Innovative rainwater harvesting empowers women in Gujarat, India

The Bhungroo rainwater harvesting system in Gujarat, India, empowers marginal women farmers by providing them with ownership of water-management technology. This has led to increased agricultural productivity, the conversion of fallow land to cultivable land, and the eventual transfer of land ownership to women. The initiative has reached over 20,000 farmers and contributed to the reverse migration of approximately 6,100 farmers.

• Bhungroo is a rainwater-harvesting technology designed for areas with waterlogging from rainfall or flash floods, coarse grain-permeable sand geology, and subsoil aquifers within 30 metres. It stores up to 40 million litres of rainwater during approximately ten days of annual harvesting to provide water for up to seven months. The system reduces soil salt deposits by mixing non-saline rainwater with saline groundwater, making the water suitable for agriculture.
• The initiative empowers marginal women farmers by giving them sole ownership of the Bhungroo technology and the skills to install, manage, and monitor it. This approach bypasses traditional barriers to land ownership in India; by controlling the tools that make land useful, women gained greater decision-making power over water management and eventually secured land ownership transfers from the government revenue department.

APA

Thakur, R. (2020). Innovative rainwater harvesting empowers women in Gujarat, India. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bhungroo-Case-Study-2.pdf

Chicago

Thakur, Ritu. Innovative rainwater harvesting empowers women in Gujarat, India. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2020. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bhungroo-Case-Study-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Thakur |first1=Ritu |title=Innovative rainwater harvesting empowers women in Gujarat, India |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=May 2020 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bhungroo-Case-Study-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{thakur2020innovative, author = {Thakur, Ritu}, title = {{Innovative rainwater harvesting empowers women in Gujarat, India}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2020}, month = may, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Bhungroo-Case-Study-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }