AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

World-wide there is an enormous challenge to produce almost 50% more food

up to 2030, and double production by 2050. This will probably have to be achieved with
less water, mainly because of pressures from growing urbanization, industrialization and
climate change. Consequently it will be important in future that farmers face the right
signals to increase water use efficiency and improve water management, especially as
agriculture is the major user of water, accounting for about 70% of the world’s freshwater
withdrawals and over 40% of OECD countries’ total water withdrawals.

The scope of sustainable management of water resources in agriculture concerns the

responsibility of water managers and users to ensure that water resources are allocated
efficiently and equitably and used to achieve socially, environmentally and economically
beneficial outcomes. It includes: irrigation to smooth water supply across the production
seasons; water management in rain-fed agriculture; management of floods, droughts, and
drainage; and conservation of ecosystems and associated cultural and recreational values.

Agricultural water resource management covers a wide range of agricultural systems and
climatic conditions across all countries, drawing on varying water sources, including:
surface water; groundwater; rainwater harvesting; recycled wastewater; and desalinated
water. It also operates in a highly diverse set of political, cultural, legal and institutional
contexts, encompassing a range of areas of public policy: agriculture, water, environment,
energy, fiscal, economic, social and regional.

Future policies to address the sustainable management of water resources in agriculture

will be greatly influenced by climate change and climate variability, including seasonality
problems, such as changes in the timing of annual rainfall patterns or periods of snow pack
melt. In some regions, projections suggest that crop yields could improve.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 1

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

For other localities, climate change will lead to increased stress on already scarce water
resources, while some areas are expected to see the growing incidence and severity of
flood and drought events, imposing greater economic costs on farming and the wider
economy. Irrigated agriculture, which accounts for most water used by agriculture, will
continue to play a key role in agricultural production growth.

Until the 1980s, water resource management in agriculture in most OECD countries
focused on the physical supply of water. Emphasis was on infrastructure “supply-side”
technical solutions and harvesting the maximum amount from the resource. This
technical- based path to water resource management is now being complemented with the
accent on sustainable based water resource management and greater reliance on “demand
side” economic solutions. A turning point in this shift in the policy agenda was the
Dublin International Conference on Water in 1992, where it was stressed that “managing
water as an economic good is an important way of achieving efficient and equitable use,
and of encouraging conservation and protection of water resources”.

Nearly all countries have policy strategies to address broad water management issues –
water resources, quality and ecosystems – and in terms of the more specific objectives for
managing water resources in agriculture they broadly share a strategic vision to:

 Establish a long-term plan for the sustainable management of water resources in

agriculture taking into account climate change and climate variability impacts, including
the increased need for protection from flood and drought risks and alteration in the
seasonality and timing of precipitation (rainfall and snow pack melt)
 Contribute to raising agricultural incomes and achieving broader social equity and
rural development goals
 Protect ecosystems on agricultural land or affected by farming activities
 Improve water resource use efficiency, management and technologies on-farm and
ensure the financing to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure supplying water to farms
(and other users).

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 2

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Sustainable water management means using water in a way that meets current, ecological,
social, and economic needs without compromising the ability to meet those needs in the
future. It requires water managers to look beyond jurisdictional boundaries and their
immediate supply operations, managing water collaboratively while seeking resilient
regional solutions that minimize risks.

METHODS OF SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Rainwater Harvesting: Rainwater harvesting is defined as a method to induce, collect,

store and conserve local surface run-off for agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions.
Basically, for run-off inducement, vegetation management, surface treatment and chemical
treatment are involved.
Arid zones are beset with water shortage caused by low annual rainfall. The problem is
often overcome by the introduction of irrigation, provided surface or ground water is
available. An efficient drainage system is necessary to maintain a favourable salt balance
for crop growth. Broadly, miro catchment water harvesting and run-off farming water
harvesting are the main run-off collection methods.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 3

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Irrigation Management: Other potential measures include improvements in irrigation

management, such as lining canals and using high- efficiency irrigation systems to prevent
land degradation through salinization and water-logging. Using treated waste-water for
irrigation increases the fresh water available for other uses, including the maintenance of
healthy aquatic ecosystems. Decreased use of fertilizers in agriculture can reduce the need
for expensive treatment of water from nearby water bodies to make it suitable for human
use.

Watershed Management: One of the simplest strategies to improve both water supply
management and water quality is the protection of watersheds through maintenance of
naturally vegetated buffer strips along streams, river channels and around lakes.
Watershed management must be considered as a process of participatory planning,
implementing, monitoring and evaluating a course of action involving natural, human and
other resources. A holistic soil conservation and watershed management approach should
consider those physical, socio-economic and institutional linkages that exist between
upstream and downstream of a river basin or watershed.

Wetland Preservation: It is an important element of watershed protection. The resulting

gains in water quality and natural water storage can reduce the need for, and therefore, the
costs of water-treatment and storage downstream.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 4

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

The necessity of the AICTE activity points

AICTE Council has mandated all the 4-year Technical Degree Enrolled students to Earn
100/75/50/25 Activity Points as per the Instructions.

Today, India has seen enormous development in Urban Infrastructure. Except for the
pollution and increased expenses for lifestyle, Urban India has all basic infrastructures such
as Education, Health, Transport, Employment, Food, and Special Services at the reachable
levels.

At the same time, Rural India has not seen any development in the accessibility of the basic
infrastructures. They have to travel a long distance to access even a small basic
infrastructure. Though pollution and expenses for lifestyle are very less in Rural Areas,
people are migrating to the urban areas as they need Basic Infrastructures than the other
facilities available in Rural India.

As per the experts, if at all Urban India has seen enormous development it is due to the

• Engineering Solutions
• Engineering Implementations
• Engineering Employments

In comparison, Engineering Solution is seen in less than 10% of the following segments of
Rural India:

• Rural Development
• Agriculture
• Animal Husbandry
• Agriculture Marketing
• Rural Employment
• Promoting Local Tourism
• Women Empowerment

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 5

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

If an Engineer can bring automation to the non-living environment in urban areas, he can
bring such solutions to the unexplored segments. Experts say the Engineering Solution
occupies 50% of the development of any segment.

People interested to solve Rural Problems are:

• Lacking the technology knowledge

• Lacking the Implementation Strategy
• Lacking the introduction of Sustainability to the Projects
• Lacking the public involvement
• Lacking the professionalism in the projects

People with expertise in the above segments are not interested to solve Rural Problems as:

• They prefer commercialization to Service

• Implementation has to start from the elementary stage
• Lack of Public Support in Rural Areas
• Lack of Infrastructures in Rural Areas
• Decreasing population in Rural Areas
• Unorganized segments are seen in Rural Areas

Hence AICTE, a Technical Education Monitoring Council has come up with a plan of
AICTE Activity Points that needs

• Identifying the Problem in Indian Society, particularly in Rural India

• Explore the available Solution for the Problems
• Analyze the effectiveness of such solutions in practical India
• Identify the reasons for the failure of the solution
• Propose an engineering solution to such a problem
• Conduct activities regarding such solutions if the project is considered for 80 Hours
• If the same project is considered for more than 300 hours, a prototype of such solution
has to be implemented.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 6

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

This is a motivational concept by AICTE to bring Social Innovation in Engineers at their

education level to

• Address the Social Challenges of India

• Propose a practical solution to such challenges
• Bring more Social Innovations and Research
• Blend the available technology for effective solutions

AICTE Activity Points is very essential in shaping India for a sustainable lifestyle.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 7

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

CHAPTER-2

WORK CONDUCTED

WEEK -01

SELECTION OF VILLAGE AND MEET THE VILLAGE AUTHORITIES

We selected the Bevinahalli village which is situated 6km apart from Mandya city. It is a
village in Mandya taluk in Mandya district. And very first day we visited the village and
the gram panchayat office. We met the panchayat development officer (PDO) of the
grama panchayat. They conducted a meeting with us and we all discussed about the
sustainable water management system concept and government benefits to improve
ground water table.

Fig 1.1 First Day at Panchayat premises

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 8

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Fig 1.2

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 9

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

COLLECTING THE INFORMATION ABOUT VILLAGE BEVINAHALLI.

According to Census 2011 information the location code or village code of Bevinahalli village is
614468. Bevinahalli village is located in Mandya taluka of Mandya district in Karnataka, India. It
is situated 7km away from Mandya, which is both district & sub-district headquarter of Bevinahalli
village. As per 2009 stats, Bevinahalli village is also a gram panchayat.
The total geographical area of village is 390.98 hectares. Bevinahalli has a total population of
2,785 peoples, out of which male population is 1,360 while female population is 1,425. Literacy
rate of bevinahalli village is 64.63% out of which 71.18% males and 58.39% females are literate.
There are about 667 houses in bevinahalli village. Pincode of bevinahalli village locality is
571478.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 10

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Fig 2.1

Fig 2.2

Fig 2.3

Collecting Information About Village

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 11
 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

WEEK -02

DISCUSED ABOUT HOW TO INCREASE GROUND WATER TABLE AND

EXPLAINED OUR CONCEPT AND IDEIAS TO THE VILLAGERS

Artificial groundwater recharge is becoming increasingly important in India, where over-

pumping of groundwater has led to underground resources becoming depleted.

Want to place some important points before that which will help to understand
the importance of ground water balance:

• Due to increasing population, the national per capita annual availability of water has
reduced much in recent years.

• Majority percentage of groundwater extracted is used in the irrigation sector, and

following by is for domestic use and some amount is for industrial use.

• 50% of urban water requirements and the needful amount of rural domestic water
requirements are fulfilled by groundwater

• Most of all districts have issues related to availability or quality of groundwater, or both

Experts explain many methods to re charge ground water, however there is no much
movement in this direction. Huge attention needed to educate the farmers at rural India
and water conservation methods enforcement at urban India will sure take us to the safe
zone.

Some best initiatives to increase ground water level:

• Knowledge resource center on ground water at all districts where water scarcity is very
high.
• Involve and engage with other organization at village and district level. Ex Co-operative
society at village level.
• Groundwater legislation for protection of existing and new resources.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 12

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME
• Skilled human resources with ground water related initiatives.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 13

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME
• Sharing ground water knowledge with farmers.
• Water conservation method and ground water management related topics at schools and
college level.
• Print, TV & Digital media to share more success stories of ground water recharge
• Manmade lakes at government barren land during rainy seasons
• Take this information to farmers and help them and also preserve very precious resource
water.....EVERY DROP COUNTS.
• To start with, robust data and information management systems to plan for future water
security.

Fig 3 Explaining about how to increase ground water table

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 14

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

WEEK -03

COLLECTED INFORMATION FROM GRAM PANCHAYAT ABOUT

GOVERNMENTS SCHEMES FOR RESTORATION OF TANKS AND HOW TO
UTILIZE THEM AND CREATING AWARENESS ABOUT THE SCEMES TO THE
VILLAGERS.

There are many schemes available by the government of Karnataka at panchayats level to
conserve and improve the ground water table levels.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 15

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

The scheme envisages active participation of the communities and panchayats in the
participating States in various activities such as formation/strengthening of Water User
Associations, monitoring and disseminating ground water data, water budgeting and
preparation of Gram Panchayat-wise Water Security Plans (WSPs) and their
implementation. The participation of women in water budgeting and water security
planning exercises has been kept at least 33% in the Gram Panchayat-level Water User
Associations.

Water being a State subject, steps for augmentation, conservation and efficient management
of water resources are primarily undertaken by the respective State Governments. In order
to supplement the efforts of the State Governments, Central Government provides technical
and financial assistance to them through various schemes and programmes.

With aim of finding a long-term solution for the water crises the government has declared
2019 as the year of water and launched Jalamrutha ,the biggest community driven water
conservation movement this involves all sectors of the society like government ,non-
governmental organizations ,institutions and general public.

The available schemes are

1. Suvarna krushi honda programme
2. Soak pit
3. Check Dams
4. Plantations

Karnataka is predominantly an agricultural State. 80% of the area depends upon the
monsoon for agriculture. Quite often even the meagre water from the unpredictable rains
just drains away. People start to digging bore wells indiscriminately resulting in the gradual
depletion of the water table. If the rain water is prevented from draining away and stored
properly, the ground water table gets recharged and the crops can get adequate water during
critical conditions. Government of Karnataka has initiated, as a part of the Suvarna
Karnataka Year celebrations, an ambitious programme to encourage the SC/ST and small
and marginal farmers, who are solely dependent on agriculture, to construct a Suvarna
Krishi Honda by providing a maximum subsidy of Rs.9800 per unit.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 16

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Objectives

• Recharge and regenrate ground water table.

• Mitigate drought situations.

• Provide water to people and animals during drought situations.

• Improve farmers economic conditions by encouraging agricultural productivity.

How does a Krishi Honda help a farmer's all-round economic development?

Stores water preventing it from draining away. Recharges ground water Provides a good
water source to crops and cattle.

Farmers can grow horticultural crops such as tamarind, jack, amla, lime and guava around
the krishi honda.

Farmers can also grow Forest species such as jamun, teak, silver oak etc.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 17

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

WEEK -04

APROACHMENT OF FORMERS AND EXPLAINING ABOUT METHOD HOW

TO STORE THE WATER IN TANK/PONDS

Most ponds consist of a small dirt, dam constructed in a water channel to intercept and store
water from rain and snow that falls upslope from the dam. This means that the pond
depends upon water from precipitation, and there must be enough water flowing over the
surface of the land to collect behind the dam.

The pond should be constructed where the sufficient runoff is available and at the corners of
the form as possible sufficient gravel entrance should be provided to avoid the
sedimentation and silt in bed of the pond.

If constructing pond in the loose soils, the sides of the ponds should be compacted to avoid
the sliding of soil mass Clear the pond frequently from dust and debris and take care of
vegetation growth inside the pond and clear it often times.

Fig 4.1 Explaining About Method How to Store the Water in Tank/Ponds

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 18

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Fig 4.2

Fig 4.3

HOW TO UTILIZE THE COLLECTED WATER

Water conservation ponds prove a strategic adaptation practice, collecting rain water and
replenishing groundwater reserves during the monsoon, as well as preventing excessive
erosion and surface runoff down landslides slopes.

We can use the water collected in the pond during the monsoon season in many ways such as
• We can use that water for irrigation purpose
• For watering the trees
• For growing vegetables or crop growth in small scale
• For fishing
• For cattle
• In this way it’s also helps to improve the ground water table.
• It’s also provided water for wild animals and birds during the summer.

We discussed above points with formers and visited the nearby forms and houses
Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 19
 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Fig 5.1

Fig 5.2

Fig 5.3 Explianing about how to utilize collected water

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 20

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

WEEK -05 AND WEEK -06

VISITED THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE VILLAGE TO CREATE

AWARENESS ABOUT THE SUSTAINALBE WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Students of B.E. Civil engineering department visited Hulivana high school, Mandya.
Hulivana high school institution of 100+ children. It takes care of their studies, basic
necessities, personal and social development. We are made up of groups to handle
different class and to give some ideas and concept related to importance of water,
advantages of ground water improvement, government benefits to improve ground water table
and so on.

Fig 6.1 Create awareness about the sustainable water management system

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 21

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 22

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Sustainable water management means the ability to meet the water needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. Achieving
sustainable water management requires a multidisciplinary and holistic approach in which
technical, environmental, economic, landscape aesthetic, societal and cultural issues are
addressed. On a global scale, having sustainable water means to provide each person on the
planet with affordable access to the minimum 20 to 50 litres of daily water required to
sustain life.

Fig 2.26 Distribution of ground water

How different water sources can be used sustainably:

Surface water
Surface water is limited as is unequally distributed around the world and pollution from
various activities means that surface water without treatment is not suitable for drinking. If
properly constructed, dams can provide a sustainable water supply as the structures can be
used for power generation, irrigation, flood prevention, water diversion and navigation.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 23

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Groundwater
Groundwater accounts for more than 50 per cent of global freshwater and is critical for
potable water. Groundwater can be a sustainable supply of water only if the amount of
water entering, leaving and being stored in the system is conserved. The IWA says
unsustainable groundwater use results in water-level decline, reduce streamflow and low-
quality water, directly impacting local communities.

Scheme available by the government of Karnataka to improve ground

water table

SUVARNA KRISHI HONDA PROGRAMME:

Objectives

• Recharge and rejuvenate ground water table

• Mitigate drought situations
• Provide water to people and animals during drought situations

Scope, Dimensions and Cost

• 5692 village panchayats in 745 blocks coming under 176 taluks of the 27 districts of
Karnataka have been brought under the purview of this scheme.

• Krishi honda of minimum dimension 9 mtr length x 9 mtr width x 3 mtrs depth
would be built with inlet-cum-outlet and silt trap.

• The project details have been designed in keeping with the extent of dry lands, rainfall
and the farmers' economic conditions in each taluk. A maximum subsidy of Rs.9800
per unit would be paid by the state government towards the cost of construction of
these hondas.

` Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 24

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT /INCREASING STORAGE CAPACITY OF THE

POND

The major drawback of the irrigation pond is the high rate of percolation and evaporation of
water during summer season.
There are some techniques which we are discussed with the formers are

•Avoiding the construction of pond on the sandy soil bed.

•Making the more compact the bed of the pond.
•Clearing the sedimentation of silt in the pond bed which can reduce the storage capacity of
the pond.
•The vegetation growth in pond also shall be cleared frequently.
•Using the using the plastic bed covers for bed and also for embankments.
•Planting the trees around the pond to minimize the evaporation of water due to sunlight.
•We can also use the pond plants which covers the surface of the water body.

Fig 7.1 Explaining about how to increasing storage capacity of the pond

` Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 24

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

DIFFERENT METHODS TO COLLECT THE SURFSCE RUNNOFF

we discussed about the different methods where we can collect and store the surface
runoff during the rainy season.

1. Surface runoff harvesting

2. Roof top runoff harvesting

Rainwater harvesting is the collection and storage of rainwater for reuse on-site, rather
than allowing it to run off. These stored waters are used for various purposes such as
gardening, irrigation etc. Various methods of rainwater harvesting are described in this
section.

Roof top harvesting is a system of catching rainwater where it falls. In rooftop harvesting,
the roof becomes the catchments, and the rainwater is collected from the roof of the
house/building. It can either be stored in a tank or diverted to artificial recharge system.
This method is less expensive and very effective and if implemented properly helps in
augmenting the groundwater level of the area.

Fig 7.1

` Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 24

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Fig 7.2 explaining about different methods to collect the surface runoff

Fig 7.3

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 26

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

CONCLUSION:
Due to rapid urbanization and over exploitation of ground water, it is high time to plan for
sustainable management of ground water development which ensures both quality and quantity in
the village.
The rainwater harvesting programs is economically and financially beneficial to the village in a big
way.
If we look at the current situation of water depletion, it is evident that we are in dire need of water
management.
We must come together to do our best to ensure that everyone is getting access to safe water daily
so that we can lead happy lives.
The AICTE activity report highlights the impactful initiatives by our organization to promote
sustainable water management among people.

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 26

 AICTE ACTIVITY POINTS PROGRAMME

Dept. of Civil Engineering., PESCE, Mandya. Page 26