The drought situation is not just grim, but horrible. This summer
things have stretched a little too much and the whole country is witnessing a
crisis both on the agriculture front as well as water and irrigation side. Many
rivers are flowing much below the levels recorded last year. There are dams,
canals and other river beds that have dried up.
There is a pattern in rainfall over the subcontinent or better to
say an erratic weather pattern that is playing havoc in the whole of India
which has left both the Indian Meteorological Department and the farmers at
wits end as to how to predict the weather patterns properly so that the farmers
can sow the right seed at the right time.
It is seen over a few years that the El Nino effect has influenced
the previous pattern of rainfall over the subcontinent at least. From the look
of it the El Nino effect seems to be more predominant every other year and not
every year. Last year in 2015 it had a devastating effect while this year
hopefully the effect being very low there will be good rain as what IMD
predicts.
How to manage water shortages
Rather than dwelling into weather patterns here what is more
important from the view point of all Indian citizens is to save the abundant
flow or deluge of water during the rainy season. If this time around the rain
will be really good then you may see a flow of water everywhere. It is during
this time that water management has to be implemented on a national scale. Now
coming straight to the point we can consider certain important aspects for
thwarting future droughts.
Points to consider
·
Ensure that in each
district landscape study is performed under the jurisdiction of each and every panchayat
within it or under district level irrigation officials. This can be carried out
during the summer itself. Mapping of landscape should be carried out so as to
get the low levels and high levels of landscape, river bodies and possible
water holes of the local area.
·
This map must be
separate from the usual land survey although the latter may be taken as
reference. The main highlight of this map should be to specify the rivers,
dams, streams, lakes, canals, ponds and other water holes.
·
Ensure that some
of the possible water holes are added so as to make them a small catchment area
for rainfall during the rainy seasons.
·
All water bodies
including ponds, tanks within and outside private and public compounds are
marked and given a registration number from the respective panchayats or
district level irrigation administration. Each number is unique to each water
body and must be having a place in the new map thus formed and may be called
‘Water Bodies Map’ or any other name
·
Further, all such
water bodies, small, medium or large must have their registration exhibited
conspicuously on the site for future references and surveys. This can be in the
form of durable granite stone inscription or wear and tear proof boarding.
·
Bunds or small
dams may be constructed to stem the copious flow of water from the rivers
draining into the seas in areas specific to the region.
·
Future leveling of
these water bodies must get prior sanction from the authorities and cannot be
done by free will of the owner or political leader or a public administrator.
This kind of sanction may be carried out in the same way when people want to
cut down teak or sandal or other vegetation or forest covers even if it is a
private property. It then also becomes imperative for all such water bodies to
carry a permanent registration number. In the event of faulting over this a
hefty fine could be imposed on the culprit.
·
Identifying dried
up water holes during hot summer months wouldn’t be a problem for authorities
in case of refilling or future maintenance and ensuring water supply from other
streams or rivers
·
There will be no
special tax levied on such water bodies as the maintenance of it is always for
the good of humanity in general and irrigation prospects. All registrations
therefore must be done free of cost and the government must bear the expenses.
·
Additional water
bodies must be discovered or dug up if there is absence of any water body
within a certain area limit with a minimum diameter area prescribed as standard
for the region by the authorities.
·
All water bodies,
small, medium, large must be carefully surveyed periodically and the
authorities must ensure that trees, green foliages are planted and grown at
their edges or banks so as to check rapid rate of evaporation during hot summer
months. Taking the country as a whole this by itself would ensure millions of
cubic meters of water saving annually.
·
Special task force
would have to be employed to oversee the judicious use of such water bodies or
water holes
·
Any other standard
creative inputs from the agricultural scientists and other irrigation experts
would ensure good supply of water for posterity. For this the authorities must
be open to suggestion and implementation of the same.
Reasons for maintaining water bodies
There are several ground breaking researches that suggest that
maintaining a continuous flow of water in the water bodies ensures better
ground water availability. Some of the empirical studies by experts and inputs
from newspapers and media carry this suggestion. An example that has served as
a unique model for all to see may be this. The report has come in the Hindu
newspaper some days back.
A little known place known as Channapatna has shown the way where
many experts have failed to deliver in the rest of the country. Taking a cue of
this unique taluk the rest of the country may take a good lesson for future
implementation of schemes. Their may be of course, other Channapatna, but the
object of this article is to make sense out of even the worst water scarce
lands.
This village has remarkably conserved ground water by replenishing
the existing tanks and other water bodies by filling it water on a timely way
from the nearby river named as Shimsha. By doing this not only the ground water
level have arisen significantly, but bore wells too are full of water some few
meters away from the surface when dug. Previously, when such a scheme wasn’t in
operation they used to dig about 1200 feet into the depth of earth for drawing
water.
The example shows what proper water management system can do to a
region, and how to preserve water for future use and irrigation. Of course, not
all villages are like Channapatna, but then with proper inputs and creative zeal
from our agricultural scientists and irrigation experts a lot of our water
problem could be solved in other analogous ways.
For results however all this must be done on war footings for who
knows more droughts may still come in the future due to warming up.
