WATER – A BASIC NECESSITY

WATER – A BASIC NECESSITY

Activity 16.9:

*  Villages suffering from chronic water shortage surround a water theme park in Maharashtra. Debate whether this is the optimum use of the available water.

Water is a basic necessity for all terrestrial forms of life. We studied in Class IX about the importance of water as a resource, the water cycle and how human intervention pollutes waterbodies. However, human intervention also changes the availability of water in various regions.

Activity 16.10:

*  Study the rainfall patterns in India from an atlas.

*  Identify the regions where water is abundant and the regions of water scarcity.

After the above activity, would you be very surprised to learn that regions of water scarcity are closely correlated to the regions of acute poverty?

A study of rainfall patterns does not reveal the whole truth behind the water availability in various regions in India. Rains in India are largely due to the monsoons. This means that most of the rain falls in a few months of the year. Despite nature’s monsoon bounty, failure to sustain water availability underground has resulted largely from the loss of vegetation cover, diversion for high water demanding crops, and pollution from industrial effluents and urban wastes. Irrigation methods like dams, tanks and canals have been used in various parts of India since ancient times. These were generally local interventions managed by local people and assured that the basic minimum requirements for both agriculture and daily needs were met throughout the year. The use of this stored water was strictly regulated and the optimum cropping patterns based on the water availability were arrived at on the basis of decades/centuries of experience, the maintenance of these irrigation systems was also a local affair.

The arrival of the British changed these systems as it changed many other things. The conception of large scale projects – large dams and canals traversing large distances were first conceived and implemented by the British and carried on with no less gusto by our newly formed independent government. These mega-projects led to the neglect of the local irrigation methods, and the government also increasingly took over the administration of these systems leading to the loss of control over the local water sources by the local people.

Questions:

Find out the source of water in your region/locality. Is water from this source available to all people living in that area?

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK

DAMS

DAMS
Why do we seek to build dams? Large dams can ensure the storage of adequate water not just for irrigation, but also for generating electricity, as discussed in the previous chapter. Canal systems leading from these dams can transfer large amounts of water over great distances. For example, the Indira Gandhi Canal has brought greenery to considerable areas of Rajasthan. However, mismanagement of the water has largely led to the benefits being cornered by a few people. There is no equitable distribution of water, thus people close to the source grow water intensive crops like sugarcane and rice while people farther downstream do not get any water. The woes of these people who have been promised benefits which never arrived are added to the discontentment among the people who have been displaced by the building of the dam and its canal network.

In the previous chapter, we mentioned the reasons for opposition to the construction of large dams, such as the Tehri Dam on the river Ganga. You must have read about the protests by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (‘Save the Narmada Movement’) about raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the river Narmada. Criticisms about large dams address three problems in particular -

Kulhs in Himachal Pradesh

Parts of Himachal Pradesh had evolved a local system of canal irrigation called kulhs over four hundred years ago. The water flowing in the streams was diverted into man-made channels which took this water to numerous villages down the hillside. The management of the water flowing in these kulhs was by common agreement among all the villages. Interestingly, during the planting season, water was first used by the village farthest away from the source of the kulh, then by villages progressively higher up. These kulhs were managed by two or three people who were paid by the villagers. In addition to irrigation, water from these kulhs also percolated into the soil and fed springs at various points. After the kulhs were taken over by the Irrigation Department, most of them became defunct and there is no amicable sharing of water as before.

Questions:

Compare the above system with the probable systems in hilly/ mountainous areas or plains or plateau regions.

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK

WATER HARVESTING

WATER HARVESTING
Watershed management emphasises scientific soil and water conservation in order to increase the biomass production. The aim is to develop primary resources of land and water, to produce secondary resources of plants and animals for use in a manner which will not cause ecological imbalance. Watershed management not only increases the production and income of the watershed community, but also mitigates droughts and floods and increases the life of the downstream dam and reservoirs. Various organisations have been working on rejuvenating ancient systems of water harvesting as an alternative to the ‘mega-projects’ like dams. These communities have used hundreds of indigenous water saving methods to capture every trickle of water that had fallen on their land; dug small pits and lakes, put in place simple watershed systems, built small earthen dams, constructed dykes, sand and limestone reservoirs, set up rooftop water-collecting units. This has recharged groundwater levels and even brought rivers back to life.

Water harvesting is an age-old concept in India. Khadins, tanks and nadis in Rajasthan, bandharas and tals in Maharashtra, bundhis in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, ahars and pynes in Bihar, kulhs in Himachal Pradesh, ponds in the Kandi belt of Jammu region, and eris (tanks) in Tamil Nadu, surangams in Kerala, and kattas in Karnataka are some of the ancient water harvesting, including water conveyance, structures still in use today (see Fig. 16.4 for an example). Water harvesting techniques are highly locale specific and the benefits are also localised. Giving people control over their local water resources ensures that mismanagement and over-exploitation of these resources is reduced/removed.

In largely level terrain, the water harvesting structures are mainly crescent shaped earthen embankments or low, straight concrete-and- rubble “check dams” built across seasonally flooded gullies. Monsoon rains fill ponds behind the structures. Only the largest structures hold water year round; most dry up six months or less after the monsoons. Their main purpose, however, is not to hold surface water but to recharge the ground water beneath. The advantages of water stored in the ground are many. It does not evaporate, but spreads out to recharge wells and provides moisture for vegetation over a wide area. In addition, it does not provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes like stagnant water collected in ponds or artificial lakes. The groundwater is also relatively protected from contamination by human and animal waste.

Figure 16.4: Traditional water harvesting system — an ideal setting of the khadin system

More to know

A traditional technology is helping India’s “waterman” save thousands of parched villages and transform the lives of thousands of villagers in one of India’s most arid regions. In “two decades of efforts of Dr. Rajendra Singh, 8,600 johads and other structures to collect water have been built in Rajasthan,” and “Water had been brought back to a 1,000 villages across the state.” In 2015, he won the Stockholm Water Prize. It is the most prestigious award which honours a person who contributes to the conservation and protection of water resources for the well- being of the planet and its inhabitants.

Questions:

Find out about the traditional systems of water harvesting/management in your region.

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK