Alwar Johads — Community Rainwater-Harvesting Dams Recharging Rajasthan's Aquifers (India)

Since 1986 Tarun Bharat Sangh has helped villages in Alwar district, Rajasthan, build johads: small earthen check dams that capture monsoon runoff and recharge shallow aquifers. By 2005 about 5,000 structures had been documented across roughly 750 villages in five districts; other sources cite over 8,600 structures in 1,086 villages.
Reported outcomes include a 1994 survey in which all 970 wells in 120 villages were flowing, against 170 working wells in 1988, wheat area in a sample village rising from 33 to 108 ha, and the seasonal Arvari river flowing nearly year-round from about 1995.
Caveats: researchers warn that Alwar's terrain makes it unsound to state an exact groundwater increase, much of the evidence is NGO-compiled or retrospective, and recharge upstream can reduce flows downstream. The model is low-cost and community-governed, which supports transferability to other semi-arid regions.

Read the full analysis: https://ecotippingpoints.com/our-stories/indepth/india-rajasthan-rainwater-harvest-restoration-groundwater-johad/