CB BureauITC Limited has announced a rapid scale-up of its Integrated Watershed Development programme, which the company claims has already brought soil and moisture conservation to half a million acres in the country. The scaling-up target is to double this figure to one million acres by 2018.
The Watershed Development programme is part of ITC’s rural development initiative that aims at empowering rural communities and augmenting natural resources. The primary focus is to reverse land degradation, extend critical irrigation and raise agricultural productivity. To this end, it implements soil and moisture conservation measures and builds, revives and maintains water-harvesting structures. The programme is implemented by setting up village-level institutional mechanisms and mobilizing community-based participation not just in the conservation and management of water, but also in its replenishment.
Adopting a bottom-up, participatory approach with the disadvantaged sections as the primary target, ITC works with NGOs as implementation partners to mobilize them and form Water User Groups. These groups are then trained to carry out the entire spectrum of activities from planning to execution and maintenance of the water-harvesting structures. The Water User Groups are further trained to formulate regulations and fix water-user charges, which go towards creating a fund used to maintain the existing structures, build new ones and tap government schemes.
‘India is grappling with a severe water crisis and the problem will only get aggravated at the current rate of consumption… ITC has taken water as a priority focus area and we are proud that our water initiative is now benefitting thousands of farmers in nine states of the country,’ reads a statement by Dr Ashesh Ambasta, vice president and head of social investments at ITC Limited, in a press release shared with CauseBecause. The release also claims that the Watershed Development programme has till date generated over 4.7 million person days of work, built over 6,400 water-harvesting structures, and created more than 1,480 functioning water user groups, benefiting over 160,000 households.
ITC has also entered into public”private partnerships (PPPs) with state governments and NABARD in five states, targeting the coverage of nearly 400,000 acres by 2018.