Women, water and community ownership.

:** The geographic region of Bhal covers parts of four districts of Gujarat. This case study refers to the coastal Bhal, an area bordering the gulf of Khambhat on its western shores. In the local language, Bhal means forehead. It stands for a topography as flat as saline and as barren as a forehead. The region suffers from a hostile geo-climatic environment, highly saline shallow ground water, erratic monsoon rains, exploitation of poor by high castes, and out migration. All these problems have rendered living conditions very difficult.