Madgyal is a small village located at distance of 2 5 Kms from Jath city, District ‐ Sangli, state-Maha rashtra (India). It lies between North latitude 17°02’56.94” and East longitude 75° 13’8.14”.The paper describes a collaborative resear ch effort aimed at the adaptation and development of affordable technologi es for capturing and retaining rainwater runoff inc luding that from roof tops; and using this as a valuable source of water to sup plement the water needs of households in drought ar ea. The Project will verify the extent to which adoption of the adapted technologie s could help greatly in conserving water resources in the semi-arid regions in developing countries and at the same time helping t o alleviate poverty by improving the quality of lif e of women and children in these regions. The rainwater harvesting systems will be d esigned. It is envisaged that the systems would ena ble poor households in the community to supplement their water supply needs as well as engage in small scale backyard gardening; extend their cropping seasons through improved security of water resource s, ultimately enhancing food security and contribut ing to poverty reduction.