BACKGROUND:
Major parts of Thar Desert fall in Tharparkar and Umerkot Districts. The area is arid and semi arid, recurring droughts, quality and access to water are among major problems of area. Tharparkar is the largest district spread over an area of 47, 91,025 acres (19,637 sq kms) and population is about 1.4 million souls. Majority of inhabitants depend on rain fed agriculture and livestock. Umarkot is the gate way to Thar Desert. It exists at the border of barrage and arid region. It lies in the southeastern part of Sindh. It has a human population of 0.7 million. The majority of the inhabitants (70 %) of this area is dependent on agriculture. Agriculture is lifeline for the people and water is a rock/foundation on which it is based.
Since last couple of years, this sector is subject to vagaries of weather and facing consistent water shortage. Apart from natural calamities and disasters, manmade water shortage, constraints imposed by policy makers who are mostly tied with the MNCs/Donors aprons, removal of subsidies by Government and withdrawal of other incentives have added up to the sorry state of this sector.
Sindh in general and this region in particular is rich in wind, biomass and solar energy opportunities. Hence, the need of time is to develop, introduce & implement the wind, biomass and solar energies based technologies in this area for development; and to develop the physical ways and means through human capital to restructure the agriculture system and empower the primary stakeholders and devise multidimensional planning for the development of community. Mismanagement of resources and ineffective policies result in shape of social exclusion, gender imbalances and increasing poverty. So there was need of such organization which can play active role in organizing communities and empower the marginalized sectors of society.
This was realized by a group of likeminded people of Thar and Umerkot area and formed, Association for Water, Applied Education & Renewable Energy (AWARE) in spring 2003 and got registered with Societies Registration Act 1860 in 2005. AWARE strives for the social change in which people need to be organized so that they can set the pace and direction of development, change and related policies. Simultaneously the organization believes in educating and mobilizing people with respect to social, political and economic issues on the basis of sound knowledge and information as they can effectively play their role.
AWARE UPDATE
