SQUEEZING IT DRY: A deep borewell being sunk at Thirukannurpatti near Thanjavur.

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has been identified as "one of the driest States in India." The per capita availability of water resources in the State is only 900 cubic metres a year, against 2,200 cubic metres in the whole of the country.

The State's dry season lasts five months — January to May — even in good years and severe droughts occur in three of 10 years, severely limiting cultivation of crops between June and September, says a World Bank report on the economic growth in Tamil Nadu. The report calls for decisive steps to reinvigorate agricultural growth to contain poverty and enhance rural purchasing power.

The seasonality and scarcity of water has limited cultivation to one crop a plot for most of the State, with 96 per cent of surface water for irrigation having been already utilised and groundwater resources fast depleting, the report cautions.

Water sources

About 30 per cent of the net irrigated area is watered by canals and 21 per cent by tanks, while 49 per cent is fed by wells. The remaining area is irrigated by other sources such as streams and springs.

Rainfed agriculture, employing about 25 per cent of farmers, accounts for 46 per cent of the net sown area of 5.5 million hectares. According to the study, of the 1.8 million wells, approximately 10 per cent are defunct. The depth of borewells in hard rock is between 600 and 1,000 feet. All these point to water resources management becoming the key and priority area for the Government and farmers alike.

Main issues

And three main issues have been identified in the area of water management: fragmentation and lack of strategic coordination; distorted pricing of water; and decline in the quality and quality of public investment in irrigated structure. Though Tamil Nadu adopted some pioneering steps in setting up institutional water resource management, with the involvement of stakeholders, a lot more needs to be done to make them work on the ground.

After a path-breaking campaign to advocate rainwater harvesting, the State Government brought in legislation to set up a River Basin Management Council in two of the 17 river basins in the first phase. "A basin perspective helps minimise negative impacts on downstream human and ecological uses." The State legislature has also passed the Tamil Nadu Farmers Management of Irrigation Systems Bill in May 2000. But no steps have been taken to get the farmers/users to manage the water resources. It is the Public Works Department (PWD) that runs the show.

Priorities identified

Three priorities have also been identified by the World Bank for more efficient institutional management of water resources. The first is to develop a State-wide water resources management strategy that examines competing uses for water and evolves a strategic framework for inter-sectoral allocation.

The second is the need to introduce specific, legally enforceable water entitlements to various users in a river basin or aquifer. And the third is to clarify and develop rules and a framework for interplay among various agencies and institutions on the management of water resources policy — i.e. the River Basin Management Council, farmers' water user associations, local government, water resources organisation and the PWD. Above all, there is an urgent need to go in for crop diversification as a majority of farmers stick to paddy and sugarcane, which are water-intensive crops. Irrigation managers and agriculture field officers say the World Bank has only "reiterated the obvious."

In the context of an Assembly election in 2006, no new policy initiatives can be expected as farmers and farm labour constitute a "very sensitive and politically volatile section of the electorate."

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