"వాటర్ రిసోర్సెస్ మానేజ్‍మెంట్ ఫర్ సస్టెయినబుల్ డెవెలప్‍మెంట్" పై నేను రాసి బహుమతి పొందిన వ్యాసం

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

                        Water, the basic, precious element of the life support system of the earth, is indispensable to sustain any form of life and virtually every human activity.

                        The availability of water in adequate quantity and quality is a necessary condition for sustainable development.

                        Water resources management is a systematic process for the sustainable development, allocation and monitoring of water resources.  The concept of the water resources management was articulated at the International Conference on Water and Environment held in Dublin.

            The Key principles in Water resources management includes,

1.                 Water should be treated as an economic, social and environmental good.

2.                 Water policies should focus on the management of water as a whole not just on the provision of water.

3.                 Governments should facilitate and enable the sustainable development of water resources by the provision of integrated water policies and regulatory frame works.

4.                 Water resources should be managed at the lowest appropriate level.

5.                 Women should be recognized as central to the provision, management and safeguarding of water.

Global water consumption has increased about sevenfold since beginning of the 20^th century.  This has been caused both population growth and by increase of per capita water use.

Despite of adequate quantity of water on the earth, only 3% of water is utilizable. In that, 2% of water is in the form of glaciers and ice, the remaining 1% of water serves the every need of human and others.

If we could not safeguard the water now, the reserves will become empty in future and our forth coming generation have to face intensity of non availability of water.  This drastic situation will ruin the large scale of people. So, we must safeguard the water by managing it effectively.

                        Major Problem Areas in Water resources management

1.                 Allocation among various sectors

2.                 Under valued water resources

3.                 Degraded environment

4.                 Disparities in distribution of resources

5.                 Global climate change

6.                 Inadequate policies

There are some desirable policies for effective Water resources management.

1.                 Proper pricing.  Eg. Ghana has introduced proper pricing in its water regulation.

2.                 Incentives for effective Management.

3.                 Adequate infrastructure

4.                 Sharing arrangements

5.                 Integrated approach

6.                 Creation of Data bases

7.                 Technological Innovations

8.                 Artificial Lakes

9.                 Inter linking of Major River Systems

            Watershed management

                        Watershed management plays a major role in treating the large catchments of rain water harvesting through micro WDPs.

                        The issue of equity is of major concern in drinking water, irrigation industrial and other all purpose.  Inefficient use leads to exclusion of tail enders in water accessibility is a critical challenge.

                        This should be mitigated.

            Traditional Irrigation Management

                        We should encourage our ancient traditional Irrigation Management system which is prevalent for the last 7000 years.

                        This system is purely community based with more efficiency in using water resources with low cost and easily maintained by the locals.

                        There are 4 kinds of traditional systems.

1.                 Ahar & Pyne system of Central Bihar,

2.                 the traditional system of Rajasthan,

3.                 the Tank system of Tamilanadu,

4.                 and the traditional irrigation system of North East.

This system is technology evolved over centuries.  These systems should be encouraged.

            Increase efficiency in Managing water resources

                        There is a need to increase water use efficiency in surface water,  canals and ground water by using pipes, sprinklers drips etc.,.  This can be done among the needy and poor farmers through subsidy by the government.

            Rain water Harvesting

                        The rain water harvesting, the traditional practice of trapping monsoon rain water, which recharges ground water.

            Construction of Check dams

                        More Check dams should be constructed in those areas, where there is chance to store large quantity of rain water from the local vagus and small rivers flows in forests. 

            Construction of Large dams

                        In view of the future needs, there is a need for large dams as they help in storing water for non rainy season, utilization of water amount needy sectors, reliable source of irrigation and help in flood control. These large dams are very essential to supply the water to fields to meet the 500 tonnes of food production by 2050.

            Community participation

                        Besides Government intervention, we need community participation to manage the projects.  Water Users Associations are the examples of such participation and the Governments should facilitate the process to institutionalize the water users associations.

            Gender and Water resources Management

                        Both men and women are supposed to be equally involved to attain sustainable water management.  Women need to manage water for house hold purpose.

           

            Subsidy to Irrigation

                        Subsidized irrigation creates wastages of water in irrigation.  Our Honourable Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh opined that the water is being treated as free element which results wastage of water.  Hence there is a dire need of rationalization of subsidization of irrigation keeping in view of the efficiency in raising productivity of water resources.

            Recycling of water

                        The used water can be reused by recycling. Eg. In
Ghana, some of the industries recycled their water use in order to minimize the pressure on urban water supply.

                        In irrigation farming, recycled water can also be used to water the crops.

            Inter linking of river system.

                        In our country, there are so many rivers. Due to inefficient management of the rain water, every year thousands TMC of water merges with ocean. Inter linking of major river systems could help to store the said water and also helps to safeguards from floods.

                       

In accordance with the Indian Easement Act 1882, every person in India had the right to use ground water.  But heavy use of ground water leads to severe decrease in level of ground water.  It is mandatory to safeguard the ground water and also surface water by effective management of water resources.

           

                        In this drastic situation, Andhra Pradesh Government brought A.P.WALTA in force to regulate the use of ground water.  This act clearly says, ground water should be used only for drinking purpose in those places, where an adverse effect on ground water.

                        The economists believe in imposing of tax on water can save wastage of water and the social activists supports, as the water is a free source from nature and it should not taxed.

                        Amidst different views, it is inevitable fact that, in some countries like Bolievia & Tanzania, the water regulating system become privatized.

                        The same happened in Chattisgadh also.  The Sivanath river was privatized about 20 Km.  The locals of the river lost their right on the river.

Conclusion ::

                        As per the Article 21 of Indian Constitution, safe water is also part of the above article and according to the United Nations Organizations Article 24, every child have the right of Safe drinking water.

                        The number of people experiencing scarcity of water is likely to reach 3 billion by 2035 according World Bank.

                        In this context, we need to develop hydraulic intrastate in the form of Dams, Canals, bunds and new innovations in order to avoid wastage of this precious resource.

                        Besides, regulatory frame works need to be created for enacting laws and building institutions needed for managing water resources.

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