The presentation by ACWADAM deals with Pani Panchayats as a model of groundwater management. Pani Panchayat is a voluntary activity of a group of farmers engaged in the collective management (harvesting and equitable distribution) of surface water and groundwater (wells and percolation tanks).
Pani Panchayat is the name first given to a movement by Mr. Vilasrao Salunke for motivating farmers of Naigaon village of the drought-prone Purandhar taluka of Maharashtra in 1974. The government's inability to deal with the drought situation prompted him to take a 40 acre land on lease from the village temple trust and develop a recharge pond in the recharge area of the village, a dug well in the discharge zone and a lift irrigation system.Read More
Farmers got impressed with the results demanding a scale up of the experiment leading to the setting up of Gram Gaurav Pratisthan (GGP) through which the work was expanded to encompass both groundwater and surface water management.
