Ms Arati Kumar-Rao has described very well the ancient rainwater harvesting methods which has helped most remote villages in India in spite of the lack of rains specially the desert area in Rajasthan. I am a water engineer and was connected with the Rajasthan Canal area for 13 years from 1968 to 1981. I was in the Planning Commission when the Rajasthan Canal was under construction from Ganga Nagar to Bikaner to help the local engineers and the people in solving their problems. In 1975, I was working with the National Commission on Agriculture for the future of agriculture in India in which the special report was prepared for the desert area in Western part of the country upto the Pakistan border in which the Rajasthan Canal was under construction and the small canals near Ganga Nagar were given water for irrigation. The plan of development for agriculture under those conditions for Rajasthan, mostly under rainfed, were indicated for the next 50 years. For one year in 1975-76, I was working with the government consulting firm called WAPCOS. When I was given the task of topographical survey, soil surveys and agronomic studies for defining optimum cropping patterns and livestock development, and Economic evaluation for the Rajasthan Canal Project Stage II. Some of the optimization work was done on computers (a rare study in those days). The recommendations of the report indicated that the canal water should be given towards the eastern side of the canal, where the land and soil was of better quality rather than on the Western side which was approved in the earlier projects. This was accepted by the government but the politician of Rajasthan decided otherwise and implemented this project almost 10 years later. When I was working with the Ford Foundation, I did study of community management of small irrigation system all over India. In Rajasthan, Mr. Rajindar Singh had done a very good work near Alwar (Rajasthan) where he brought the communities together to build small tanks and planted trees all around for water harvesting and saving the water for domestic use and growing crops. This was very much appreciated and he was given the Magsaysay Award by the Philippines government. This how the community work got started in those days on a bigger scale.

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Ms Arati Kumar-Rao has described very well the ancient rainwater harvesting methods which has helped most remote villages in India in spite of the lack of rains specially the desert area in Rajasthan.

I am a water engineer and was connected with the Rajasthan Canal area for 13 years from 1968 to 1981. I was in the Planning Commission when the Rajasthan Canal was under construction from Ganga Nagar to Bikaner to help the local engineers and the people in solving their problems. In 1975, I was working with the National Commission on Agriculture for the future of agriculture in India in which the special report was prepared for the desert area in Western part of the country upto the Pakistan border in which the Rajasthan Canal was under construction and the small canals near Ganga Nagar were given water for irrigation. The plan of development for agriculture under those conditions for Rajasthan, mostly under rainfed, were indicated for the next 50 years. For one year in 1975-76, I was working with the government consulting firm called WAPCOS. When I was given the task of topographical survey, soil surveys and agronomic studies for defining optimum cropping patterns and livestock development, and Economic evaluation for the Rajasthan Canal Project Stage II. Some of the optimization work was done on computers (a rare study in those days). The recommendations of the report indicated that the canal water should be given towards the eastern side of the canal, where the land and soil was of better quality rather than on the Western side which was approved in the earlier projects. This was accepted by the government but the politician of Rajasthan decided otherwise and implemented this project almost 10 years later. When I was working with the Ford Foundation, I did study of community management of small irrigation system all over India. In Rajasthan, Mr. Rajindar Singh had done a very good work near Alwar (Rajasthan) where he brought the communities together to build small tanks and planted trees all around for water harvesting and saving the water for domestic use and growing crops. This was very much appreciated and he was given the Magsaysay Award by the Philippines government. This how the community work got started in those days on a bigger scale.