Owner Replenishes: Enabling Youth Participation for Ground Water Conservation in Peri Urban Nashik

UN World Water Development Report 2022 ‘Groundwater: making invisible visible’ - has pointed out that the major source of freshwater is groundwater. Groundwater conservation and replenishment have taken the forefront in view of the water crisis faced by the world. Groundwater management is action-oriented, focusing on practical implementation activities and day-to-day operations. It occurs more often at the micro- and meso-level. The urban area has the privileges of an established public water supply system, the suburbs and periurban areas are almost entirely groundwater dependent. The surface water runoff is mostly wasted and drained into the nalla/ river in these areas. Peri Urban zone of Nashik includes 177 institutional campuses (schools and colleges). These campuses can be developed as role models and act as leaders for water conservation methods and groundwater recharge for the neighbouring rural zone. This research is based on a methodology that involves three-pronged approaches, which consist of a) Identifying the potential of educational campuses in the peri-urban zone, b) educating the school students about the water and its conservation techniques as primary stakeholders of the future and c) creating platform at the school level to interact with the villagers in the vicinity to create the actual impact of the replenishment. This approach ensures active participation of the stakeholders (campus management, admin, student community) in periurban areas for groundwater recharge. Thus sensitising the student community as the primary stakeholder ensures the bottoms up approach for sustainable urban development. This transdisciplinary approach of engaging the students with the community drives two fold benefits - one, of committed habit formation in them & second, of becoming a leader & a resource person for future green development of the area The discussions on groundwater conservation in this paper point out to the need to coin principle of “Owner Replenishes”- for water conservation on the lines of “Polluter Pays”.