Historically, communities in Rajasthan have had independent control of the resources in their area. Rajasthan is situated in the Thar desert of western India, where water is a precious resource that must be carefully retained and stored. Thus, a broad spectrum of water management models once dotted the state, every design reflecting the community that worked on them.
However, with the introduction of a public water supply system by the central government of India, communities began to be removed from ownership and responsibility of natural resources, especially the forests and water. The lack of access was compounded by the exploitative management of water sources by large bureaucracies and government departments.
Moreover, conflicts over water between castes and the breakdown of traditional community structures have made the situation worse. The traditional systems have been replaced by concrete tanks and water storage structures of brick and cement designs that have provided no significant reprieve to the water crisis in Rajasthan. The celebrations and rituals that derive from the use and management of water have also disappeared, with the dissolution of the old systems.
In 1991, Laporiya, a village of about 3,000 inhabitants, was a drought-prone area with barren pasturelands and agricultural fields capable of producing only one low value monsoon-dependent crop. About 40 percent of the villagers had migrated to nearby towns and villages, some abandoning their cattle, and about 75 percent of the cattle were driven to the neighboring states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
"This was a big problem, because entire families were migrating," Singh said. "They would leave behind their cattle. There would be no area where the cattle could graze. Those who were left behind, if they wanted to take their cattle for grazing, they would have to really travel to distant places."
There was one percolation reservoir (a reservoir built to store rainwater so that the stored water percolates gradually into the nearby wells) and one irrigation reservoir in the village: both were silted up and the embankments broken in places. The water level in the irrigation and drinking water wells were at 50- to 70-feet below the ground.
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