Hiware Bazar

HIWARE BAZAR :
A WATER LED TRANSFORMATION OF VILLAGE

In the drought-prone Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra lies Hiware Bazar, a village of
about 1300 residents that is coping with this year’s severe drought better than others. For
the past 20 years, Hiware Bazar has followed a careful plan for watershed management
and water conservation that has been central to transforming this once poor village to a
prosperous one today.
SUBMITTED BY :
MANISHA BHATTACHARYA
MISTU NANDY
B.PLAN SEM 8TH
INTRODUCTION
• Hiware Bazar lies in Draught prone Ahmednagar District .
• Bazar lies across 977 hectares (ha) at the foothills of the Sahyadris.
• The village receives only 300-400 millimeters (mm) of rainfall a year.
Over time, with steady degradation of their forest land, villagers found
themselves with little water available post the monsoon.
• Without water to irrigate their fields, villagers began to migrate to cities.
Those that remained cut down remaining forest land for firewood and
sustenance.
• Villagers used watershed development measures due to which ground
water table role and irrigated area increased .
Hiware Bazar, Ahmednagar , Maharastra

What is watershed ?
A watershed is a geographic area that drains to
a common point. Normally, rainwater that
Collects in a watershed flows out along
its natural drainage lines. Where forests
And green cover have been destroyed
Watershed development refers to a set of

measures that help retain water within a
watershed. These include soil and water
conservation, afforestation, grasslands
development and protection of biomass. Area
treatments are done on the land area of the
watershed while drainage line treatments are
done on natural drainage lines.
How watershed development measures helped the

villagers?
Revegetation
Ground water Began growing Cropping pattern
prog. Incresed Migrants
table rose , cash crops along changed and
grass and returned back to
irrigated area with jowar and incresed the
incresed milk village
inc. bajra income
yield
villagers undertook
HAZARI BAZAR BEGAN ITS an ‘aquifer blast’ - a
1991 controlled
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
underground
PROGRAMME explosion to create
cracks for
Along natural
groundwater to flow
drainage lines, they
through.
built shallow dams
Villagers also built
of stone, cement or
trenches along
earth.
contours in the hills
to trap and slow
Reforestation of rainwater runoff
their hilly forest land
FINANCES:
FINANCING FOR WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT (RS. LAKH)
All money received for

watershed development was
managed by Yashwant
Krishi Gram and Watershed
Development Trust
(YKWDT), a non-
governmental organization
set up by Hiware Bazar’s
Gram Sabha (GS) in 1994
as a pre-condition for AGY
funds.
SUSTAINABILITY
Restricting activities
that degrade natural Joint Groundwater Use And
resources Crop Plan
In the past 11 years, the village has received an average annual

rainfall of just 315 mm. Despite this, the village has maintained
its water table at a safe level, realising that protecting the
ecological balance is necessary for sustainability.
1) Ban on open grazing in watershed development
areas: grazing is only permitted on private land
2) Ban on tree cutting: In the commons, trees and
branches cannot be cut but branches can be cut 1) Introduced practice of water budgeting . Using a ‘water
on private land bank’ principle, the budget ensures that the village does not
draw more water than it stores in a year, and a small amount is
3) Ban on borewells (except two for drinking kept in reserve .
water): To control groundwater over-extraction, 2) Depending on rainfall in that year, available water is
drilling borewells is banned and water access is allocated amongst various uses, with first priority for drinking
restricted to open wells directly connected to water for humans at 50 litres per capita per day (lpcd) and
rain/surface water recharge cattle (30 lpcd).
3) In low rainfall years water for agriculture is adjusted to aid
4) Ban on water-intensive crops: like sugarcane crop planning the village has evolved rules of thumb
and banana. For fodder, half an acre of sugarcane
per farm may be grown but only with use of drip
irrigation
5) Ban on ‘chullahs’ to preserve biomass: and
reduce indoor pollution
ECONOMIC BOOM
Hiware Bazar is now reaping the economic harvests of water conservation.
Increased grass production has resulted in increased milk production, from a mere 150
litres per day during the mid-1990s to 2,200 litres per day presently.
 In 2006 the income from agriculture was Rs 24 784 000. This means an average per capita
agricultural income of Rs 1 652/month. This is almost double the Rs 890/month income level
for India’s top earning 10 % of the rural population in 2004-05.
 With only 3 families below the poverty line according to a household survey conducted in
1992, there has been an unbelievable reduction in poverty.
KEY ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS:

Proactive steps Community- Emphasis on
to share benefits driven priorities maintaining
with all and regulation ecological
balance
Participation
Investment in Convergence in
through education and using
beneficiary labour changing government
contributions mindsets schemes
THANKYOU

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HIWARE BAZAR :

A WATER LED TRANSFORMATION OF VILLAGE

Hiware Bazar, Ahmednagar , Maharastra

Watershed development refers to a set of

How watershed development measures helped the

All money received for

In the past 11 years, the village has received an average annual

KEY ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS:

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