Since its founding in 1994, the Development Support Centre (DSC) in Ahmedabad has championed a bold idea: that farmers themselves can best manage water through local institutions. Beginning in arid north Gujarat, DSC helped farmers set up Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) to co-manage irrigation canals. Over three decades it has grown several folds, expanding its “Water to Wealth” model to over 700 villages across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. DSC’s work is built on core principles of participation, equity and decentralisation, believing that smallholders with training and support can turn scarce water into sustainable livelihoods. These ideas have guided a journey from the first WUA meetings by the Dharoi dam in north Gujarat to influencing state and national water policy.
Silver springs of sustainability
As DSC marks its 30th anniversary, it has distilled these lessons into a new book, Silver Springs of Sustainability: Three Decades of Partnership with Farming Communities for Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Livelihoods, authored by Astad Pastakia and Sachin Oza. This rich institutional memory contains dozens of farm-voice anecdotes, case studies and reflections from DSC staff and farmer leaders. For example, one watershed committee member recalls how channelling runoff into village ponds changed local cropping patterns, while an irrigation expert notes how decentralisation improved equity at tail-end farms. These stories and quotes illustrate DSC’s ethos: participation and equity in action.
New practitioners and policymakers can leaf through its pages and find practical models for decentralised governance: how to form a WUA, design a watershed plan with villagers, integrate an FPO, or train a cadre of Bhujal Jankars. In the words of one DSC collaborator, “The DSC journey shows that scaling up doesn’t mean one-size-fits-all: local institutions adapt every solution to their context.”
“At DSC, our 30-year journey has been rooted in the belief that empowered communities are the true stewards of natural resources and well-being of the society. From grassroots action to policy advocacy, we’ve followed a people-centric path—assess, build, prove, and upscale—to address water, agriculture, and livelihoods,” says Mohan Sharma, Executive Director, DSC speaking to India Water Portal.
Participatory Irrigation Management and WUAs
In the 1990s DSC pioneered community control of irrigation. It partnered with the Gujarat Irrigation Department to pilot WUAs in schemes like Dharoi, where local farmers took charge of canal releases, maintenance and repairs. DSC staff reported that “farmers can manage their systems provided they get the right mix of capacity building and incentives from the government”.
The Dharoi project, with its vibrant and functional WUAs, stands as a national benchmark in participatory irrigation management. I was part of a consulting team that studied the Dharoi irrigation initiative in 2011, as part of AKF's SCALE project documentation. My own visit to the canal command area provided a living confirmation of what this book describes: a transformation not just in infrastructure and service delivery, but in the very mindset of communities managing their water. These early experiments proved startlingly effective: crop productivity rose and disputes fell as beneficiaries themselves handled scheduling. By 2020 DSC had directly nurtured hundreds of WUAs in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, covering tens of thousands of hectares.
This grassroots success helped justify Gujarat’s later formal adoption of PIM rules (the Gujarat Water Users’ Associations Act) and inspired India’s 2008 national watershed guidelines, which likewise emphasise farmer-driven planning and watershed committees. In short, DSC’s first decade built a model of decentralised irrigation governance where smallholding farmers became water users and decision-makers.
Beyond canals: Watersheds and groundwater
From the first concrete turn-out on a canal, DSC soon moved “beyond the boundaries of watershed management and PIM”. It brought participatory methods into rainfed, arid landscapes, training villages to build contour bunds, check-dams and tree barriers to conserve rainwater. At the same time DSC linked surface and groundwater use: it created programs for Participatory Groundwater Management, training local youth as Bhujal Jankars (village water monitors) who measure well levels each month, and helping form Sujal Samitis, gram-level water-user committees that oversee recharge and fair sharing. These “para-hydrologist” networks have literally plugged data and community input into planning.
For example, in the Meghraj watershed of Gujarat DSC’s community aquifer recharge project (MARVI) was invited by India’s Ministry of Water to demonstrate village-level recharge techniques. This emphasis on integrated watersheds and groundwater is also climate-smart: by storing rain and monitoring wells, villages become more resilient to droughts and the vagaries of monsoon. Over 30 years DSC reports that its watershed & integrated water resource management programs have improved water security across hundreds of rainfed villages and canal commands alike.
Empowering farmers and institutions
As water work deepened, DSC expanded into farmer-led institutions more broadly. It encouraged farmers to form Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to pool inputs and market crops. By 2019 DSC was actively promoting FPOs in both rainfed and irrigated areas. At the same time, it helped set up over 550 women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and two women’s federations in its project areas, enabling rural women to save, borrow and start collective enterprises. These groups grew out of DSC’s watershed villages (where SHGs often seed and tend new plantations) and later branched into village credit, dairy, and agro-processing ventures.
In effect, DSC linked irrigation improvements with livelihoods: water-user organisations became platforms for affordable seeds or bulk fertiliser purchases, and SHGs became channels for government schemes. One example is the GujPro consortium, which DSC helped incubate as a Gujarat network of FPOs to secure better credit and training for farmers. These community institutions have multiplied the impact of DSC’s water initiatives – turning irrigation access into higher incomes and stronger local cooperatives.
Capacity building and partnerships
A key part of DSC’s innovation is training and scaling. Rather than keep lessons local, DSC set up an own resource center and courses to spread knowledge. It works closely with institutions like Gujarat’s Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) and the State Watershed Agency, and hosts regular field visits for officials and NGOs. Back home, DSC also acts as a hub for horizontal learning: it founded Sajjata Sangh, an NGO network through which its field-experienced staff mentor other projects, and collaborates with corporate foundations (Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, etc.,) to bring its model into new districts. Through this “train-the-trainer” and partnership strategy, DSC has amplified its local successes without losing grassroots focus.
“Through collaboration and knowledge sharing, we aim to nurture climate-resilient communities grounded in dignity, equity, and inclusive growth. The journey continues—with people at the centre and sustainability as our compass,” says Mohan Sharma.
Policy influences and milestones
Throughout, DSC’s fieldwork has fed into policy. The organisation’s staff and partners sit on government task forces (the Planning Commission’s irrigation team, India’s national participatory irrigation body (INPIM), the National Water Mission) and even helped draft Gujarat’s PIM guidelines and recommendations for a model PIM Act. In national conferences they highlight lessons from the field. For example, at a high-level water policy meeting in Delhi Sachin Oza outlined DSC’s experiences mobilizing canal and groundwater users, stressing the need for conjunctive use of surface and groundwater and support for small farmers.
DSC’s own reports show the scale achieved: over 30 years it has worked in “over 700 villages” across four states and benefited roughly 120,000 farming households. Along the way it has influenced key documents: its emphasis on community institutions helped shape the 2008 national Common Watershed Guidelines and continues to inform state watershed manuals. In short, DSC not only implements projects but helps write the rulebook on participatory natural resource management.