Software to monitor work in watersheds developed

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JUNE 25. A software to plan, implement and monitor the development work in a given watershed has been developed by PROGRESS, an NGO involved in watershed development programmes. This software, named Integrated Watershed Development System, is the first of its kind in the country and links up policy planners with the implementation machinery in villages using information technology.

Releasing the CD of this software at a two-day national workshop on "Information Technology in Watershed Management", at Hyderabad on Monday, Dr. K. Krishnakant, Senior Director, Union Ministry of Information Technology, promised all help from his Ministry to efforts at applying IT for the development of watersheds. This workshop is being attended by over 100 scientists, social scientists and NGO activists who will exchange notes about their experiences from different parts of the country.

Mr. S. Ray, Principal Secretary, Government of A.P., inaugurated the workshop and laid stress on involving the affected people in all schemes of watershed development. Noting that watershed development had been the Government's key strategy for rural development, he recalled the progress made from its beginning as Drought Prone Areas Programme in Anantapur district in the 1970s. Andhra Pradesh was the first to develop a 10-year plan for watershed development in the State, which has led to 5,499 watersheds totalling more than four lakh hectares being identified. Already some success had been noted, with a rise in the water-table and the cultivation of 1,66,000 hectares of previously wasteland. He also claimed that labour migration from villages to cities had been reduced as a result of this.

Earlier, the delegates were welcomed by Prof. B.E. Vijayam, who felt that watershed should be the unit of development rather than the mandal or district. He said that PROGRESS was one of the few organisations where natural and social scientists had come together to use their knowledge for the participatory development projects. Mr. J. Rajendra Prasad of PROGRESS, who developed the software, said that it had mapping support and assisted hydrological designing.

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Section  : Southern States
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