Insights from the study will help build scalable water solutions for Gujarat and could be applicable to other parts of India.
Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hindustan Unilever Limited. Through HUF, we stay committed to helping support India's quest to build scalable, sustainable water security solutions.
Our multi-pronged approach includes improving access to water and building efficiency in using water in agriculture. Integral to our approach is adopting a conjunctive water use approach in collaboration with different institutions. This means building an understanding of surface and groundwater, together with its optimum utilisation, as a single resource and managing these in an integrated way.
Scalable water security solutions for Gujarat and beyond
Recently, as a strategic step forward in this direction, HUF, together with Development Support Centre (DSC) as the lead agency, initiated a research-driven study to build informed and scalable water security solutions for Gujarat based on distinct regional water typologies. The study was conducted with the help of knowledge institutions such as ACWADAM, Pune and INREM Foundation, Anand.
But why did we choose Gujarat?
HUF has been working across Gujarat through its partnership with multiple civil society groups for a decade. Our experiences helped us realise that, from a water and hydrology perspective, Gujarat is a microcosm of India that displays considerable heterogeneity in agro-meteorological and climatic conditions. Therefore, the learning we help bring out can also have applications in other parts of the country.
So what was this study all about?
The study titled 'Building Informed and Scalable Water Security Solutions for Gujarat' is for academic and practitioners interest. It provides a robust assessment of the problem and design processes to scale solutions that worked, bringing together the three interrelated domains of water-agriculture-livelihood. It is now possible to select scalable interventions on-ground with a better understanding of the likely outcomes.
The study was released in 2023 at Ahmedabad in a state-level workshop - with the participation of field experts, government and academia.
The water solutions study will provide a 'toolkit' of solutions for ensuring water security in our country. Insights from the study will form the basis for better water conservation through improved access, optimal usage and aquifer recharge.
