We have dug 45,000 JalTara recharge pits across 92 villages – recharging an estimated 27 billion liters of groundwater annually
2024 goal – 125 Villages
Objective – Execute 75,000 JalTara recharge pits in 125 villages and improve the lives of 20,000 farmers
Plan to dig 75,000 recharge pits in 125 villages
One recharge pit per acre, with broad coverage of an average of 500 plots/acres per village
Multiple states, multiple districts
Majority of the villages will be in Maharashtra, and we will seed 50 village projects in 3-4 additional states to prepare for scale
Expand scalable framework/analytics
Build multiple partnerships to execute on ground, collect data and analyze for impact
2022/23 – Pilot Project 2
Objective – Build process/systems to scale the JalTara approach to 100,000 villages in five years
Dug 25,000 recharge pits in 55 villages
One recharge pit per acre, with broad coverage of an average of 500 plots/acres per village (work in process)
Reconfirmed JalTara ROI
Increased groundwater recharge and farmer income; plus eliminate crop spoilage due to waterlogged fields
Developed scalable framework
9-month process – training, villager mobilization, data gathering, plus digging/pit filling before the monsoon
2021/22 – Pilot Project 1
Objective – Learn how to scale the JalTara approach
Dug 17,000 recharge pits in 33 villages
One recharge pit per acre, with broad coverage of an average of 500 plots/acres per village
Reconfirmed JalTara ROI
Increased groundwater recharge and farmer income; plus eliminate crop spoilage due to waterlogged fields
Developed scalable framework
9-month process – training, villager mobilization, data gathering, plus digging/pit filling before the monsoon
2020/21 – Proof of Concept
Objective – Validate the “One Recharge Pit per Acre” hypothesis with a small proof of concept project
Dug 1,400 recharge pits in 4 villages
Across a total of one thousand acres within a 6-month timeframe
Validated JalTara hypothesis
“One recharge pit per acre” brought large increase in village water capacity, farmer incomes and prevented flooding
Proved repeatability of process
Use widely available JCB backhoes to dig – farmers fill the pits with locally sourced rocks, stones