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prime concern India recently adopted the National Water Policy of 2012, which most states objected to since water is a state subject. But states must come together and regulate water use if they want to survive a looming crisis. By Vibha Sharma
Maharashtra is facing the worst drought of the past four decades which, experts believe, is not nature generated. Ajit Pawar, the arrogant state minister who recently disseminated a new way to fill dams, is in the dock for his anti-farmer and pro-industry outlook. His inclination toward water-guzzling sugarcane and grapes and the associated industry reflects how states “manage” their fast-depleting water resources. His advice to mitigate drought is by allocating water judiciously and equitably. “Efficient management goes further than mere improvement in water-use efficiency. It requires assessment of availability and harnessing measures in implementation, efficient distribution and application mechanisms in the context of adaptability of the user population. Every state knows its problem areas — drought-prone regions for instance. It is necessary to recognise that water is a reusable resource and the same quantity can be used to cater to multiple uses,” he says.
Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) says rainfall in Maharashtra was above average in 2011 and most dams were full, but the state made no attempt to curb either the planting of cash crops or water-intensive activities like sugar and wine factories. A majority of states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana are in the grip of a water crisis, compounded by mismanagement and political compulsions. Add to this farmers’ resistance to come out of water-intensive cropping patterns, apathetic industries and groaning drinking network, and the picture of India inching towards an alarming water situation is complete.
Less and less Many reservoirs are in a bad shape due to poor management and maintenance. India is water stressed and further reduction in the per capita availability would soon make it a water-scarce nation, says Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat. The per capita availability is 1,545 cubic metres per year, which will decrease to 1,140 cubic metres by 2050. With 1.21 billion people (18 per cent of the world’s population) India holds just 4 per cent of the total usable water and 2.3 per cent of agriculture land in the world. “India needs a storage capacity of 450 billion cubic metres (BCM). The present capacity is about 253 BCM,” he says. Water is primarily required for agriculture and irrigation, industry and power, and drinking purposes. Despite low availability, there is no data on how much water is utilised by each sector. Experts have deduced consumptions based on available government data. Chandra Bhushan, associate director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), says the agriculture and irrigation sector is the largest consumer, (75 per cent of consumption), followed by the power and industry sector (15 per cent), and domestic drinking water (10 per cent). Water in India is a story of mismanagement, corruption and lack of political will. Corruption has been endemic in many surface water projects. With over 3,700 projects, Maharashtra boasts of the highest number of dams in the country but the expenditure of over Rs 75,000 saw the total irrigated area increase only by 0.1 per cent from 2000-01, when it was 17.8 per cent, claims Thakkar. Many times, canals are constructed but distributaries and minor canal implementation get stalled due to problems in land acquisition. Water is considered common property, but without any responsibility for sustenance of resources. So, the industry does not bother about the large amount of water it uses while farmers get subsidies to exploit the depleting ground water. Bhushan says the industry and power sector use cleaner water but discharge dirty water. “Thermal power, textiles, paper and iron and steel are highly water-intensive sectors. Industry water usage is very high due to obsolete processing technology and poor recycling and reuse practices and wastewater treatment,” he says. Industrial water use is growing, as is the agricultural demand due to bad cropping patterns. Paddy growers of Punjab and Haryana refuse to abandon cash crops and flood irrigation in favour of the SRI system which reduces water use to 50 per cent. “Punjab and Haryana are utilising 50 per cent more water than they hold,” he adds. Over 80 per cent of domestic supply depends on ground water. The water table has fallen and there is pollution in natural and manmade sources. Ageing networks in crowded cities have compounded the problem. Delhi receives around 800 million gallons of water per day from the Yamuna and Ganga, besides the ground water, but nearly half of it leaks out, the CSE claims.
Pricing it right Effective technological support, community participation and awareness to augment management, along with strict regulations, may be the answer. Water is a state subject and there is lack of effective government regulation. “Policies on water are a public health concern. Their fragmentary nature renders them powerless. Few incentives are provided to the industry for efficient water use. Water tariffs are paltry. Conflicts between the industry and local communities are on the rise over water appropriation,” says Bhushan. India recently adopted the National Water Policy of 2012, which most states objected to fearing infringement of their constitutional rights. Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, UP and Bihar rejected the setting up of a regulatory authority. The policy is a guiding document on managing water but there is hope the effort, along with new laws and Centre funding, could ensure long-term regulation. “States have to depend on the Centre for funds. The water policy has given the government a handle to monitor their activities,” explains a senior government functionary. Another opinion within the government is to treat water as an “economic good” with proper pricing and a regulatory authority. There is also a thought that ground water rights should be separated from land rights.
Linking rivers The Centre is revitalising the River Boards Act, 1956, which provides for the development and regulation of inter-state rivers. The Doabia panel has submitted its report and the law is under inter-ministerial consultation. Officials say the Act will give Centre control over river basin and sub-basin for increasing water-use efficiency, minimising damage to soil and mitigating flood problems. “Proper assessment of available water and evolving a system of allocation that can provide flexibility to adjust with times is the only way forward. It is not possible to create storage where water is required. India gets around 100 days of monsoon with actual rains limited to about 50 days. To be able to store rainwater and make it run for 365 days is not possible. It is a myth that harvesting rainwater can recharge the ground water completely. The recharge rate is slow and can only provide local relief. “Fresh water availability is 1,869 BCM, including surface run-offs and ground water. Of this, 1,123 BCM is the utilisable water for which the Brahmaputra basin yields 563 BCM and the Ganga-Yamuna system around 500 BCM. The only solution is the interlinking of rivers,” says
Pandya.
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last word
Behind the stern face thrives a humorous person, quick in repartee. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, known for his caustic remarks, can turn into an entertainer with his witty responses. Emerging out of the office of the CBI after being grilled for over 11 hours by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigting Team (SIT) on his alleged involvement in the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, Modi was accosted by mediapersons. Asked about the most difficult question put by the SIT, he replied unhesitatingly: “This one, which you are asking now”.
Modi is a publicity seeker, but not necessarily media savvy. The promptness with which he responds gives the impression that he was anticipating the question, or perhaps his office had manipulated a section of the media to plant the question. Modi never evades an answer, and if he has to, he covers the reply with witty remarks to avoid any bitterness. Political compulsions Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is his favourite whipping boy, with Narendra Modi describing him as “Maun Mohan” (silent) to drive home his point that Dr Manmohan Singh has no voice in the affairs of the government “controlled by madam” (Sonia Gandhi). But Modi holds Singh in high esteem as an economist and “a nice human being”. Modi would tell his close aides about the excellent rapport the two (Singh and Modi) shared despite political rivalry. “He (Manmohan) often asks for and likes my ideas, but he cannot execute them as he has no say in the decision-making process,” Modi has reportedly remarked in private. Publicly, however, he is Singh’s critic and attacks the UPA government for its “stepmotherly” treatment of Gujarat. Though Modi had joined a “shakha” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) when he was eight years old in his native village of Vadnagar in north Gujarat, he wanted to be a part of politics. His aim was to switch to the Jana Sangh and later the BJP. The opportunity came when after completing three years as the liaison between the RSS and its frontal organsations in Gujarat, Modi was appointed organising secretary of the state BJP in 1987 to act as the bridge between the Sangh and its political wing. Smart combo Modi’s consecutive electoral successes not only depend on his leadership and development plank, but also his immaculate calculations and tremendous memory. Though he criticised the vote bank politics of the Congress in reference to the minorities, Modi is arguably the biggest player of vote bank politics in his state. As “pracharak” of the RSS for nearly six years before he joined the BJP, Modi toured the state extensively with his ears to the ground due to the hostility the Sangh faced during the Congress regime in the state and Delhi. What he learnt about caste combinations, group rivalries and political compulsions in each constituency then, is helping him now. Keeping a tab on the changing political situations, Modi decides on the party candidates after taking in all factors and does not allow any aspirant, howsoever close he or she may be to him, to overshadow his political and electoral calculations. Unlike most other politicians, the end of one election means the beginning of the next for Modi. Without wasting any time, he begins preparing for the next election based on the analysis of booth-wise poll results. His calculations about the possible winnable seats and the strong points of the opposition rarely go wrong because of the feedback he receives from multiple sources, including police intelligence. Modi does not solely depend on his party cadre for feedback as it often tends to misread political under-currents in favour of the party. However, in the 2012 Assembly elections, Narendra Modi fell marginally short of his calculations. Sources close to him say that he had estimated the party would win between 122 and 125 seats in the 182-member Assembly and was keen to cross the 117 (the seats the BJP had won in 2007) mark to strengthen his stake for prime ministership, but the party ended up with 115 seats. The miscalculation was more because of his over-imposing personality rather than fault in his methodology. Confined to his “Z” plus security, Modi is increasingly distancing himself from the people and even his aides feel scared to report unpleasant things to him. To his sources, Modi always asks one question: “What is the BJP’s weak point in the constituency?” and takes immediate steps to plug the loopholes. He maintains superb “booth management”, targeting a winnable majority of voters in each polling booth and engaging party enthusiasts to man each booth. The BJP stalwart keeps a close watch on the weaknesses of candidates belonging to the opposition and tries to exploit those. Modi has already embarked upon the task to analyse seat-wise Lok Sabha constituencies to study the chances of the BJP-led NDA and his own to win the next parliamentary elections. His aides have been asked to categorise the constituencies in three divisions — the seats most comfortable for the BJP, seats requiring more efforts and hopeless seats. Soft spot The communal riots and his relationship with a woman who claims to be his wife are his Achilles’ heel. His family sources confirm that when he was only four years old, Modi was “engaged” to Jashodaben (three years younger to him) as per the traditions of the Ghanchi community to which he belongs. They were married when he turned 13, but the “gauna” to consummate the marriage when they attained adulthood, never really took place. At 18, Modi reportedly left for the Himalayas and returned a couple of years later. He rejoined the RSS and left home yet again. While Modi describes himself as a bachelor, Jashodaben, a schoolteacher, maintains that she is his legally wedded wife but never imposed herself, preferring to spend her life away from the public glare. And Modi, despite all his strong qualities, not only refuses to respond, but also cannot hide his irritation when such questions persist. |
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Fresh water has two sources — surface run-offs and ground water, both heavily dependent on monsoon. “Quantity-wise, there is no problem with the availability of water. The problem is distribution,” says AB Pandya, Director-General of the National Water Development Authority and organising secretary of the recently concluded India Water Week that focused on efficient water management.
