Water stewardship to be 'climate smart': Lessons from Maharashtra

The Water Stewardship Initiative in Maharashtra, India, employs community-led governance to combat water scarcity and falling groundwater levels. By establishing Village Water Management Teams and using tools like Water Health Charts and Water Budgets, the initiative has improved the water status of villages, increased water harvesting by 61.44 billion litres between 2016 and 2017, and promoted water-saving techniques that saved 3.24 billion litres. The model emphasizes stakeholder engagement, the formulation of local water-use rules, and the treatment of water as a common good through Group Micro-Irrigation to enhance climate change adaptation.

• The Water Stewardship Initiative improved village water health status, increasing the proportion of 'healthy' villages from 20% to 57% and reducing 'severely ill' villages from 41% to 18%.
• The implementation of Village Water Budgets led farmers to shift from water-intensive crops like wheat and onion to less water-demanding crops during the 2018 drought, ensuring domestic water availability for 78 villages.
• Water harvesting and efficiency measures resulted in significant water gains: 61.44 billion litres were harvested through structures in 2016 and 2017, and 3.24 billion litres were saved by 2,000 farmers adopting micro-irrigation and mulch.
• Local governance was strengthened through the creation of Village Water Management Teams and the formulation of village-specific rules in 78 villages, including restrictions on the depth and drilling of new bore-wells.
• The Group Micro-Irrigation model, implemented in Maharashtra and Telangana, promotes the view of water as a common good to reduce over-exploitation and encourage self-regulation among farmers.

APA

Kale, E., D'Souza, M., & Golechha, A. (n.d.). Water stewardship to be 'climate smart': Lessons from Maharashtra. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/story/feature-water-stewardship-to-be-climate-smart-lessons-from-maharashtra

Chicago

Kale, Eshwer, Marcella D'Souza, and Arpan Golechha. Water stewardship to be 'climate smart': Lessons from Maharashtra. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, n.d. https://cdkn.org/story/feature-water-stewardship-to-be-climate-smart-lessons-from-maharashtra.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kale |first1=Eshwer |last2=D'Souza |first2=Marcella |last3=Golechha |first3=Arpan |title=Water stewardship to be 'climate smart': Lessons from Maharashtra |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |url=https://cdkn.org/story/feature-water-stewardship-to-be-climate-smart-lessons-from-maharashtra |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kalendwater, author = {Kale, Eshwer and D'Souza, Marcella and Golechha, Arpan}, title = {{Water stewardship to be 'climate smart': Lessons from Maharashtra}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {https://cdkn.org/story/feature-water-stewardship-to-be-climate-smart-lessons-from-maharashtra}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }