MARVI: An Innovative Approach for Village Level Groundwater Management

Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater Use through Village-level Intervention, MARVI, is a transdisciplinary project commenced in February 2012. It involved a close cooperation among seven core partners and two associated partners and collaboration among 30 researchers from a range of disciplines and local villagers from the two watersheds, viz. the Meghraj watershed in Gujarat and the Dharta watershed in Rajasthan. The project is funded by Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The MARVI project is focused on developing a village level participatory approach, models and tools to assist in improving groundwater supplies and reducing its demand through the direct involvement of farmers and other affected stakeholders. A unique feature of MARVI is the use of scientific measurements by citizens through the engagement of Bhujal Jankaars (BJs), a Hindi word meaning ‘groundwater informed’ volunteers. With appropriate training and capacity building, BJs monitor groundwater levels and quality, making sense from a village perspective of what is happening to village groundwater availability. BJs convey this information to farmers and others in their own language. Groundwater level represents the integration of recharge, pumping and flow processes and is a direct measure of groundwater availability and the success of any collective management practices. BJs are an effective, trusted and valuable interface between village communities and government agencies, NGOs and researchers. This book provides summaries of key outputs from the MARVI project covering the aspects of Bhujal Jaankaar approach development, hydrogeology, agronomy and socio-economic analysis, MyWell app and the Village Groundwater Cooperatives to move towards village level water security and improved livelihood improvement.