Watershed Development or Rural development in Watershed Management?

Watershed development project is basically meant for development of watershed. It is not exactly a rural development project. It is obvious that while going for watershed development, the inhabitants of watershed will be benefited and hence there will be rural development.

But the objective of Watershed development should never be confused with the objective of rural development. Here the objective is conservation and further enhancing the efficiency of the natural resources

Many a time, in a Watershed project focus is diverted much on rural development then on watershed development as such. Of course! Rural development is closely attached to Watershed development .But some time due to improper balance between rural development and Watershed development; the Watershed projects are not even able to assure proper access to minimum amount of drinking water on sustainable basis to the inhabitants of Watershed. Likewise, quite often water for irrigation requirements by the farmers in Watershed are also not addressed on sustainable basis. Hence, in many Watershed projects, even the water related aspects of rural development are not addressed properly.

So, it is important to ensure a proper balance between the rural development aspects and Watershed development aspect in a Watershed development project.