By decentralizing water management in villages, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP) hit on an environmentally-friendly way of dissolving caste barriers. They won an award for ‘Community-based Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change.’
“A typical drinking water system in a village involves an underground bore-well, from which water is pumped to overhead tanks and then goes to public water-taps. The dominant caste would control the water, and switch the pump on at times convenient to them, and not to Dalit labourers,” said Apoorva Oza, CEO, AKRSP. “But in the systems we worked on, water from the bore-well goes to underground storage tanks servicing around 25 households. All tanks fill up simultaneously, and no one person or caste controls water.”
The winners of inventions & innovations
Category 1: Community-based adaptation
Empowering Tribals
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme | Gujarat
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