[Reader-list] Fwd: Let us respect the water cycle

Mon May 31 14:51:00 IST 2010

Thank you so much for sharing this!

 francesca recchia
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From: Nagraj Adve <nagraj.adve at gmail.com>
To: jalsamvaad at googlegroups.com; Sarai <reader-list at sarai.net>; delhi-platform <delhi-platform at googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sun, 30 May, 2010 23:18:44
Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Let us respect the water cycle

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Himanshu Thakkar <ht.sandrp at gmail.com>
Date: 31 May 2010 11:31
Subject: Let us respect the water cycle
To: Himanshu Thakkar <ht.sandrp at gmail.com>

http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2010/05/huge-amounts-spent-on-canal-irrigation.html

Huge amounts spent on canal irrigation, but more irrigation from groundwater

Every time I am in a conference or a media discussion on agriculture I
cannot help but quietly swallow my exasperation when I find almost
every 'expert' worth the name pointing to the declining investment in
irrigation (they surely mean mega irrigation projects/dams) as the
primary reason for the prevailing agrarian distress. Universities, B-
schools, consultancy firms, banks, and of course the media houses
(mostly the TV channels) are full of such arm-chair experts who have
done more damage collectively to the country's fragile environment
than everything else put together.

These 'experts' have rarely moved out from the comforts of their
air-conditioned offices, and based on what they get from Google
search, and that syncs well with what they have read in their text
books, come out with their unsolicited advice on how to revitalise
agriculture. Some of them I meet on panel discussions on TV and also
in seminars here and there and believe me hearing them my blood start
racing up.

It is therefore heartening to read a report Let's respect the water
cycle in The Times of India (May 30, 2010). Written by Amit
Bhattacharya, this report formed part of the full-page special report
on monsoon. I found the Special Report much better than the weekly
environment page that appears every Friday, which carries hardly
anything that is inspiring and motivating.

Anyway, coming back to Amit Bhattacharya's report, I found it very
informative and analytical. I am highlighting a few facts that every
economist and the so-called experts in agriculture, must read. I hope
it will help clear the mist from their computer-savvy brains, a mist
that has been clouding the prospects for sustainable agriculture.

1. More than 60 per cent of India’s 62 million irrigated hectares is
fed by groundwater. Which means it is not dams and canals that
irrigate the Green Revolution belt comprising Punjab, Haryana, Western
UP and parts of AP. Bulk of the irrigation is from groundwater.

2. Between 1991-92 and 2006-07, the government spent Rs 1.3 lakh crore
on major and medium irrigation projects without achieving any net
increase in the irrigated area. In other words, the big irrigation
projects have failed to bring in any additional area under assured
irrigation in the past 15-years.

3. India’s total canal-irrigated area has decreased from 17,791,000
hectares in 1991-91, to 16,531,000 hectares in 2007-08. In simple
words, the canal irrigation frequency is declining every year. Big
irrigation projects are slowly silting up or for other reasons
becoming cost ineffective in the long run.

4. According to a 2005 World Bank report, the annual maintenance bill
for India’s canal network comes to around Rs 17,000 crore. Less than
10 per cent of that money is available. So when the Finance Minister
provides the Budget allocations for irrigation, it seems he is not
even able to provide money for the upkeep of canals !

Amit Bhattacharya has provided enough water for thought. Given the
constraints of diminishing investments, it is time to analyse whether
big dams and canals is the right approach to provide irrigation or
should the country adopt a more localised and farm-centric approach
that conserves and harvests available water. In addition, there are
also issues of water seepage from canals, salinisation of agricultural
lands, and the role of water guzzling crops that form the cropping
pattern besides displacement and rehabilitation.

This reminds me of two statements made by people who should be knowing
what they said. Former Environment & Forests Minister Maneka Gandhi
had once remarked that 90 per cent of India's dams do not have canals.
These dams in fact add on to the flood woes at the time of rains
rather than providing any succour. Before that, Mrs Indira Gandhi's
advisor late P N Haksar had once told me that the rate of siltation of
major dams in India was actually 500 per cent more than what the
engineers had stipulated in project design.

Putting it all together, it is quite clear that the era of Big Dams is
all but over. If you don't want to accept it, you do it at the cost of
public exchequer, environment and the future generations.
--
Let us respect the water cycle
Times of India, May 30, 2010

Amit Bhattacharya

Think of water and chances are you wouldn’t picture a farmer digging a
tubewell. Most urban Indians can’t think beyond their own water woes —
dry taps; waking up at odd hours to tank up for the day. Yet, 80% of
all the water India uses goes into agriculture. But even so, 60% of
our farmlands remain dependent on the rains. Just as water evaporates,
it seems, so do the resources that go into water management in the
countryside.

The scale of this ‘evaporation’ is so massive it is surprising the
issue hasn’t generated more public debate. Nothing illustrates this
better than the money spent on canals. In the 15 year-period from
1991-92 to 2006-07, the government spent Rs 1.3 lakh crore on major
and medium irrigation projects without achieving any net increase in
the irrigated area!

If anything, India’s total canal-irrigated area has decreased from
17,791,000 hectares in 1991-91, to 16,531,000 hectares in 2007-08,
according to provisional figures released by the agriculture ministry.
The story behind this dubious feat encapsulates almost everything
that’s wrong with water planning and use in agriculture.

Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator for South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers
and People, should know. Last year, he co-authored a paper that
contained exactly those startling statistics. He says it’s not about
too few new canals but about “many old ones have stopped functioning,
at least partially, due to siltation, lack of maintenance and faulty
assumptions of water use. Then there are water management and sharing
issues. Often there’s intensive water use in upstream areas which
leaves no water at the tail-ends.”

Thakkar says it boils down to bad investment decisions. “The
government keeps pushing for big irrigation projects without taking
care of the existing ones, which in itself is a huge task. According
to a 2005 World Bank report, the annual maintenance bill for India’s
canal network comes to around Rs 17,000 crore. Less than 10% of that
money is available,” he says.

Experts lament that new irrigation projects often fail to take into
account the larger hydrological processes they would affect. They also
pay little attention to water-use patterns. This has led to river
basins such as the Krishna becoming over-irrigated.

Planning Commission member Mihir Shah calls such policy practices
“hydroschizophrenia (or) a schizophrenic view of an indivisible
resource like water, failing to recognize the unity and integrity of
the hydrologic cycle.”

Shah elaborates: “It’s a strange situation. Water management in
villages comes under two ministries — rural development ministry and
ministry of water resources. Often the left hand doesn’t know what the
right hand is doing.”

Read the full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Lets-respect-the-water-cycle/articleshow/5989817.cms
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