US Fulbright Program alumna Alexandra Mouche, recipient of a 2011 Fulbright-Nehru award to India, has produced a documentary film on how a rural community mobilized to revive a major river in their region, the Meghal River. The film documents the lives of farmers living in this arid region of Saurashtra, Gujarat in India and their narratives outline the devastating droughts of the 1980's and 1990's and how they were able to recharge the groundwater in the region and revive the Meghal River through community action. Students from the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad) contributed immensely in the filming and post production of the documentary.

During her time in India, she worked with the Institute of Rural Management, Anand on the Meghal River Basin Oral History Project in Gujarat, India. Her study complemented the existing formal, technical and socio-economic studies of a groundwater management movement with individual stories and narratives from the farmers living in the region.

The film can be viewed on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XGeXYn1i-8. The original interview recordings and transcripts (and translations) are available at: http://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/29623

Conserve water, as without water everything is lifeless. Nothing will grow, neither pearl, nor main nor grain.