The ‘Groundwater Governance through Panchayat Raj Institutions in Andhra Pradesh’ pilot project is being implemented in five districts of Andhra Pradesh (Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool, and Prakasam), where FAO-APFAMGS successfully demonstrated the impact of demand-side water management in managing groundwater distress. In the pilot phase, the project aims to refurbish all groundwater monitoring infrastructure and establish linkages with Gram Panchayat for improved governance of this key resource. This initiative is co-funded by FAO and the Government of Andhra Pradesh. It is expected that the pilot initiative will develop a model for upscaling the project to cover all areas in these five districts.

The pilot project’s duration is one year. The project has two major components. The first focuses on revitalizing the GMCs and HUNs formed under APFAMGS in 518 villages of the five districts. Additionally, it invests in repairing the PHM monitoring equipment to ensure that data collection is restored and collected regularly. APFAMGS promoted Groundwater Monitoring Committees (GMCs) and Hydrologic Unit Networks (HUNs) are taking lead in technical data generation, water budgeting, crop planning and crop adoption. The second component focuses on initiating groundwater governance through Gram Panchayats in 72 villages of Kurnool district. This includes elements of water sharing to improve equity and access to water and thereby control new drilling and unsustainable water-use.

This pilot is being implemented in close collaboration with the groundwater and agriculture departments both for design of data collection formats and also for data validation. Additional inputs will be drawn from the departments of Groundwater, Rural Water Supply department, District Water Management Agency (DWMA), Micro Irrigation, Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry, Soil Conservation, and Animal Husbandry in these districts as required.

BIRDS, the lead NGO in the erstwhile FAO-supported project is responsible for the project implementation. Improved groundwater governance involves coordination with the six partner agencies in implementing project activities such as, PHM data collection, data computerisation, data analysis, conduct of water-audit workshops, develop Demand-side Water Management (DSWM) plans, adoption of DSWM plan, capacity building of GP representatives, formation of farmer interest groups and farmer producer groups.

An agreement to this effect was signed between FAO and BIRDS on 1st October 2015. The total estimated budget for this pilot will be Rs 35,345,300 or about US$ 534,240. Of this, GOAP’s share will be Rs 23,778,500 (US$ 359,409). This will be used mainly for buying equipment for monitoring water levels, including those that are needed for monitoring rural water supply. FAO’s investment will focus more on the ‘softer’ side such as hiring village level co-ordinators, farmer’s training, expert consultancy and administrative support and is estimated at about Rs 11,566,800 or US$ 174,831. Of the total cost, US$ 174,831 would be sourced from the Netherlands Supported Project, GCP/IND/177/NET and Technical Cooperation Funds; and US$ 359,409 will be covered by Government of Andhra Pradesh.

BIRDS and Six Partner Agencies, associated with GGPRI-AP Project