Perceived Health Impacts of Watershed Development Projects in Southern India: A Qualitative Study

Adithya Pradyumna, Arima Mishra, Jürg Utzinger and Mirko S. Winkler
Additional contact information
Adithya Pradyumna: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
Arima Mishra: Azim Premji University, PES Campus, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560100, India
Jürg Utzinger: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
Mirko S. Winkler: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: Watershed development (WSD) projects—planned for over 100 million ha in semi-arid areas of India—should enhance soil and water conservation, agricultural productivity and local livelihood, and contribute to better nutrition and health. Yet, little is known about the health impacts of WSD projects, especially on nutrition, vector breeding, water quality and the distribution of impacts. We conducted a qualitative study to deepen the understanding on perceived health impacts of completed WSD projects in four villages of Kolar district, India. Field data collection comprised: (i) focus group discussions with local women ( n = 2); (ii) interviews ( n = 40; purposive sampling) with farmers and labourers, project employees and health workers; and (iii) transect walks. Our main findings were impacts perceived on nutrition (e.g., food security through better crop survival, higher milk consumption from livestock, alongside increased pesticide exposure with expanded agriculture), potential for mosquito larval breeding (e.g., more breeding sites) and through opportunistic activities (e.g., reduced mental stress due to improved water access). Impacts perceived varied between participant categories (e.g., better nutrition in woman-headed households from livelihood support). Some of these findings, e.g., potential negative health implications, have previously not been reported. Our observations informed a health impact assessment of a planned WSD project, and may encourage implementing agencies to incorporate health considerations to enhance positive and mitigate negative health impacts in future WSD projects.

Keywords: agriculture; India; livestock; nutrition; vector-borne diseases; watershed development project (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3448/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3448/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:10:p:3448-:d:358553

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().