Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 1 April 2008

Water Management

NEED FOR NATIONAL POLICY

By Dr. Vinod Mehta

Former Director, Research, ICSSR

The Meteorological Department has yet to give its rain forecast for the year.  If the monsoon is normal chances of a good harvest are bright. In effect it will have a salutary affect on the prices of agricultural products. Thus, reiterating the fact--our dependence on monsoon for a good harvest. Of the 182.7 million hectares of land used for cultivation, only about 50 million hectares is currently irrigated, the rest depend entirely on monsoon rains. Therefore, enlarging the cropped area under assured irrigation is critical for the economy. However, bringing more land under irrigation will take time.

More than a good monsoon, a larger concern is that the availability of water in the country is decreasing with every passing day and unless something is done to conserve water we may be courting trouble, viz population, agriculture and industry. Various media reports have warned that India, with a sixth of the world's population, faces a rapidly growing water crisis, both in urban and rural areas. This includes wasteful practices in water use, particularly for irrigation, sanitation, water-logging and salinity, and inadequate access to safe drinking water.

Water crisis, experts caution could have serious economic and social consequences: “India faces a turbulent water future. Unless water management practices are changed – and changed soon – India will face a severe water crisis within the next two decades and will have neither the cash to build new infrastructure nor the water needed by its growing economy and rising population,” according to a World Bank Report.

The unresolved disputes over water-sharing between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and among Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are pointers in this direction.  At the moment these disputes are dormant because of a good monsoon last year. But can resurface if there is a bad monsoon in any year.  Water, like land is limited and its optimum availability cannot be increased to any significant extent. Therefore, the political leadership of the country needs to rise to the occasion to tackle the impending water crisis.

Let’s look at some facts first: Fresh water represents less than 0.5 per cent of the total water on the earth surface. Rest of the water is either in the form of sea water or locked up in icecaps or soil. The worldwide consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice that of the increase in population.

Water is being used recklessly despite the fact that it is scarce. A large amount of it is being wasted in agriculture, industry and urban areas. It is estimated that available technologies along with better practices, the agricultural water demand could be cut by about 50 per cent and that in urban areas by about 33 per cent without affecting the quality of life. However, most governments are not armed with adequate laws or regulations to protect their water systems.

In most developing countries, fresh water supply comes in the form of seasonal rains. Such rains do not provide enough time for efficient use during the monsoon. India, for instance, gets 90 per cent of its rainfall during the summer monsoon season which lasts from June to September. For the rest of the months there is hardly any rain. As a result of the seasonal nature of rain, India can make use of no more than 20 per cent of its potentially available fresh water resources.

Moreover, Himalayan glaciers are said to be receding rapidly and many could melt entirely by 2035. If the giant Gangotri Glacier that supplies 70 per cent of the Ganges flow during the dry season disappears, the Ganges would become a seasonal river--flowing during the rainy season but not summer dry season, when irrigation water needs are the most.

The per capita availability of renewable fresh water in the country has fallen drastically over the last 50 years. The water table is rapidly falling with unregulated over exploitation of groundwater. By 2025 water scarcity in India is expected to be acute and big dams, mega river-linking projects or privatized water distribution may not help. Other than rainfall, the two other important sources of water are rivers and ground water. India has 14 major, 44 medium and 55 minor river basins. India’s ground water resources are almost ten times its annual rainfall. Like surface water nearly 85 per cent of the ground water is used mainly for irrigation.

It is quite obvious that something needs to be done so that the water problem doesn’t assume alarming proportions. Since we do not have any control either over monsoon or rivers, the only way to conserve water is through efficient management of rain and river water. It calls for various measures in the next two to three years.

It is amazing that in spite of the fact that we are faced with the problem of growing scarcity of water, we do not have any national water policy. During drought we dig up many areas under ‘food for work programme’ for storing rain water during the next monsoon. Then we come up with ideas like linking of rivers and occasionally we beat our chest for the falling underground water table. One has been hearing about water harvesting for several years but not much is known as to how much work has been done in this area.

It is, therefore, essential that the country must have a clear-cut water management policy for the next 50 years. How the river water is to be used and how it is to be diverted from surplus to water deficient areas must be clearly spelt out. Linking of rivers is a good idea but before attempting such a course an exercise must be carried out very carefully to weigh all the pros and cons, because once the rivers have been inter-linked it may not be possible to undo if we find one day that it is not working well or has created numerous other problems. Secondly, linking of rivers will displace millions of people.  How are we going to handle them?

For better water management, we should have a data base for each district and for each village on the average annual flow of water, number of wells, ponds, pools, streams etc.

Besides this, there is an urgent need to change the attitude of people towards the water use.  Today people are wasting and polluting large quantities of water in different ways. The most polluting is the city sewage and industrial water being discharged into rivers. Currently only about 10 per cent of the waste water generated is treated. The rest is discharged as it is into our water bodies. Due to this, pollutants enter ground water and other water bodies. This water, which ultimately ends up in our household, is often highly contaminated carrying disease causing microbes.

Water from the agricultural fields that drains into rivers is another major water pollutant as it contains fertilizers and pesticides. The effects of water pollution are not only devastating on human beings but also on animals, fish and birds. Polluted water is unsuitable for drinking, recreation, agriculture and industry. It diminishes the aesthetic quality of lakes and rivers. Worse, contaminated water destroys aquatic life and reduces its re-product ability. Eventually it is health hazard and no one can escape the affects of water pollution.

Nina Brooks in her paper entitled Imminent water crisis in India notes: “India’s water crisis is predominantly a manmade problem. India’s climate is not particularly dry, nor is it lacking in rivers and groundwater. Extremely poor management, unclear laws, government corruption, and industrial and human waste have caused this water supply crunch and rendered what water is available practically useless due to the huge quantity of pollution. In managing water resources, the Indian government must balance competing demands between urban and rural, rich and poor, the economy and the environment.”

Therefore, apart from having a national water policy, the government along with NGOs and local communities should start a long-term campaign to educate and sensitize the general public about the need to save water and stop its pollution.  Management of scarce water should be made a part of the school curriculum.. Children should be taught the value of conserving water. Let’s tap the young generation. ----INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)