Natural Resources management

Natural Resources management: / Land Water management

Environment is everything that surrounds us, whereas, ecology is how all those work. The changes in the environment now alter the natural cycles and climatic conditions affecting the human life and livelihood. We initiated efforts to address the problems originating from environmental issues through people`s participation.
In Nabarangpur district, 332 hectors of private land under MGNREGS - OTELP Plus program were planted mostly with fruit bearing species creating community assets and in Dhenkanal district 2300 sanitary latrines constructed for BPL Families along with 10 Kms of road covered under avenue plantation involving school students. Water harvesting and soil-moisture conservation mini-structures were constructed. Through its sister organization PAWP (People`s Area Water Partnership) aCommunity Based Forest Conservation Committees were formed and were introduced to the state forest authorities. Wild life protection and community role in it was inculcated among the tribals others in the region as a complementary to natural livelihood.
Management of natural resources including land, water and forest is central to the project. During the reporting period the organization took several steps for improving water supply to the agricultural fields. Activities like gully plugging, treatment of degraded land, construction of percolating wells, constructions of dug wells etc. were undertaken for sustainable use of natural resources. Forest protection Committees were formed and strengthened for protecting the forest cover in the project area. During the reporting period the organization achieved the following milestones.

Activity Details and numbers.

No. of Dug wells : 33
Degraded Land treated : 169.5 hect
Stag Strench : 12.5 hect
No. of Firm Ponds : 138

OTHER SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Programme on Water and sanitation

AIRA continued its programme on water and sanitation. The organization worked with the District Water and Sanitation Mission to promote households latrines to discourage open defecation. We facilitated to install more than 300 individual latrines in the districts of Nabarangpur and Dhenkanal. Several innovative IEC activities were also undertaken to motivate the people to use sanitary latrines instead of open defecation. Similarly, the organization also worked for disinfecting the contaminated water sources.

Programme on Environment and Climate Change

Protecting the sensitive ecological balance is crucial for the survival of human kind. But for the past few years there has been mindless destruction of the forest cover. AIRA is working with the community to make the people aware of the harmful consequences of depleting forest cover. During the reporting period extensive campaign were undertake to protect the mangrove forest cover which works as the lung of the state of Odisha. The people living in and around the mangrove forest in the district of Dhenkanal and Nawarangpur were trained to adopt alternative livelihood for saving their forest and sustainability. About 1,000 school children were also involved in spreading awareness on the issue of climate change so that they can imbibe the sense of protecting their forests. The organization also raised a community nursery at Kankadahad and distributed more than 10,000 saplings for backyard plantation among the people.