ACC Trust, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of ACC Ltd., has always focused on improving the lives of marginalized and economically backward communities with programmes that encompass livelihoods, education, health & sanitation and women empowerment.

Several states across India face a severe scarcity of water and foreseeing the risks associated with water scarcity in rural communities, ACC Trust designed its flagship program “Low External Inputs for Sustainable Agriculture” (LEISA). The program provides interventions for water conservation and in partnership with local communities, the government’s irrigation department and civil society organizations stresses on the importance of water management.

Over the years, ACC Trust has taken several steps to improve and sustain the lives and livelihoods of rural communities. Over the last year, ACC Trust has also undertaken several projects such as construction of check dams, renovation and desilting of ponds.

Under the LEISA program, ACC Trust collaborated with technical partners to implement Lift Irrigation with a 3,600 meters pipeline from the Mej river in Rajasthan’s Bundi district to the Kankra Dunger village. In addition, ACC Trust also laid a drinking water pipeline and has also organized regular capacity building training programs for farmers and set-up a water user group, “Balaji Jal Utthan Samiti, Kankra”.

Sridhar Balakrishnan, MD and CEO, ACC Limited said, “At ACC Trust we remain committed to transform lives and create a better world for rural communities. Through our program LESIA, we strive to address critical issues such as water scarcity, cyclical drought and non-availability of drinking water by building water sufficient rural communities.”

The lift irrigation project has witnessed a 100 percent increase in access to water resources and a shifting from single cropping to double cropping consequently improving the socio-economic status of the region’s farmers.