The Purna Area Water Partnership has opened up new livelihood opportunities by installing bore wells to improve the quality of water, introduced the concept of roof top harvesting of rain water and encouraged a shift in cropping patterns.
The Purna River Basin has several problems, for example one quarter of its area is affected by salinity. This affects 300 villages within the basin. Due to poor quality water for irrigating crops, agricultural development has also been hampered. The Purna Area Water Partnership has enabled the stakeholders to unite under one forum for voicing their demands to the policy makers, planners and development boards with regard to their problems. It has involved grassroot level NGOs, youth activists, youth's and women's organisations, and influenced the government to make appropriate policy changes.
A longer summary and full case study is available at the GWP ToolBox.