Living Waters is one in a series of Handbooks published by PRADAN seeking to lay down a standard set of steps for Community Managed Small Lift Irrigation systems in rural India. The purpose is to develop models for enhancing the quality of livelihood infrastructure for the poor in the country’s backward regions. This publication draws on the extensive experience over many years of PRADAN in rural Jharkhand, odisha, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh of designing and implementing community-managed small irrigation systems. These systems compare favourably on a variety of indicators such as investment per unit cropped area, ease of installation, command area utilisation, operating costs, and community participation in management, with the large irrigation systems implemented by State agencies.