The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has launched a unique programme to harvest rain water after being faced with severe drought.

The Water Conservation Mission seeks to engage eminent personalities, experts and activists to motivate and mobilise farmers to conserve rain water.

The project has been launched at a time when the ground water level in the state has depleted to a dangerous level.

Officials say at certain places the level has fallen by over three metres, due to the failure of rains last year.

Exploitation

But officials also blame large scale digging of bore wells and unplanned construction.

Large-scale digging of deep wells has led to the crisis

They say the tapping of ground water should be a last resort, for it is like a fixed deposit for future exigencies and is necessary for retaining humidity.

Experts say there has been a massive exploitation of this resource in the past.

And to add to the problem, there has been very little recharging.

As a result, people in the drought-hit areas have little to fall back on.

Incentive scheme

Launching the project, the state's Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, said every drop of rain water had to be conserved.

Mr Naidu said his government would spend $1bn in an effort to conserve water across 10 million acres of land.

He said the programme would also encourage farmers to develop watersheds.

Each group of farmers would be given $50,000 to conserve water.

If they succeeded the money would be theirs, he said.

But if they failed they would have to repay the loan.

International funding agencies like the World Bank and the UK Department of International Development would assist the project.

The programme has been inspired by the successful experiment of an Indian conservationist, Anna Hazare, who converted barren land in the state of Maharashtra into fertile fields through watershed development.

Mr Hazare has been appointed to oversee the Andhra Pradesh project.