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Rainwater harvesting in Kutch,India

Year round supply of sustainable clean water to marginalised communities in 7 villages.

Key programme facts

43 New Water Tanks

Helping build 43 water harvesting tanks

100% Leveraging

Match funded by local community and local corporates

12,883 People

Revival of 27 ponds and construction of 4 wells

About this programme

In rural India, girls, as young as 8, miss out on an education and can spend up to a third of their lives fetching water, carrying pots weighing 12kg or more on their heads.

Rainwater harvesting tanks catch and store rainwater. Built from locally sourced materials and using local labour, they are sustainable and easy to maintain. Typically holding around 22,000 litres of water, these tanks can provide a year round source of drinking water at home.

This programme location is in 7 villages on Khadir island, in the Kutch District, Gujarat. It is a seasonal island, surrounded by sea during the monsoon and otherwise an 8-hour drive across the vast white salt pan stretches of the Rann desert. This arid, drought-prone region is the home of the ancient civilisation of Dholavira.

The region is very poorly connected with the nearest town 100km away with just one bus a day. As a result, local people are often unaware of government services and access to funds.  

Over three years the project will benefit 12,883 people in 7 villages. This includes those benefitting from the desilted ponds, as well as those with rainwater harvesting tanks at home.

The immediate impact of this programme is that families will be healthier and have more time for work and school.

Longer term, this programme will demonstrate how rainwater is ‘renewable’ and how, once built, the storage tank will continue to fill each year with little maintenance, even as weather patterns change.

Programme News

  • Changing lives in Kutch, December 2022

    Damaben Dayabhai Makwana lives in the Wadivistar area of Ratanpar village. She has seven members in her family, who depend […]

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