When an NGO initiates work with the village residents, may that be awareness or techno-managerial approach for development activity; the stress has been given on awareness spreading about the activity to be taken up, larger consensus of the village residents, formation of a committee or such forum that ensure representation from the villager and the committee is responsible for decision making, implementation of the project and future plans and execution. The NGO working with this approach mobilize adequate funds for these activities and / or charge the professional fee if it is part of central government scheme, for example, Utthan.
While comparing SJT work with another NGO, few points are worth mentioning, that reveal the trend and style of functioning of other NGO in this regard. SJT’s work is incomparable in terms of its scale of work, number of check dams built, number of ponds made or deepened, mobilization of funds, assets, and area it has covered – number of villages and districts, as it is on a large scale.
- Modus operandi of the implementing agency / organization (non-SJT) for implementation of the scheme through people’s participation, monitory and non- monitory contribution and delegation of responsibilities.
- Selection of the sites for check dams.
- Norms to be followed by the implementing agency / organization (non-SJT) for the following aspects –
- In providing technical information about type and design of structure for quality assurance and its sustainability,
- Rate of seepage, de-siItation based on type of soil.
- Correlation between cost, capacity and benefits of check dam.
- Whether the soil support seepage or not, and in case of water logging what are the steps to be taken.
- Average distance for benefit of recharging groundwater.
- Carrying out cost benefit analysis.
- Carrying out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) during pre and post check dam phase and at regular interval .
- Whether the stake holders are made aware of different requirement of the check dam, such as, cost of the structure, design and type of the structure, material used, water storage capacity, distribution of conserved water based on principle of equity, various possibilities for optimum utilization of conserved water (land improvement, irrigation, crop, investing crop yields for better economic return, etc.) and so on.
- Measures to be taken if check dams are over-flown.
- Measures to be taken during deficient rainfall year.
- Village economy – impact on different occupational activities like agriculture, animal husbandry, trading of agriculture produce and non-agriculture produce.
- What is the mechanism and system for management of water – rainfall and potential water harvesting, rate of seepage, rate of recharging of ground water, various uses and distribution of conserved water, who decide for distribution, assuring implementation of rules and regulation, and so on.
- Rate of de-siltation and maintenance of check dams and whose responsibility to maintain.
- Sustainability of check dams – quality assurance.
- Procedure of the government to get benefit of the scheme, terms of payment, period it took for receiving payment, etc.
- Vision or future plan for optimum utilization of conserved water through check dams.
