Participatory Watershed Development Practices in India — A Case Study in Kerala

Kerala, located in the southwest coast of India (latitude 8° 17'N and 12° 48'N and longitude 74° 52'E and 77° 227prime; E) is considered to be the land of waters as it has an average rainfall of about 3000 mm/year. Further the state has a large number of reservoirs and ponds, chains of backwaters. Despite this fact, Kerala is facing acute water scarcity for drinking as well as irrigation for the last several decades. Although the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development have implemented watershed projects for more than a decade, most projects have failed to generate sustainability because of the failure of Government agencies to involve the people. Both Government departments and Non-Government organisations (NGO) have been pursuing development activities quite independent of each other. NGOs tend to work more as independent implementers than as catalysts for bridging the gap between local people and the state. The watershed taken for the analysis is considered to be the first model watershed project initiated by the Western Ghats Cell of Planning and Economic Affairs Department of Kerala under the Western Ghat Development Programme in India with the concept of `Participatory Watershed based Integrated Development for Resource Management (PAWIDREM). This paper gives a narrative account of the processes, mechanisms, approaches, problems and biases that stakeholders had to face in planning and implementing this project.