Strategies for Addressing Issues Around Water

Introduction:

Water is a great gift of nature to the humanity and is an essential resource for all forms of life. It is essential for healthy economic, geopolitical, and environmental conditions around the world. Yet, due to population growth and mismanagement, the need for adequate, affordable drinking and irrigation water is a growing international crisis. Water is likely to become critically scarce resource in the future. Variations in climatic characteristics both in space and time can cause uneven distribution of precipitation, which can result in highly uneven distribution of available water resources leading to floods and droughts affecting the vast areas. Inter-basin transfer of water is one of the options for

mitigating the problems of the surplus and deficit basins in India. Proper management of groundwater resources should be an essential component of management. An accurate assessment of available surface and groundwater resources, considering the man-made changes, is needed for planning, design and operation of the water resources projects as well as for watershed management. There are several issues around water that need urgent attention. The important basic issues pertaining to water include shortage of water, surplus of water and quality of water. There is need to address these issues with a multipronged scientific approach. Some of the strategies that can be used in addressing the water issues are briefed in this paper.

Strategies for addressing water issues:

• Strategy for groundwater management: Ground water is an important source of water and it’s over exploitation is an important issue. To regulate the usage of ground water from over exploitation,

an effective groundwater management policy oriented towards promotion of efficiency, equity and sustainability is needed. The exploitation of groundwater resources should be regulated so as not to exceed the recharging possibilities, as well as to ensure social equity. Promotion of participatory action in rehabilitating tanks for recharging would go a long way in augmenting groundwater. The

role of government will have to switch from that of a controller of groundwater development to

that of a facilitator of equitable and sustainable development.

• Strategy for scientific flood management: Floods are the most frequently experienced natural

disasters in some states. The main causes for flood are inadequate capacity within river banks to

contain high flows, river bank erosion and silting of riverbeds. Other factors include landslides leading to obstruction of flow and change of the river course, retardation of flow due to tidal and backwater effects, poor natural drainage in the flood-prone area, cyclone and associated heavy rain storms or cloud bursts, snowmelt and glacial outbursts and dam break flow. Technical advancement in a well planned flood forecasting and warning system can help in providing higher lead time for timely action. It is well recognized that long-term solution of flood problems lies in creating appropriate flood storage in reservoirs. Media can play an important role in creating awareness on this issue.

• Strategy for conjunctive use of water: The main reason for excessive use of surface water as compared to groundwater is its much lower price for irrigation as compared to the cost incurred in

using groundwater. Water-logging problems could be overcome if conjunctive use of surface and

groundwater is made. Groundwater utilization for irrigation with water logged areas can help to lower the groundwater table and reclaim the affected soil. Over exploitation of groundwater has resulted in mining of groundwater. It is desirable that the irrigation needs for fulfilling crop water requirements should be satisfied by judicious utilization of available canal water in conjunction with groundwater so as to keep water table within the acceptable range.

• Strategy for drought management: The droughtprone area in the country is around 51.12mha and

drought management has to be given top priority. Robust and rainfall independent off-farm livelihood

opportunities may be targeted in the drought mitigation strategy. Conjunctive uses of surface and groundwater, aquifer recharge and watershed management with community participation are important. An integrated basin development approach is required for preparing the drought management plan before, during and after the occurrence of the drought.

• Strategy for water conservation: Water conservation is essential for better use and management of

water resources. On the demand side, a variety of economic, administrative and community-based

measures can help conserve water. Agriculture accounts for about 69 per cent of all water withdrawn, the greatest potential for conservation lies in increasing irrigation efficiencies. Just a 10 percent improvement in irrigation efficiency could conserve enough water to double the amount available for drinking. An important supplement to conservation is to minimize the wastage of water in domestic, agricultural and industrial usages. Prices of water for all uses has to be fixed, keeping in mind its economic value, control of wastage, and the ability of users to pay which will help in avoiding wastage and ensuring optimal use.

Strategy for rainwater harvesting: Different methods of rainwater harvesting need to be developed to suit the geographical and meteorological conditions in various parts of the country. Traditional rainwater harvesting, which is still prevalent in rural areas, is done by using surface storage bodies like lakes, ponds, irrigation tanks, temple tanks, etc. There is a need to recharge aquifers and conserve rainwater through water harvesting structures. In urban areas, rainwater will have to be harvested using rooftops and open spaces. Harvesting rainwater not only reduces the possibility of flooding, but

also decreases the community’s dependence on groundwater for domestic uses. Apart from bridging

the demand–supply gap, recharging improves quality of groundwater, raises water table in wells/

bore-wells and prevents flooding and choking of drains.

• Strategy for watershed management: For an equitable and sustainable management of shared water resources, flexible, holistic approach of  Integrated Water Resources Management is required, which can cater for hydrological variations in time and space and changes in socio-economic needs along with societal values. Watershed is the unit of management, where surface water and groundwater are inextricably linked and related to land use and management. Watershed management

aims to establish a workable and efficient framework for the integrated use, regulation and development of land and water resources in a watershed for socio-economic growth with local community participation.

• Strategy for land use planning and cropping pattern: Planning of land use, especially in new

land developments is important. Areas where water supply priorities are low can be planted with drought-resistant varieties of trees and crops. Considerable information exists on time distribution of water requirements for various crops and various planting dates. This knowledge is required to be integrated systematically with water supply probabilities to develop planting strategies. The selection of cropping pattern as per availability of water will reduce adverse impacts of drought on potential water consuming crops.

• Strategy for recycling and reuse of water: Another way to improve freshwater availability is by

recycling and reuse of water. Use of water of lesser quality, such as reclaimed waste water, for cooling and fire fighting is an attractive option for large and complex industries to reduce their water costs, increase production and decrease the consumption of energy. This conserves better quality waters for potable uses. Currently, recycling of water is not practised on a large scale in India and there is considerable scope and an incentive to use this alternative.

• Strategy for inter-basin water transfer: The vast variation, both in space and time, in the availability of water in different regions has created a food–drought–flood syndrome with some areas suffering from flood damages and other areas facing acute water shortage. Some states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra) face worst droughts and some states (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Assam) face severe flood problems. Inter-basin

transfer of water can be a long-term option to partly overcome the spatial and temporal imbalance of

availability and demand of water resources.

• Strategy for developing legal restrictions on water use: Brining provisions of legal restrictions

on use of water, mainly during the period of scarcity can be an important strategy. In India, a national water policy has policy directions for development and management of water resources and legal restrictions on proper utilization of groundwater resources. However, provision of legal restrictions should be carefully thought of and need mobilization of qualified water specialists to explore effective solutions. The legal strategies should be implemented with minimum probability of being

rendered ineffective by injunctions and law suits.

• Strategy for demand management for urban areas and industries: Demand management in urban areas and industries is another strategy which could be adopted to reduce demand in urban water supply or households and industries. The water conservation and reuse strategies should be planned at the time of setting up of a new industry to build on the conservation and reuse requirements from the beginning.

• Strategy for developing decision support system: One of the new trends in finding solution of water management problems has been to aggregate several models into integrated software, i.e.

knowledge based Decision Support System (DSS) that focuses on the interaction between the user and the data, models and computers. Automating the process with a DSS could effectively improve the water resources planning and management.

• Strategy for enhancing people’s participation and capacity building: For successful management of water resources, participation of different stakeholders and their capacity building on

different issues of water resources management is needed. Policy decisions on any water resources

management should aim at improving knowledge, attitude and practices about the linkages between

health and hygiene, provide higher water supply service levels and to improve environment through

safe disposal of human wastes. Sustainable management requires decentralized decisions by giving authority and responsibility to communities to manage their natural resources.