Bhutan

Pilot Project on Community Level Rainwater Harvesting for Land Revival

Background
Kinchoeling village under Shompangkha Geog is located between two rivers which have formed deep gorges along the sides.  There are a total of 70 households.  Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for these poor people.  The place has lots of water during monsoon season, however, during the winters the area is completely dry. 

The village used to be fed by an irrigation channel which is currently defunct.  The channel is not functional firstly because the source is almost dry and secondly because the channel is covered with few landslides at very difficult places. A survey done by the Dzongkhag revealed that huge investment would be required for restoring the water for the village.  The renovation of the existing defunct channel would be costly because of the difficult alignment and the fragile topography of the foothill.

Though the land is fertile they are left fallow hence the project aims to revive the denuded land by harvesting rain water during monsoon and using them during the dry seasons for horticultural crops.

Objectives
The objective of the project is to enable Kenchoeling Chhu Dagzin Tshogpa (KCDT) to establish a pilot rain water harvesting scheme at the community level for reviving the fertile fallow land by promoting horticultural crop growth leading to increase in the income of the farmers.

Achievements & expected results

1. Establishment of a community level  pilot rain water harvesting scheme;
2. Revival of the fallow land thereby making an optimum use of it to improve the livelihood of the people and

Document lessons from the pilot project and try out cheap on-farm water harvesting structures to cover larger area.