People
& Their Problems
New Delhi, 9 June 2017
Monsoon Woes
TIME FOR WATER GOVERNANCE
By Moin Qazi
Water is obviously
crucial to every part of a society, but in India, over 600 million people make
a living off the land. They rely on the monsoon to replenish their water
sources. Rainfall accounts for 68 per cent recharge to ground water, and the
share of other resources, such as canal seepage, return flow from irrigation,
recharge from tanks, ponds and water conservation structures taken together is
32 per cent.
Farmers in India do a
lot of talking about the weather—especially, it seems, when there is no weather
in sight. When the land heats up like a furnace and most fields lie fallow,
when wells have run dry and the sun taunts from its broiling perch in a
cloudless sky, there is no topic more consuming—or less certain—than when and
how the summer monsoon will arrive. Later it will turn into a thundering
elephant. Or it will start as an elephant and then turn into a deer. Or it will
be erratic and annoying right through, like a chicken. In other words, nobody
really knows. But still, everybody talks.
The interaction
between human-made aerosols—tiny organic and inorganic particles—and clouds is
changing the nature of monsoon, say scientists world over. They find that these
microscopic pollutants act as sites where water vapour condenses to form cloud
droplets. The greater the number of aerosols, the higher the droplets. But then
as nature’s interactions also show, the result is not linear or simple. This
interaction between aerosols and droplets that form clouds could lead to less
rain; it could lead to extreme rain and it could lead to lightening that, in
turn, kills and maims on the ground.
Complex and
capricious, the South Asian monsoon—widely considered the most powerful
seasonal climate system on Earth, affecting nearly half the world’s
population—has never been easy to predict. And with global warming skewing
weather patterns, it’s not just the scientists who are confounded.
India's crucial
monsoon rains are expected to be average in 2017. An average or normal monsoon
means rainfall between 96 and 104 per cent of a 50-year average of 89
centimetres during a four-month season from June, India's weather office says.
Rainfall below 90 per cent of the average is considered a drought.
Even if rains are
average, some areas could still have drought. On the other hand, rains of more
than 110 per cent of the average would mean an excessive monsoon -- not as
damaging as drought but potentially hurting yields of lentils and rice.
The monsoon season
starts with the arrival of the rains on the southern Kerala coast around June
Its progress triggers planting of summer crops. After hitting the south coast,
it takes about week to cover the coffee, tea and rubber growing areas of south
India. It spreads to the rice areas of eastern parts in the first 10 days. It
usually covers half of the country in the first fortnight and enters the
oilseed-producing areas of central India in the third week of June. Cotton
areas in the western region get rains by the first week of July. It covers the
entire country by mid-July.
India supports 15 per
cent of the world’s population but possesses only 4 per cent of the world’s water
resources. Despite constructing 4,525 large and small dams, the country has
managed to create per capita storage of only 213 cubic meters, a relatively
small achievement when compared to Russia’s 6,103 cubic meters, Australia’s
4,733, and China’s 1,111. India is using only 35 per cent of the rainwater it
receives. If rainwater harvesting projects are effectively implemented, 65 per
cent of the rainwater which is wasted can be used.
Ancient Indians
understood the art of water governance. Kautilya’s Arthasastra, written around
300 BC, has details of how tanks and canals are to be built and managed. The
key was to clarify the enabling role of the State—the king—and the management
role of local communities. The kings did not have armies of public works engineers;
they provided fiscal incentives to communities and individuals who built water
systems. The British changed all this, by vesting the resource with the State
and creating large bureaucracies for management.
Watershed development
is not a new concept in India and a peek into history shows that the people of
India have adapted by either living along river banks or by harvesting,
storing, and managing rainfall, runoff and stream flows. Most of India’s water
management has been at the community level, relying upon diverse, imaginative
and effective methods for harvesting rainwater in tanks and small underground
storage.
India needs to revive
its traditional water harvesting practices. The idea behind watershed
development is simple: If people cut fewer trees, increase plant cover on the
land, and build a well-planned series of dams and earthen terraces to divert
and slow the downhill flow of rainwater, the soil has more time to absorb
moisture. The terracing and new vegetation also control erosion, which keeps
nutrient-rich topsoil from washing or blowing away, and this in turn boosts the
productivity of agricultural land.
Israel has been a
role model for the world in matters of water management and India is now
actively seeking the country’s help. Israel’s successes were in large part due
to the major innovation of drip irrigation. The country has also set the
template for reusing wastewater in irrigation. It treats 80 per cent of its
domestic wastewater, which is recycled and constitutes nearly 50 per cent of
the total water used for agriculture.
Realising its dire
predicament decades ago, Israel studied the “water equation” and made itself
all but independent from Mother Nature. Israel took 70 years to solve its water
problem; India won’t need that long, as it can emulate Israeli advances. But
India must summon the political will to act before the water runs out. Changing
governance, raising money, and installing technologies all take time and the
climatic stresses are mounting fast. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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