NDCWWC Journal
Year : 2022, Volume : 11, Issue : 1
First page : ( 35) Last page : ( 39)
Print ISSN : 2278-8395. Online ISSN : 2278-8409.

Marvi - an innovative approach for village level groundwater management

Maheshwari Basant¹

¹Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury Campus, Penrith, Australia

Online published on 16 July, 2022.

Abstract

The MARVI project, Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater Use through Village level Intervention, is about village level communication and participatory research for improving groundwater productivity. It focused on two multi-village watersheds, the Meghraj watershed in the Aravali district of Gujarat and the Dharta watershed in Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Both watersheds have hard rock aquifers. The MARVI project involved developing a village level participatory approach, models and tools to assist in improving communication of water science, thereby securing groundwater supplies. The project examined ways to reduce groundwater demand through the direct involvement of farmers and other affected stakeholders, including local schools. A unique feature of MARVI is the use of scientific measurements by citizens through the engagement of Bhujal Jankaars (BJs), a Hindi word meaning ‘groundwater informed’ volunteers. With appropriate training and capacity building, BJs monitor groundwater levels and quality, rainfall and check dam water levels and make sense from a village perspective of what is happening to village groundwater availability and use. BJs convey this information to farmers and others in their own language. Farmers were motivated enough to change their water management and cropping practices enabled through collaborative learning and collective action in their social contexts. They have now come together continue to work together and have formed Village Groundwater Cooperatives (VGC) to recharge and manage groundwater use more effectively. The MARVI approach developed in this study is now ready for outscaling in other parts of India.

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Keywords

Capacity building, Citizen Science, Groundwater Monitoring, Groundwater recharge, Participatory approach.

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