7. Study on womens percepon about their own hysterectomies conducted in

21 villages from Ahmednagar, Nasik and Aurangabad region.

8. Hot water chullahs: ndings from an assessment

9. Deployment of parabolic community solar cookers for mid-day-meal scheme in

rural schools

10. Checklist of ora and fauna in Akole

11. Impact Assessment Study of the Project Poverty Reducon through Community

Based Natural Resource Management for Livelihood Opportunies in Rural

Areas.

12. Study of Current Pracces of Rabi Onion Culvaon in Sarole Pathar Village,

Sangamner, Maharashtra.

13. Impact assessment study of Tyma watershed development project in Jharkhand

for NABARD (Final report submied and approved)

14. Impact Assessment study of Lolo watershed development project in Jharkhand

for NABARD (Final report submied and approved)

15. Inseron of Exogenous Development Measures on an Endogenous System: A

Case Study of the Gangewadi Water Resources Management

16. The Carbon Climax: End of Hydrocarbon Legacy- a decade of metamorphosis and

rapid change


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17. Agriculture market price uctuaons, changing livestock systems and

vulnerability connect- a case study of Mhaswandi watershed, Ahmednagar

district, Maharashtra.

18. Gender dimension of climate change adaptaon: an exploraon into the

percepons of women and the community

Research studies/papers underway:

1. Position papers on eleven thematic areas3

2. Women Role in Panchaya Raj Instuons for Climate Change Adaptaon

3. Revising impacts of completed watershed development (from data of IGWDP)

in the context of climate change adaptaon

4. Study on Eects of Climate Change on Exisng Status of Food Security

5. Understanding the implicaons of governments farm pond strategy in climate

change scenario in semi-arid regions in Maharashtra

6. Situaon analysis of mental health care services in its relaon to climate change7. Changing cropping pracces ofkharifand rabicrops in Akole

8. Possible uses for lantana in Akole

9. Indicaons of climate change with regard to ora and fauna

10. Baseline Reports of CCA extension project: 10 villages in Maharashtra, 9 in

Madhya Pradesh and 6 in Andhra Pradesh

Research study published

Watershed development and Livestock rearing Experiences and Learnings from

the Watershed Organisaon Trust , Maharashtra , India - in collaboraon with SouthAsia Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Programme (www.sapplpp.org)

m. Knowledge Management and Disseminaon

In addion to the above research studies, 20 short lms were produced as part of

our eorts to increase audio-visual documentaon and disseminaon. Some of the

key ones are:

Seminars and Workshops

Conducng of seminars / workshops

Four sponsored training events covering 92 parcipants and one internaonal

training event covering about 16 parcipants were conducted during the course of

3 1. Climate Change, Eco-Systems and Watershed Development 2. Biodiversity and Adaptaon to Climate Change3. Food and Nutrional Security and Climate Change: Strategies for a Sustainable Future 4. Energy, Developmentand Climate Change: Striking a Balance 5. Livestock Systems, Vulnerability and Adaptaon to Climate Change:Evidence from Grassroots 6. Localised Economies A Response to Globalizaon and Climate Change 7. Revising

Water and Watershed Approach to Adapt to Climate Change 8. Disaster Risk Reducon: A Response for Adaptaonto Climate Change 9. Gendering Climate Change 10. Local Governance, Communies and Climate Change11. Agriculture in Changing Climate Scenario.


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the year. This South-South knowledge exchange workshop had parcipants from

Cuba, Madagascar and Nepal leading to some very useful exchanges of insights in

carrying out natural resource management/watershed development across dierent

agro-climac zones.

n. Workshops and Trainings

With regard to sta training and capacity building, employees of the organizaon

took part in 9 events covering topics such as Backyard poultry, Vulnerability

Assessment, Kaizen methodology, soware usage for muster entry, weather data

handling and transformaon training, and other technical training sessions.

Work with policy implicaons:

Grass roots to policy conferences on Climate Change Adaptaon conducted by

WOTR in 2010, 2011, and 2012

Parcipated in Naonal Policy Dialogue on Climate Change organized by theSwaminathan Foundaon

Parcipated in Pre-Budget Consultaons at the invitaon of the Finance Minister

of the Govt. of India

Appointed Member of the Working Group on Minor Irrigaon and Watershed

Management for the formulaon of the Twelh Five Year Plan

Member of group advising government of Maharashtra regarding formulang

policy on farm ponds

Title of lm Language Duraon Youtube link

Parabolic Solar Cooker Promo Marathi 3.16 hp://youtube/EKTaDhyHyVI

Parabolic Solar Cooker Demo Marathi 5.52 hp://youtube/F5KT2Vk2Hjk

Hot Water chullha - 1.29 hp://youtube/wVMl8xwGQ

Nature RestoredLives Renewed - 3.24 hp://youtube/Qbd5cqAOXWEGreened to GO English 4.08 hp://youtube/s3fuOwLmRkI

Adapve Sustainable Agriculture SRI English 7.06 hp://youtube/sFsaN8V1WkY

Does it ever rain at this me? English 4.27 hp://youtube/oix3rXQyHO4

Saechiwad A village transformed English 5.38 hp://youtube/FKY0LnsahiI

Saechiwadi Prashan Sutala E & M 5.40 hp://youtube/iAWvmrMRhmU

Shiswad Nisarg Utsav Prep - 1.07 hp://youtube/CpxtGiw1aNU

Shiswad Nisarg Utsav Stalls - 1.25 hp://youtube/tJDQ4ERM_mI

Birds of Akole - 4.03 hp://youtube/MHCh1KPB09k

Sounds of Shiswad Marathi 12 min hp://youtube/8GO8fWhm0n4

Climate Change: Challenges English hp://youtube/f83xVhXHRl4

Climate Change: Soluons English hp://youtube/qNwDzg3thaE


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Member of the Expert Group set up by the Ministry of Rural Development,

Govt. of India to design suitable convergence models for implementaon of the

Naonal Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) on a watershed

basis.

This has been a crucial phase for the project because it was in this year that weactually began grounding the project. We moved from the conceptualizaon and

planning phase to implementaon. There have been plenty of insights from even

these early experiences of implementaon. Some of these are being shared in a

Naonal Colloquium being organized in Pune on the 5th and 6th of June, 2012. The

discussions from this Colloquium and comments of experts in the eld who will be

parcipang will be of great value for us in sharpening our strategies to make our

iniave more successful.

Drinking Water and Sanitatin

WOTRs involvement with Water has always focused on its scarcity and so it is with

our Drinking Water projects. They focus on availability of good quality Water for all,

drudgery reducon for women and children, addressing water contaminaon that

leads to ill-health, etc. It also connects with the sanitaon program as the sanitary

condions in a village impact water quality directly.

The projects include acvies such as construcon of new wells, repairs of exisng

drinking water schemes, laying pipelines, hand pump installaons, tap connecons,

and trainings and capacity building ofPani Sami(water commiee).

Drinking Water provisioning has been carried out in 7 villages/hamlets.

The School Water and Sanitaon Project, carried out in 23 villages/66 schools,

addresses the core need as well the issues of drinking water, sanitaon and

hygiene in primary and the Pre-primary schools. Pre-primary and primary

schools have been selected and the students of these schools are imbibed with

the messages of importance and pracces of health and hygiene, which they in

turn disseminate to their homes and communies. The school children are also

taught to get involved in the acvies like regular cleaning toilet units, watering

the plants/trees and school garden, cleaning of the school campus etc. This has

developed a sense of ownership among the students. The schools authories

have appreciated the coordinated eorts of WOTR, involving the schools, Gram

Panchayat, Village Development Commiees, Village Educaon Commiees,

parents and community as a whole.

The other acvies conducted under the project were construcon of water supply

system to the school, drainage of waste water, solid waste management (vermi and


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organic composng), construcon of sanitaon

blocks, water management and sanitaon

educaon, awareness campaigns and workshops

for all the villages and schools / anganwadis

(kindergartens), and cluster level workshops for

school teachers and community members.

While our drinking water projects do intervene

in distribuon, water use and quality, they

also simultaneously and primarily address the

strengthening its availability at the source.

Under the Climate Change Adaptaon lens,

Water Meters-Drinking Water & Sanitaon Project - Chivadipada

addressing water scarcity is one of the major issues, more so going beyond its

availability for agricultural use, contaminaon, and sanitaon. One of the major

eorts is to consciousness building about the visible and invisible, overt and non-

overt links and connecons between dierent issues, and addressing adapve

capacity of communies.

Impacts

Since the enre village community, especially all the women from each family

were acvely involved in the drinking water and construcon of toilet acvies,

there has been a great impact on the judicious use of water, drinking water

puricaon at house level, good pracces of health and hygiene, and cleanliness

in the house and surroundings.

The construcon of water supply system and drainage of wastewater has made

the schools self-sucient. The stress and drudgery to fetch water for drinking

purpose has been reduced. Provision of potable water has greatly reduced water

borne diseases. The waste water is ulized for watering of plants/ gardening

purpose.

Due to construcon of the vermi and organic composng pits, the cleanliness of

the school campus and surroundings has improved. The school children collect

waste, garbage, bio-mass from the surroundings and school campus as a part

of their curriculum and deposit it in the vermi compost and organic composng

units. The manure from these units is used for the school garden.

The surplus manure was sold with a view to generate money for the school

maintenance fund. The praccal experience of recycling the waste biomass

into the producve purpose has encouraged the students to replicate the same

at their homes. Thus, this has created a learning plaorm to maintain clean

surroundings and environment.

Since the children use the toilets during the school mings, this has resulted

to keep the surroundings clean. Intesnal infecons are reduced and privacy

aorded to girl students.

The overall impact is that the students have learnt and developed hygienic habits

and use the same at home too.


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Water management & sanitaon educaon:The structures created in projects

are well operated and maintained by the school children and school authories.

The school children are promong best sanitaon pracces at home too. The

students have now become the change agents through the awareness acvies like

explanaon of posters, sensizaon meengs etc.

The concept of water budgeng is now well understood by the community and

is successfully applied in their villages. The water budgeng chart is prepared

by Jal Sevaks and displayed in the oce of the VDC. It informs about the total

water availability, water required for the domesc and drinking purpose including

livestock, water required for crops, and available balance of the ground water.

The coordinaon with the primary school teachers in all villages has helped

increase their support. In four villages the school teacher with the support of the

local Gram Panchayat and Village Educaon Commiees have taken pro-acve

role to get the Govt. funds for the construcon of school toilet units and urinals.

The high water consuming crops such as sugarcane, banana, grapes etc. are not

grown in the village. The ban on irrigaon bore wells is strictly observed by the

community, and no new bore wells are drilled in the village. The drip/sprinkler

irrigaon systems are installed by the farmers through their iniaves.

Renewable Energy

Based on our arguments in favour of reducing our reliance on mainstream energy,

as well the cauon with which we approach renewable energy technology, we, at

WOTR, have taken a two-pronged stand that our priority would be (i) decentralizedsteps to meet energy needs, and (ii) to increase eciencies of exisng systems

where possible.

We also believe that unless there is a signicant immediate, tangible benet for

all the extra eorts or costs that the rural communies might have to incur, rural

communies would (and rightly so) see no reason to make any change. Keeping this

in mind, WOTR has taken up several intervenons with dierent movaons and

dierent pay-os:

Intervenon Movaon for people to adopt Climate Change/Energy Impact

Biogas Indoor air quality, Womens health GHG (methane) reducon

Hot Water Chulhas Indoor air quality, Womens

health, Drudgery Reducon

Forest protecon, GHG reducon

Solar Parabolics Fuelwood savings leading to fewer

trees being cut

Forest protecon, GHG reducon

Solar homelights Unreliable state electricity supply Much more energy ecient;GHG

reducon

Solar street lights Safer and beer quality of life Lower carbon foot-print over life of

product;GHG reducon

Watershed development,Sustainable Agricultural

services

Sustainable eco-systems Lower ferlizer usage, water andenergy for irrigaon, GHG reducon


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Yet, there are many cases where there is an urgent demand for improving

efficiencies or introducing cleaner fuels. The motivation for these changes may

not necessarily be related to CO2

levels in the atmosphere. However, the

climate change angle is definitely an added benefit. Approaching our project

with this slightly altered lens has been our strategy and we call it adaptation

through mitigation.

We also believe that long term adaptaon is not possible without migaon, but it

is important to realize that along with basic developmental work, there is bound to

be a short term increase in the communitys ecological footprint before longer term

migaon can happen. From the beginning our movaons besides migaon,

also had other immediate and tangible benets for the rural people: Womens

health, reduced drudgery, fuelwood savings leading to fewer trees being cut, reliable

supply for homes, as well as for irrigaon, improved quality of life, livelihoods, and

decreased dependency.

WOTR has installed 19 Solar Parabolic Cookers in rural schools, 547 home-lighng

systems, 31 street lighng systems, and 476 Hot Water chullahs in the year 2010-

2011, has been also been involved in idenfying issues, maintenance of these

systems and in training and capacity building of local communies in maintaining

these systems.

A 5KW Solar Wind Hybrid System installed at Darewadi Training Center for

electricity supply along with use of LEDs which have reduced the lighting load by

up to 90%.

Wmens Empwerment

Drudgery Reducon and Addressing Basic Amenies, and improving Quality of Life

Women being an important stakeholder in any natural resource management

project are one of WOTRs priority focus areas. WOTR has a clear focus on and

gives emphasis to building up their social capital and management capabilies.

WOTR facilitates their empowerment by organising them into solidarity groups

(SHGs), building capacity to address their and their childrens concerns through

health services and providing personal care advisories, and literacy, numeracy and

personality development training. It also acvely engages men in assisng women

to secure their entlements as well as creang avenues for eecve representaon

in the decision-making bodies of the village. Addionally, sister instuons of WOTR

help them acquire livelihood and life skills. This is done by providing them with

nancial and business development support to start and successfully manage micro-

enterprises, creang avenues of access to micro-insurance and providing ecient

green cooking and home lighng systems and provisioning drinking water and

sanitaon that address womens concerns.


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WOTR iniates and implements various development acvies that not only

enhance their economic status but also reduces drudgery and burden. The Samyukta

Mahila Sami (SMS), the federaon of all SHGs at the village level, gives them a

space and voice at the village level. The Village Development Commiees (VDCs)

have an acve representaon of women (40-45%).

In most of the project villages, the SMS utilize the womens development

funds allotted to the project and use it for the womens development activities

especially for group and individual income generation or livelihood activities

through revolving funds. Similarly, in most of the project villages, financial

support is provided for livelihood and income generation activities through VDCs

under the separate revolving fund. In all villages the utilization and operation/

functioning of the activity is monitored by the VDC and SMS on regular basis.

Gender under Climate lensSince the impacts of Climate Change are not the same and diers from developed to

developing countries, from rich to poor, from man to woman, men and women face

their social, economic and environmental reality dierently. How they parcipate is

also dierent and is closely related to age, socio-economic class, caste and culture.

Men and women, because of their gender, face dierent situaons that oblige them

to acquire dierent capacies and knowledge while they also have dierent needs

and interests. An approach that considers onlythe situaon of women, thus we

believe, will not bring about the desired transformaon.

The disadvantages of women, who have historically had limited access to resources,

restricted rights and lile voice in decision-making, make them extremely vulnerable

to climate change. Women are also vulnerable not because they are naturally

weaker, but because they face dierent condions of vulnerability than men. They

oen live in condions of social exclusion, with cultural limitaons to mobility

outside their immediate environment; have less access to informaon of early

warning systems in mes of disasters, and to forecasts of climate variability.

Under these condions it is important to recognise that women are more vulnerable

in climate change driven scenarios; understand and address gender-specic naturalresource use paern; idenfy womens parcular skills and capacies that lend

themselves to migaon and adaptaon; increase womens parcipaon in decision

making at all levels in climate change migaon and adaptaon.

Health & Nutritin

WOTRs intervenons in Health have been in several areas:

1. Taking 2 indicators - Childrens Growth and Haemoglobin levels - to understand

the nutrional status of the community and communicate it to them so they can

take the required measures


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2. Seng up a cadre of Health workers and their capacity building to intervene in

the community

3. Facilitang intervenons that address Nutrional security in community at the

family level as well as at individual levels with women and children

4. Awareness building on nutrion, sex educaon with adolescents

5. Connecng with local instuons -Anganwadis (for children under 5 years

of age) and Primary Health Centre to carry out health intervenons at an

instuonal level

6. Research & Studies that provide insights into health and nutrion issues

Highlights of annual achievements

The acvity is being carried out in all on-going WOTR-SIED implemented watershed

projects in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

The overall experience of this iniave has been a posive one and posive changes

have taken place and results are there to see. An important impact is in the change

in peoples atude as shown by a greater concern for health, especially women and

children. Villagers, especially poor women, men and adolescents now have access

to informaon on health issues and take special care of their families with respect

to nutrion and hygiene. The people have a beer understanding and have realized

that health informaon and care is a lasng asset.

Soware on Growth Monitoring has been developed based on the World Health

Organizaon Growth Monitoring Charts.

Informaon, Educaon and Communicaon (IEC) material (books and posters) has

been published in Marathi and wrien in simple text which can be easily understood

by the villagers. This has been disseminated in the project villages and is used as

training modules too. 13 booklets on dierent health issues (aboron, Family Planning,

registraon of birth and death child care, pre and post natal care, etc.) have been

published. 10 educave posters (anaemia, use of toilets, personal hygiene, girl child,

safe drinking water, and importance of kitchen gardens, cleanliness of surrounding

environment, healthy baby and adolescents) have been made.

Taking a Climate perspecve

Climate variability combined with economic volality and depleng ecosystem

are expected to put tremendous stresses on the community. WOTRs watershed

intervenons ll date have addressed stabilizing and strengthening the ecosystem

which communies live in. Under the climate lens WOTR seeks to understand the

adapve capacity of the communies to the combined overt and insidious stresses

and intervene at the Household level where necessary. This has meant looking at

food and nutrion security that looks at the food grown and eaten, in agriculture to


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encourage growing and consumpon of local foods and tradional, locally adapted

hardy grains that are highly nutrive, and new vector-borne diseases that are likely

to emerge due to rising temperatures.

WOTR has in the last year begun to involve itself in Mental Health - understanding

the issues, stresses, and triggers and addressing these by going beyond mere

psychiatric help to strengthening the social fabric and relaonships by stabilising

the resource base. The intervenons promote key livelihoods that can decrease the

pressures and stresses of agriculture dependent local economies.

Cmmunity Managed Rural Turism

This venture has been iniated with an idea of making the regenerated watersheds

a source of livelihoods for the people in the community. The once barren areas now

regenerated become excellent and interesng places to visit for enjoyment as well

as developing an understanding of the rural areas and their issues. At the same me,

it also becomes a means for local people to earn a livelihood by managing tourism

while protecng and preserving their culture, tradion, and environment.

The uniqueness about this iniave is that this is a community driven enterprise and

the tribal and other rural

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