Ensuring water security
G.S. GANESH PRASAD
MANAGING WATER RESOURCES — Policies, Institutions and Technologies: V. Ratna Reddy, S. Mahendra Dev — Editors; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 595.
The water resources sector in India has witnessed rapid changes since Independence. The focus in the initial stages was on improving the irrigation infrastructure by way of huge investments in building large dams. The advent of the Green Revolution not only led to the use of high-yielding varieties of seeds and increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but also increased the use of water in many parts of the country. The private investment in irrigation also started rising rapidly since 1980s through digging of wells for tapping groundwater. The 1990s witnessed decline in public investment in irrigation and also lack of any major policy initiatives towards operation and maintenance of existing infrastructures. During the period the state governments competed with each other in implementing populist policy measures which ultimately resulted in the overexploitation of groundwater. However, most states could not initiate any measures for the judicious management of water resources.
Crucial issues
Another important area for increasing conflicts relate to sharing and using water resources over the years. The confluence of policies, institutions and technologies will have to bring out various ways of reducing such conflicts through judicious management of water resources and adoption of appropriate technologies. This edited volume is the outcome of a national seminar to deliberate upon the issues related to water. The organisation of the papers in three sub-themes, namely, irrigation water, drinking water and sanitation, and gender and decentralisation focus on the crucial issues related to water management. The papers are theme specific with due consideration for geographic locations.
In the Indian context the policies aimed at sustainable water management have not achieved much success due to lack of policy initiatives and non-implementation of these policies by the official machinery. Still certain policies will not be redundant. So efforts to bring about change in water management through policies and reforms must be a continuous process. An important issue relates to the poor maintenance of infrastructure and a very low recovery of water charges at the micro level.
The proposed future reform scenarios in the water sector are relevant with the current trends at the global level. Though there are limitations to participatory approaches in irrigation management, pursuit of collective action contributes to improvement of the current trends. Another important issue relates to the use of drip irrigation which increases the per hectare yield of many crops. A campaign needs to be launched to create more awareness among farmers for adopting such technologies.
Groundwater use
Rural electrification and power subsidies in many states have resulted in the exponential growth in groundwater utilisation. The present power-pricing policies to the farm sector do not have any rationale and proper accountability. Also this has resulted in overexploitation of water resources. The absence of proper legislation to regulate the use of groundwater despite the efforts made by the union and most state governments, and ineffective implementation of the provisions of the irrigation acts by most state governments have also significantly contributed to this.
Availability and accessibility to potable drinking water facilities is posing increasing problems in many parts of the country. The management of these facilities have been entrusted to the decentralised institutions whose efforts have not yielded significant results. Similarly in the sanitation sector despite the best efforts made by the Panchayati Raj institutions the coverage is still far from satisfactory. The feasibility of initiating the reform measures suggested by the authors by way of reduction and targeting the subsidies needs a close scrutiny. The decentralised institutions need to be provided with sufficient powers and finances for implementing the programmes in these areas.
Conservation
Mainstreaming gender equity in water management is very important. Effective participation of women is also a means of empowerment and should be reflected in the policies and the reforms in the water management issues. There is also an urgent need for better understanding of the community initiatives and management practices adopted in the water sector.
The book, a collection of papers pertaining to managing water resources, gives a call to the readers that conservation and ensuring water security to the future generations is the need of the day. Managing water resources is more important than managing material wealth.
The contributors have really shown wisdom through analysis, presentation of facts, clear data and recommendation. The book will be useful to both researchers and the general public desirous of knowing the current efforts made for water management. However, only an effective policy initiative, efficient institutional mechanism and adoption of better technology for judicious use of this scarce resource can ensure water security for the future.
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