Article: India's Big River Plan.

Progress plays strange tricks. Villagers in India's Rajasthan desert state grew accustomed to government providing for their every need. Hand-pumping water from abundant wells was the norm. When drought struck, the locals were clueless and impotent. But a village headman reminded a social-welfare group, the Young India Association, of his forefathers' water-management practices. They built johads--low earth dams--to capture and store meager rainfall. During the 1990s, more than 40 villages in the region adopted the almost forgotten method. Now, after five years of drought, the area is green and the water table is just a meter below the surface. "We make villages ...

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