Title:

According to Indian mythology, Water is one of five elements from which the entire universe
and the human body is are made of. Water is considered sacred in Indian tradition since ancient
time and all the ancient civilizations across the world had been reside near developed(residing)
on banks of rivers; even today all the major cities of the world are situated near major rivers.

Scientifically speaking, the earth is a watery place, about 71% of earth’s surface is covered by
water and oceans hold about 96.5% of all Earth’s water, and only 2.5% is freshwater. Out of
freshwater available 68.7% is locked in glaciers and icebergs, 30.1% is groundwater and 1.2%
is surface water. The water available in groundwater and surface water are is being exploited
by us.

India’s agriculture and farmers hope of good harvest is heavily dependent on monsoon. In
recent years due to global warming and climate change which has a severe impact on rainfall
and number of rainy days Indian agriculture has taken heavy blow resulting in low productivity
(about 60% of agriculture is rainfed), lower farmers’ income and increase in farmers’ suicide
and increasing stress on agriculture overall. India’s water crisis is often attributed to lack of
government planning, increased corporate privatization, industrial and human waste and
government corruption. The Scenario of Bundelkhand water crisis is no different despite having
rich traditional water bodies and five main rivers crossing its region. This is because of poor
government policies and more of Bundelkhand’s people have forgotten their long rich tradition
and primitive knowledge of water conservation and water management.

Being an engineer by profession and previously worked on natural resource management, I

always had inclination am inclined towards working on water and its issues. I had first
interaction on this project in March, when I was initial talk with Srijan for joining BIWAL
programme, where I had first interaction with Reshma Anand, CEO HUF on the very first
meeting she asked first tell let me are you going to join or we are not having this conversation,
I answered her yes, with a broad smile. She has conceptually very strong opinion and broad
vision about the program and said very clearly Bundelkhand is the graveyard of a or the
project(s) and many of the earlier programs fails failed to deliver what they promise and this is
going to be last chance for any national-level CSR who which will fund any any such program
in the region. The message was clear, this program is highly demanding and complex in itself
and various actors and with multiple stakeholders. and factors are required to act in specific
way to make it a success. I joined on 16th April and was to lead PMU with Rakesh & Kamlesh as
team members to complete with Rakesh and Kamlesh and supporting 6 partners NGOs in
completing work for 50 tanks with six partner NGO’s. I see an opportunity in this as this
provides high pressure and high output game within limited time-bound and everything right
from scratch need to be place in order as we are doing it for the first time; achieving this will
be huge gain for me personally and professionally and making my point of delivering in tough
situation with my co-team members. We had initial tumbling as we, three we working for the Commented [NS1]: The sentence is complex and needs to
be formatted again.
first time together and we realize this is more about a team effort and develop a good bonding
and mutual respect overtime despite them having other important commitments for Jatara
location and less time to meet face to face. We started our work in May and were facing new Commented [NS2]: Not needed. The homage to team
members if paid, has to have specificity.
challenges every day, sometime district administration halt our work without proper
justification, non-availability of JCB, lack of technical knowledge of field team in implementing
this program as most of them were new to this concept and bombarding bombarded with all
kind of reporting formats, ensuring daily reporting to track daily program progress and
developing and following guidelines of fund release and operational SOP. I remembered in mid- Commented [NS3]: Elaborate on each of these challenges?
What a reader will be interested in is the details of the
May, during con-call with HUF team, we said with all our effort we will be able to completed challenges.
35 tanks by end of June, HUF team made their point that we have signed MoU for 50 tanks this
year and nothing less is acceptable. Then we decided to put our best to complete 50 tanks for
this year and laydown our plan for completing the target. Finally, after 57 days of rigorous work
and hardship, we were able to complete 54 tanks; 4 more than of what we have committed.
During all this time we got consistent support from central team specially Stuti, Prasanna,
finance team and expert opinions from Palsodkar Ji and Yugandhar Ji visit. The reason for our Commented [NS4]: Please write in detail.
success was our entire team including partners; field persons were rigorously involved in
completing the task within the given time, also not to mention JCB operators some of them
operating JCB machines for more than 17 hours per day in 48°C of heat. The real heroes was
were community who participated in this programme with huge enthusiasm and financially
speaking contributed 3 thrice of what we have spent in tank de-silting, this statement is
understated with what they contributed in making this programme a great success at the end.
They took lead in resolving issues at the local level and taking silt to their farm on their own
expenses, some even taking a loan for same and we saw huge demand of silt from community
side as they considered it gold for their field. They proven have proven or proved worng the
perspective about Bundelkhand community that they always seems to be dependent on others
for support and set examples that they are capable enough to contribute with their knowledge
and in monetary term to save their long forgotten traditional water bodies. In this process, We Commented [NS5]: Restructure the paragraphs with
transition lines.
had several conversations with HUF, experts, multiple stakeholders and within the team, I
realized working on water conservation is not alone going to win us this war against drought
and water scarcity, there is utmost need to work on demand side for resetting crops, deriving
strategies for better water management, water governance with robust community
institutions in place for sustaining the tank eco-system in long run, secondly, this task is huge
and not one individual or organization has capability of doing it alone and it demands greater
convergence and coordination among multi-stakeholders coming together for a common goal
of making Bundelkhand a knowledge institution on water in all aspect. For achieving this dream
we together still need to go extra mile, where path is challenging and unknown but will is
strong. Commented [NS6]: Closing is great, can put some punches
here too.

“vkt fQj [kMs gSa yksx vius rkykcksa ds fy,A “