The multitude of troubles that envelop the subject of water in India point to an existential resource crisis that is getting ever more dire by the day. Be it with availability or access, usage or potability, water has increasingly become a concern that clouds the country’s ambitions of achieving equitable development and securing improved living standards for all its people. This is a calamity unfolding in slow motion and those worst affected by it are India’s poor and marginalised, for whom paying their way out of the predicament is not an option. There are silver linings, though — from a host of government initiatives to civil society support — that enable the country to better cope with the water challenge. The Tata Trusts have, over the years, played a full part in helping alleviate the problem, with a spread of water-themed solutions focused on disadvantaged rural communities.
Enabling and empowering village communities to take charge in matters concerning their water has boosted the power
Community-led springshed programmes with women at the helm are restoring water security in scores of villages
A diversion-based irrigation scheme in Odisha’s Kalahandi district is bringing succour to tribal communities
Water conservation is at the heart of two projects that are benefitting farmers in four districts of Maharashtra
Artificial glaciers, and the water they store, are providing respite to thousands of ecologically vulnerable farmers across Ladakh
Springshed development projects in Nagaland and Mizoram are enabling villagers to get their fill of water and improve their daily lives
An affordable purification system has rendered water contamination caused by arsenic and iron a crisis of the past in rural Assam
A water-management platform is helping farmers in Gujarat make informed decisions about crop selection and irrigation
Salinity ingress in aquifers was affecting lives and livelihoods in coastal Gujarat before a project to stem the salty tide took hold
From solar power schemes to behaviour change solutions, the spread of water projects in Rajasthan is making a difference for tribal communities