Halve the proportion of people without safe drinking water.

• Author: Rai, Vivek
• Position: FieldWatch

Karoli: The dry and arid plains of Eastern Rajasthan are only a few hours' drive from India's capital Delhi. As you ride on the spanking new highway, the green trees start to give way to parched brown ground, and in the heat of the summer you can almost see the earth as it cracks open. When you reach Karoli village in Sawai Madhopur district, it's almost as if you had come upon an oasis.

As that part of India battles the drought, the ground in the desert land is moist, and the villagers are able to grow two crops a year--something unheard of a few years back. Much of this has been the result of work done by the Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), a non-governmental organization that has been working in the area for nearly two decades. It is headed by the charismatic Rajendra Singh, winner of the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award (named after the former President of the Philippines and awarded to Asians who have contributed to government and community leadership and the arts). TBS has been focusing on the revival of water sources through community development.

Until a few years ago, paucity of water in this region had forced many people to abandon their fields and their lives and migrate to the cities or other areas in search of work, which often meant manual labour. Those who stayed barely eked out a living, with not enough fodder or grain to sell in the marketplaces. That is when TBS stepped in.

Realizing that water is often the main dividing line between poverty and prosperity, TBS focused on getting villagers to revive dying water sources. This was done through the construction of "johads" or check dams near the water sources. The procedure was simple: getting villagers to create mud dams that would capture rainwater, which would then slowly seep into the ground and raise the water table of the area, thereby making it conducive to fertility through most of the year.

Villagers paid for nearly 90 per cent of the cost, thus raising a sense of ownership. Today in Karoli, Saroopa Devi stands in front of her field, glistening with the wet leaves of a rice paddy and speaks of the changes which have taken place. "With no rains, fields had no crops or only dry land rice. Men would migrate for work. We have never seen two crops. We used to do daily labour and feed ourselves. But now, with our water tank, we have two crops. And all the men have come back."

Saroopa Devi and women like her have in many ways been the main beneficiaries of these community projects...