On the ground

The inhabitants depend on precarious agriculture, greatly affected by drought and lack of infrastructure, to survive.

To the majority of the inhabitants of a large part of the state of Andhra Pradesh, agriculture is only a means of subsistence, and most of them work as day labourers.

In this part of India, rainfall is rare and irregular and this, combined with its inadequate water management infrastructure, leads many landowners to decide not to farm their land. This means high upkeep costs and little chance of success.

Given the lack of work, the district’s poorest inhabitants are forced to emigrate to large cities, leading to family breakdown, dropping out of school and rootlessness.

In detail

The project is based around the construction of a reservoir with a capacity of 10,000 cubic metres, located 500 m from the village of Girigetla, in the Pathikonda area, to help improve the availability of water resources and cover the agricultural and livestock needs of the area’s inhabitants.

The reservoir will collect water from the local creek, called “Lingalavagu Vanka”, which will be used to supply a total of 23 wells. The water collected will be able to irrigate a total of 114.50 acres (46.34 ha).

Covering an area of 275,000 square kilometres, the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, in the south of the country, is made up of 23 districts arranged into three large regions: Telangana (comprising ten districts), Andhra, (nine districts) and Rayalseema, whose four districts include those of Anantapur and Kurnool, where the We Are Water Foundation is working in collaboration with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation.

With an average annual rainfall of just 940 mm, Andrha Pradesh is India’s second-driest state after Rajasthan. These weather conditions have a huge impact upon agriculture and the way of life of almost 80% of the population, leading to economic losses, as it is estimated that production is reduced by between 25% and 75%, food prices rise and, in many cases, peasants have to emigrate to large cities.

It is forecast that this project will provide the inhabitants of Girigetla with an infrastructure that will allow them to collect as much water as possible, to be used to diversify their crops and raise livestock, and also to improve their quality of life and create job opportunities for the most disadvantaged among them to remain in their villages. In this way, peasants will no longer have to emigrate to large cities, as their lands will once again be fertile and allow them to earn a decent living.

The project will benefit 16 families (62 people) of farmers who are ceding their land for the construction of the reservoir, contributing a total of 25 acres (10 ha). Indirectly, it is expected to impact the 239 families in the area (657 inhabitants).