Axis Bank Foundation and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme Report on Water Management Issues

Axis Bank Foundation (ABF) and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSPI) have released a report entitled ‘Compendium of Best Practices Water management in Tribal Areas’ highlighting the increased need for governance and resource allocation towards agricultural water for tribal communities across India. The Central Indian region is home to 70 percent of the tribal population of the country, but the percentage of area under irrigation in these tribal areas is half that of non-tribal areas. Moreover, the tribal communities residing in these geographies face multiple challenges such as undulating hilly mountainous terrain and sloping agricultural land, which makes it non-conducive to groundwater storage and difficult to access them during dry seasons. Based on these observations, ABF and AKRSP have done an extensive study on the Central Indian region to showcase the irrigation investments made by the governments and how large dams, lift irrigation schemes, well-digging schemes and other water-focused schemes are the requirements of the tribal geographies.