Gujarat recorded 10% below-normal rainfall between June 1 and September 15, 2026, with several districts facing much sharper deficits.
Devbhumi Dwarka recorded an 80% rainfall deficit, followed by Porbandar at 67%, Jamnagar at 50% and Kutch at 39%.
Farmers in Kutch and Saurashtra face crop losses and growing concerns over water and fodder availability.
Despite decades of investment in check dams, ponds and other rainwater harvesting structures, water scarcity remains a recurring problem in the state's arid districts.
“When it rained between July 29 and 31, I sowed castor on my 3-hectare (ha) farmland, but not a single drop of rain fell after that and the entire crop was ruined,” says 66-year-old Kanji Bhai Kanjikara, a farmer from Kunariya village in Gujarat’s Kutch district. Kanjikara also rears livestock and is surviving by selling milk. But he says that if it does not rain in the coming months, arranging fodder for the livestock will also become difficult.
During the ongoing monsoon season, hundreds of villages in the state, especially the Kutch district and the Saurash-tra region (which has 11 districts), are struggling for water. According to the September 15 report of the India Meteorolog-ical Department’s Ahmedabad centre, Gujarat has received a total average rainfall of 597.4 mm from June 1 to September 15, 2026, compared to the normal rainfall of 663.9 mm — a 10 per cent less than normal precipitation. The district-wise rain data, however, paints a more stark picture. Devbhumi Dwarka, for instance, has received a massive 80 per cent less than normal rainfall by September 15. Similarly, Porbandar (67 per cent), Jamnagar (50 per cent), Kutch (39 per cent), Gir Somnath (33 per cent) and Rajkot (28 per cent) have also received considerably less than normal rainfall.
Kutch and Saurashtra have always been dry and arid, facing frequent droughts. The region, therefore, has an age-old tradition of rainwater harvesting structures, such as step wells, ponds, kunds and tankas. After a severe drought in 1987, farmers began experimenting with building check dams on small rivers and streams to arrest rainwater runoff. In the 1990s, non-profits provided technical and financial support to these efforts. Thus, the campaign to build check dams, which began as a community initiative, took the form of a movement.
In 1996-97, Gujarat prepared an action plan for rainwater harvesting, under which it decided to promote groundwater recharge through household tankas and community water structures. On January 17, 2000, the government launched Sar-dar Patel Participatory Water Conservation Scheme. Initially, in non-tribal areas, 60 per cent of the cost of constructing check dams was to be borne by the government and 40 per cent by the beneficiaries, while in tribal areas the ratio was 80:20. The work on constructing check dams in the state progressed so rapidly that 10,708 check dams were constructed in Gujarat in 1999-2000 …
This article was originally published in the October 1-15, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth
