12 Lakh acres across 43 districts in 16 states of India till 2020-21
Year of Implementation
2001 onwards
About the initiative
ITC’s Water Stewardship Programme (WSP) is an integrated and collaborative approach to achieve long term water security for all stakeholders. The programme is closely aligned to the ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana’ and ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’. Community based participation in planning and execution of interventions based on scientific water-balance assessments are the anchors for supply side augmentation and demand management.
Key features
Supply augmentation is advanced through:
Catchment treatment and revival of traditional water bodies;
Rainwater harvesting and maximizing infiltration through Managed Aquifer Recharge; and
Improving biomass and biodiversity through revival of ecosystem, landscape renewal and mosaic restoration for enhanced water holding capacity of soil.
Demand side management promotes water-use efficiency to get ‘more-crop-per-drop’ by promoting adoption of recommended agronomical practices and micro-irrigation systems.
Outcomes
As of FY 2020-21,
Over 19,700 water-harvesting structures, like farm ponds, check-dams, irrigations tanks, constructed / revived and 2,200 groundwater recharge units constructed taking the cumulative watershed area to 12.31 Lakh Acres resulting in an additional fresh water storage capacity of 41 million cu.m. Such works have also resulted in generating 73 Lakh person days of employment till date.
During 2020-21, demand side management covered over 3 lakh acres, leading to a potential water saving of 208 million cu.m in a year.
Biodiversity conservation across 44,000 acres to improve moisture retention capacity and provides livelihoods to rural households. Additionally, over 48,700 compost units have been established to improve organic content and moisture retention capacity of soils to reduce irrigation demand.