Value Added Article: Challenges in Water Governance | EPW

Relevance: GS Paper  III 

Source

Conservation


Why has this issue been raised?

India is confronted with many challenges in the water sector. Yet, these fail to be taken up as electoral issues.


Water crises faced by India

  • lack of reliable information on water,
  • absence of any initiative to restructure the water institutions,
  • a distressed groundwater lifeline,
  • push for large dams,
  • increasing footprint of the urban water sector
  • rivers are getting more polluted, their catchments, water-holding and water-harvesting mechanisms are deteriorating,
  • groundwater levels are depleting at an alarming rate
  • large part of western and southern India is facing a drought

The issue of data on water

  • Amongst the challenges that the water sector is confronted with, the first is that of the lack of credible “water information,” that is, information about water storage, groundwater, water flows and, in some cases, even rainfall and snowfall levels.
  • Access to accurate water information could help one understand the risks and urgency of the situation and steer towards informed decisions. However, India is farthest from this goal.
  • First, data is often not available at the adequate level of detail. For example, water use data for domestic and industrial sectors is available at only the aggregate level, and thus provides very little information to relevant policymakers and suppliers.
  • Second, where data is available, it is often unreliable due to the use of outdated collection techniques and methodologies.
  • The water institutions show a typical top-down, bureaucratic, unaccountable, non-transparent and non-participatory mindset.
  • The CWC as the main body is an outdated mega institution with conflict of interest among its various functions and suffers from poor credibility.

Other issues

  • HYDROPOWER PROJECTS: Big hydropower projects are no longer viable. And, yet, it is the big irrigation, hydropower, multipurpose and river-linking projects that are getting a push.
  • WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: The water infrastructure continues to perform far below its optimum, as India is not allocating even a fraction of the required annual maintenance budget of $4 billion that it needs.
  • DAM SAFETY: India has the third largest number of big dams in the world, and with their increasing age, the issues of structural and operational safety are becoming more and more urgent, but it still does not have a dam safety act.
  • RIVERS: The state of the rivers in general, and of the Ganga in particular, represents one of the most spectacular failures of the government. Even as more than ₹ 20,000 crore were allocated in the name of rejuvenating the Ganga, numerous massive projects, including waterways, dredging, riverfront development, char dham highway, hydropower projects, and interlinking of rivers like the Ken Betwa link work contrary to the rejuvenation objective.

Way forward

  • Groundwater is, has been, and is going to remain India’s lifeline for a long time to come. There is an urgent need that our plans, projects and programmes get tailored keeping this reality in mind and work to protect groundwater recharge, enhance recharge where possible, and most importantly, regulate the use of groundwater.
  • Given the gravity of the situation, if groundwater sustainability becomes the officially acknowledged objective, there may not be any case for big dam projects, which both directly and indirectly adversely affect groundwater recharge and sustainability.
  • There are many sub-issues that would need to be addressed to revive the rivers. These include monitoring of water quality and environmental flows, protecting the floodplains and sustainable biodiversity in the rivers, achieving sustainable sand mining, and credible reservoir and flood management, among others.
  • For the farmers facing increasingly irregular rains with changing climate, the increased capacity of soil to hold moisture is hugely useful. The capacity of the soil to store water increases when there is more carbon in it, and this can be achieved with the use of greater organic inputs.
  • The environmental decision-making process that affects the water sector is another major mess that needs urgent attention.
  • There is a need for credible environmental and cumulative impact assessments, genuine public consultation process at multiple stages of planning and project implementation, confidence-inspiring appraisal, which includes the appointment of independent experts, and most crucially, achieving some real monitoring and compliance.
  • As the urban water footprint is going up by leaps and bounds in multiple ways, there is a need for a national urban water policy to guide the urban water sector.
  • Cities need to stop the destruction of local waterbodies and local tree cover, treat its sewage properly, harvest rainwater, and stop straightening and concretising the rivers and encroaching on their floodplain.
  • As the government’s slogan of “Har Khet Ko Pani” (water to each field) implies, every farmer would benefit from better district-, block- and village-level water management. In this context, the key is to achieve appropriate cropping pattern.
  • The impacts of climate change are already being felt, most importantly by the farmers, fisherfolk, coastal residents, tribals and mountain residents, hence the government should recognise them as climate victims, and make provisions to ensure justice to them for their suffering.

Conclusion

The primary need is to address the democratic deficit in water governance. The first step in tackling this would be the recognition of this reality as a problem. The water governance ought to be made transparent, accountable and participatory in every sub-sector, including management of rivers, groundwater, floods, and biodiversity, among others.


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