WOTR is a not-for-profit NGO founded in 1993. WOTR is working/has worked in  9 Indian states – Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,  Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhatisgarh and Bihar covering 52 districts, 198 blocks and 3683 villages impacting over 3.7  million people.

WOTR is recognised widely as a premier institution in the field of participatory Watershed Development and Climate Change Adaptation. Its unique strength lies in its on-field experience and in a systemic, participatory approach.

WOTR was initiated to support a large-scale multi-actor, multi-level, multi-sectoral, community led watershed development program for poverty reduction called the Indo-German Watershed Development Program (IGWDP). It was launched in Maharashtra, India by Fr. Hermann Bacher, co-founder and Chairman of WOTR, and Crispino Lobo, co-founder and Managing Trustee.

WOTR’s mandate is to reduce poverty through mobilising the self help capacities of individuals and communities to regenerate the eco-spaces or watersheds they live in, harvest rain water wherever it falls, use it productively, undertake sustainable livelihoods and do whatever else it takes to get them out of poverty.