Newsroom - News

Partnerships
Navjyoti and The Sehgal Foundation
“Working together to empower rural India”
By, Lalit Sharma, Program Leader-Water Management, The Sehgal Foundation

In its endeavor to empower rural India, the Sehgal Foundation is consistently seeking partnerships with credible organizations and extending its activities to new villages. “Navjyoti” is a not for profit organization, working towards Women Empowerment in rural Gurgaon.

Requests from the community to resolve water problems in many villages prompted Navjyoti to organize a meeting of the governing councils of 35 villages of Sohna block to discuss solutions for the worsening water scenario. The Foundation’s water management team was invited to this meeting to share its experiences in water management. An outcome of the meeting was the Abheypur watershed project in a consortium approach.

	Navjyoti has high rapport with the villagers, especially with women and youth, and is respected for its credibility and transparency. The Sehgal Foundation agreed to provide technical assistance and some financial contribution. The major financial contribution for the project came from the Royal Netherlands Embassy. The community and the Panchayat assured all support for the project.
Navjyoti and Sehgal Foundation team at the inauguration of Dev Vani Check Dam
The water survey at the onset of the project in Abheypur indicated the following:
Three dried-up wells One of the two ponds had dried up Constant decline in the water table due to indiscriminate extraction of water from bore wells for agriculture. For drinking, the villagers depend on the erratic public water supply. There was no system to harvest the rain water or water conservation consciousness.

To motivate the community to take charge of their water resources, an exposure visit was organized to the model villages of the Sehgal Foundation, in Mewat district. The village leaders of Abheypur participated in the exposure visit. This was followed by water literacy training of the villagers. The community was inspired and actively participated in the establishment of their watershed. They contributed in cash, labor and supervised the implementation. Women volunteered in the tree plantation activity.

To maximize the rain water harvesting potential, an integrated system was devised using stone masonry hybrid check dam, gully plugs, recharge well, plantations and the dry pond. The overflow from the check dam is diverted to a recharge well, so there is no wastage of water.

The resources used for the construction were sourced locally. The team ensured that the local ecology was not disturbed during the construction. The chosen site of rain water harvesting structure is considered ‘holy’, by local people, as it is believed to be the home of their deity and ancestors.

Though it takes a few years to measure the long-term impact of such projects, results for the past two years indicate that about 6,850 kiloliters of water percolated underground though the monsoon season has been below average. Thirty acres of agricultural land, which used to get flooded earlier is now put to productive use. Fast flow of the natural streams of rain from the Aravali hills used to erode the top soil of about 80 acres of agricultural land. With strategically constructed gully plugs, the water velocity is slowed down resulting in less soil erosion and further enhancing the percolation.

In addition to the watershed project, two hand-pumps for drinking purpose were installed in the settlements of the villagers of lower castes. These villagers were perpetually harassed on water issues by other castes. Soak pits were introduced to safely dispose domestic waste water, for a clean environment in the village.
The Abheypur project, which the villagers call “Dev Vani Check Dam”, has been successful because of effective partnership between the community, Navjyoti, the Sehgal Foundation, Panchayat and the Royal Netherlands Embassy (donor). The partnership was fulfilling for all due to matching vision and role clarity. It is a model for replication as it leveraged the strengths of each of the partner organizations.

For further information please contact: