Water Conservation in Rural India Adopting Nature-Based Solution with a Sustainable Approach

In this article, Niharika Singh and Amit Kumar Thakur highlight that when issues such as water scarcity, less agricultural yield, decline in groundwater levels, etc., are highlighted in the communities, Corporate Social Responsibility CSR) projects can be designed on the need and demand basis. With this vision, several different CSR initiatives are being implemented on-ground after identifying the possible interventions on need-basis. One such intervention can be rejuvenating the water bodies accounting many advantages and benefitting the rural communities.

Globally, water availability for all is still a major challenge and a topic of concern. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 talks about ensuring availability and sustainable management of water for all. As a matter of fact, the augmentation, conservation and management of water in an efficient manner are the key targets for attaining

SDG6. According to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, nearly 733 million people are facing the water stress challenge in the world. According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the average annual water resources of India’s 20 basins, which have been assessed at 1999.20 billion cubic metres (BCM), are available to the country’s 1.3 billion people. Variety of government schemes, projects and programmes with technical and financial support are in action by the government as well as different private entities in pursuance of achieving all the targets of SDGs and contribution to the society. Though, the whole world is facing the actual consequences of the climate change gradually but the rural communities are considered as the most vulnerable and an important influenced society. On the other hand, they are usually overlooked on a high level platform as they are small aquatic ecosystems. When issues such as water scarcity, less agricultural yield, decline in groundwater levels, compromise with sanitation and health sectors, etc., are highlighted in the communities, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects can be designed on the need and demand basis. With this vision, several different CSR initiatives are being implemented on-ground after identifying the possible interventions on need-basis. One such intervention can be rejuvenating the water bodies accounting many advantages and benefitting the rural communities.