Water Security Toolbox
Diagnose. Design. Assess.
Making science accessible for rural water security programmes in India. Designed for civil society organisations and corporate social responsibility teams who seek to deliver lasting impact.
The Challenge
Money is pouring into water. Can we achieve water security?
India is moving from a water-stressed to a water-scarce nation. Overuse, climate change, and poor data are pushing water systems to the brink. Over ₹3,500 crore is spent on water-related corporate social responsibility programmes annually, but often fails to achieve better water security.
- Programmes designed without local hydrological knowledge
- One size fits all approaches applied across diverse contexts
- Reporting that tracks the wrong metrics, and counts activities instead of outcomes
The Water Security Toolbox is designed to help practitioners take the science of water to communities, create local problem-solving capacity, and deliver on programmes that truly work.
Read moreUse the Toolbox to shift how a programme is built.
Design solutions rooted in local context, because every village is different.
Replace assumptions with robust field data and learning.
Make every rupee traceable and measurable.
Move from project level outputs to watershed-scale water security.
What does the toolbox contain?
Problem Diagnosis
Understand your watershed before you act. Step-by-step guidance, including a digital tool, to arrive at community-validated programme objectives.
Solution Design
Move from diagnosis to action. A structured approach, including a digital tool, to co-design solutions that align objectives with the local hydrological and social constraints.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
Know if it is working. Integrated protocols and continuous monitoring workflows to track real water outcomes, not just activities.
Simple, field ready Playbooks.
For community leaders monitoring water on the ground.
Partners
The Water Security Toolbox built together by EDF and WELL Labs.
Rajasthan, Tarun Bharat Sangh
Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, Tata Consumer Products
and Aga Khan Foundation
Vapi, Gujarat, Tata Consumer Products and
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India
Jalna, Maharashtra, Save Groundwater Foundation
Toopran, Telangana, Tata Consumer Products and WASSAN
Karnataka, Foundation for Ecological Security,
Arghyam and Prarambha
Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh, WASSAN
Theni, Tamil Nadu, Tata Consumer Products and
MS Swaminathan Research Foundation
It exists thanks to partnerships with Tata Consumer Products Limited, Aga Khan Foundation, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (I), MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, and Watershed Support Services and Activities Network. It also draws from prior partnerships with Arghyam, Foundation for Ecological Services, CoRE Stack, Tarun Bharat Sangh.