Abstract
The water is not only a commodity but at large it encompasses various edges of community development. The shortage of drinking water which is rather acute in urban India is a very chronic problem in rural India. The solution lies in the paradigm of the past, i.e., rainwater harvesting. Several microscale local programs have shown success in creating climate-resilient villages by harvesting rainwater and have awakened the government agencies to provide the necessary pivotal support for the execution of such programs for the development of technically sound water conservation schemes. The state of Rajasthan in India, which is a semiarid region, faces a dearth of surface water sources, scanty rainfall, and various groundwater quality issues. For the ages, the rural population in Rajasthan has relied more on groundwater for potable uses as the surface water sources are rather scarce in this desert state. Increasing population, rapid industrialization, and surging agricultural activities have led to the drying up of surface water sources and have also led to a decline in the groundwater levels. In light of these persistent issues, the government of Rajasthan launched a massive multi-stakeholder campaign to answer the plight of the rural population. The government with its technical expertise and support of local communities carried out the rejuvenation of old degenerate structures to trap the rainwater. The impact assessment of the program revealed the economic, social, and environmental upliftment by an increase in the green cover, groundwater level, crop production, and animal husbandry.
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Saxena, K., Brighu, U. (2021). Jal Swavlamban: Water Independence. In: Brears, R.C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42462-6_76
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