Lecture: K. J. Joy (SOPPECOM) "Water and Watershed Management: Expereinces from the state of Maharashtra, India"

Stanford Engineers Without Frontiers (EWF) will have its tenth meeting and lecture of the 2003-04 school year on Monday, April 12 at 6:00 pm, location TBA. Please note the earlier than usual start time. Our speaker is traveling from Berkeley and needs to return at a reasonable hour. All are welcome to attend and participate: students, faculty, staff, community members---so tell all your friends and colleagues!

This week, K. J. Joy will speak on his work in irrigation management and watershed development, with “Water and Watershed Management: Expereinces from the state of Maharashtra, India.”

K. J. Joy is primarily an activist-researcher and has actively participated in people's movements for equitable water distribution, resource literacy and people's science and developing people's alternatives for drought proofing, etc. He has a special interest in people's institutions for land and water management both at the grassroots and policy levels in India.

He has co-authored the following books:

1. Sustainable Technology : Making Sardar Project Viable (Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, 1995)
2. Banking on Biomass : A New Strategy for Sustainable Prosperity Based on Renewable Energy and Dispersed Industrialisation (Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, 1997)
3. Watershed Based Development : A Source Book (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi, New Delhi, 1998)

Presently he is the Secretary of the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) - a voluntary, non-profit organisation active in the area of participatory irrigation management and watershed development in India for the last 10-12 years. SOPPECOM aims at helping the rural population dependent on land, water and biomass resources for its livelihood, to manage these ecosystem resources themselves and manage them equitably and sustainably by undertaking action research, implementing pilot projects, providing training and capability building, and support to grassroots initiatives. SOPPECOM pioneered the formation of Water Users' Associations (WUAs) by helping organise and stabilise the WUA in Minor 7 of Mula Project in Western Maharahstra. SOPPECOM provided support in organizing three WUAs in Ozar, Maharashtra; an exemplary case in the conjunctive management of groundwater and surface water. SOPPECOM was appointed by the government of India to prepare a Manual for Participative Irrigation Management.

How to find us

You can find more information on our mission, goals and activities on the http://ewf.stanford.edu";>chapter website.

Questions or comments for the chapter leadership can be addressed to lightbulb@lists.stanford.edu">lightbulb@lists.stanford.edu.