As a common pool resource, water is easily depleted if no effective coordination exists among users to ensure provision and regulate withdrawals. The Scaling up experiential learning tools for sustainable water governance in India project aims to enhance sustainable water management at scale by improving the capacities of rural communities to manage water more sustainably.

The project has developed innovative games for surface and groundwater management that let community members learn the need for cooperation through community discussions, groundwater monitoring and crop water budgeting, and support for water harvesting and recharge. By combining local and systemic approaches, the project aims to influence water governance on a larger scale and contribute to the sustainable management of water resources in India. The interventions have been deployed in more than 5,000 communities, either directly by the Indian NGO Foundation for Ecological Security or in partnership with other NGO, government, or private sector programs.

This outreach event will present what we have learned from these interventions, as well as results from the impact assessment conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan.

Agenda