Journal of Community Mobilization and Sustainable Development

In Indian perspective, groundwater and water from river system are the main source of water supply for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes, but in hilly areas, natural water bodies like streams and springs are serving the purpose. The water source naturally appears in the hills is slowly and slowly moving toward scarcity which would have negative impact on hill agriculture and as a result on the survival of the hilly people. In hilly areas of Uttarakhand, only the natural water is used and no treatment is given to water before consumption, so this research was undertaken to study the availability of water bodies in the villages and their current status in terms of their functionality, to assess the role of women in management of water resources and to assess the water quality as affected by different conservation practices. The study was conducted in the Jaunsar region of Kalsi block, Dehradun and Tehri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand. Total 200 respondents were selected for interview. Results depicted that under traditional water sources, about 93 per cent respondents have chasma / naula as water source. Only 37 per cent natural water sources are functional which are used for drinking and other domestic purposes. Majority of the respondents (56%) are cleaning and maintaining the resources twice in a year followed by 38 per cent respondents who used to clean on monthly basis. Women (91%) were doing afforestation activities followed by digging of temporary ponds to harvest rain water.