CAMDEN — Maine's Sebago Clean Water Fund, a project supported by The Nature Conservancy, is being used as a model for protecting a watershed in southwest India.

On Monday morning, January 8, at the Camden Public Library, Girija Godbole, director of The Nature Conservancy's Ghod River Water Fund in southwest India, will make a live virtual presentation direct from India to discuss the effort to build a coalition of stakeholders in the Ghod River basin to ensure equitable access to the water. Introducing her and explaining water funds and Maine’s connection to the project will be Kate Dempsey, State Director of The Nature Conservancy in Maine. 

The free presentation, in the Picker Room, will begin at 10:30 a.m.

This will be a hybrid program, in person at the Camden Public Library and on Zoom. For the Zoom registration link visit the "What's Happening" adult events calendar at librarycamden.org or register here: https://bit.ly/3TpqDRt.

The Ghod River basin covers part of the districts of Pune and Admednagar and includes 472 villages, four towns and the city of Daund over an area of 4,574 square kilometers, two-thirds of which is agricultural.  There are an estimated 350 small and medium industries in the area. Like other water funds, the Ghod River Project focuses on a watershed and operates at local, national and global levels by helping build a coalition of stakeholders in freshwater systems and mobilizing funding streams that will sustain conservation long into the future. Among the purposes of the Ghod River Fund is to form a citizen-scientist coalition, including farmers and tribal communities supporting stewardship of the basin and ensuring equitable access to water.

“Watersheds sit at the crux of the global climate, biodiversity and water crises, so investment in them can move the needle on many of our most urgent societal challenges at once,” said a news release.

This presentation is hosted by the Camden Public Library and offered as a free community event in anticipation of the 37th Annual Camden Conference –INDIA: Rising Ambitions, Challenges at Home, February 16-18, 2024, live at the Camden Opera House and live-streamed to the Strand Theatre in Rockland, Luther Bonney Hall at USM in Portland, and to homes and classrooms worldwide. For more information, please visit camdenconference.org/2024Conference.