Conserving water in Himachal: Go back to basics

Avay Shukla

It’s a puzzling irony that in spite of having five major rivers — Satluj, Beas, Ravi, Yamuna and Chenab — and thousands of streams and glaciers, all reports indicate that Himachal is staring at a massive water crisis in the coming years. Though average annual rainfall remains the same, the vital monsoon precipitation has been declining, according to a 2015 report by the State Centre on Climate Change. The snowfall season has reduced by 21 days, glaciers are receding and their contribution to river flows is also declining. This has to be a matter of concern because snow melt is a major part of the water in its rivers — 60%, 49% and 35% for the Satluj, Chenab and Beas, respectively. Underground water tables are falling all over the state.

We do not have to go far back in history to witness the consequences. In just the summer of 2018 as many as 30 cities (and huge swathes of rural Himachal) faced acute water shortages, 1,481 water supply schemes out of a total 9,987 were badly affected, a semi- drought like situation has been prevailing for the past six years. Concomitantly, demand for drinking water has gone up by 2.4 times in rural areas and by 6.8 times in urban areas, as the state’s population has doubled since 1951.

Climate change is not the sole culprit; short-sighted policies of all governments have contributed to this situation. Himachal’s rivers have been over exploited for power (which it now finds difficult to sell!): 91 small and 41 major hydel projects have made these rivers disappear for much of their length, damming of smaller streams and tributaries has destroyed traditional water sources and schemes, decimation of forests has compromised catchment areas, indiscriminate mining, quarrying, urbanisation and road building have dried up aquifers and prevent their recharging. The government’s response has been to propose ever bigger and more expensive projects — lifting water from reservoirs, damming more rivers, laying longer and longer pipelines. This is of no avail because it does not address the core issue: how to conserve the available water and capture the annual precipitation and snow melt. For this to happen, we will have to go back to the basics of water conservation and protect ALL its sources. The engineers of the PWD/IPH Departments do not have the answers, local communities do.

Himachal used to have a very successful system of water distribution in its rural areas in the form of ‘kuhls’ — rock and mud channels that carried excess water from streams and glaciers to the villages. These were both built and maintained by village communities. Kangra district alone had 715 major and 2,500 minor ‘kuhls’ irrigating 30,000 hectare. Some of them were inter-district, the most famous being the Kirpalchandkuhl in Palampur. Being ‘katcha’ they also recharged the groundwater. Unfortunately, with the advent of the PWD/IPH departments and their piped water-supply schemes, the ‘kuhls’ have gone into disuse and have now become drains. Some of them have been “concretised” and have lost their larger ecological properties. Their sources have either receded or been damaged. People have now become dependent on the government and community participation is missing. It is imperative that this low- cost, indigenous, traditional system should be restored.

The illusory promise of piped water supply has had a deleterious effect on cropping patterns, which further accentuate water shortages. Where earlier the choice of crops was dictated by the naturally available supply and agriculture was sustainable in that sense, now farmers have shifted to water-guzzling crops like sugarcane and paddy. The government must take steps to reverse this trend and ensure that crop choices match the water supplies in any region.

The same Shimla which was thirsting for water just eight weeks ago is now battling torrential rains and floods. The rains will recur as part of Extreme Weather Events, but the droughts will not if we can capture this excess water. Unfortunately, the chopping down of forests and general degradation of soil has critically reduced the capacity of the land to absorb this water and all of it ends up as run-offs and disastrous flooding. The state must make a concerted thrust for rain-water harvesting in its hills and forest areas, without interfering with natural flows, or diverting water, or further “concretising”. A commendable effort in this direction was initiated by the then Forest Minister, JP Nadda, in 2008-09 by launching the ‘VAN SAROVAR’ programme: construction of thousands of water- harvesting structures in forest areas, made entirely of earth and rocks. These were not expensive check dams on water courses, but simple structures that made use of natural contours of slopes to collect flowing water. The idea was that once the water was allowed to stand for some time, it would percolate into the soil and recharge the ground water table. The small ponds would also be beneficial for wildlife and help in fighting forest fires. I personally oversaw the building of one such Van Sarovar in the Tara Devi forest: one month later villagers from a village below the main highway reported that their water table had risen considerably and all their dysfunctional sources had revived! There was no additional burden on the state’s finances because the entire cost was on labour alone, which was met out of MNREGA funds. Unfortunately, I now learn that this programme has been discontinued. But this is just what the state needs — tens of thousands of low-cost Van Sarovars to recharge its water table, prevent run offs and flooding and augment its rivers: in scientific circles it is known as AFR- Aquifer Storage and Recovery.

And finally, of course, the goverment will have to stop the ferocious assault on its rivers and streams and suspend construction of more hydel projects. It should declare the catchment areas of ALL rivers and streams and areas in proximity with glaciers as Eco-sensitive zones under the Environment Protection Act as recommended by a report to the High Court in 2010 by the then Additional Chief Secretary (Forests) ; these are the sources of the state’s waters: if they are lost, then so is the state. We don’t need expensive, steel and concrete engineering structures to preserve our waters, just some common sense, an understanding of nature and its sustainable processes, a respect for traditional methods through millennia, and, most important of all, less of greed and populism.

The writer is a former Additional Chief Secretary to Himachal government