Water Resources in India – Geography Notes UPSC

Schemes in Place

• ATAL Bhujal Yojana
• MGNREGA – focus on rain water harvesting and irrigation system
• National Water Policy , 2012
• CGWB
• National water Framework Bill 2016
• Namami Gange
• April 14 – Water Day – recently declared by govt of India
• Bihar – Nalanda
  • Project Jal Sanchay – revived water availability during dry season – National Award
  • By reviving Traditional technique of AAHARs and Pynes (channels )
• Mission Kakatiya
• Ralegaon Siddhi
• Punjab
  • Raising power costs
  • Rs 48k thousand payment to every farmer – DBT
  • Farmers would have an incentive to cut their electricity costs in order to save money

Why Water ?

• Availability
  • India 16% of Population, but only 4% of world’s water resources
  • Freshwater availability per capita has HALVED from 3000 cubic metre to 1500 in the last 50 years. World average is 6k
    • Only 60% of that can be tapped – Concentrated rains in Monsoon
    • We have moved to the Water stressed Region
• Groundwater
  • 33% of blocks – over exploited – ground water
  • 30cm decline in Groundwater of Punjab Haryana every year
• Waste Water
  • 90% of waste water goes untreated
• Disasters
  • 90% of Disasters Waters related
• Gender
  • An average woman walks 15k km a year to fetch water
• Right to Life
• Climate
• IPCC – water shortage could reduce world;s GDP by 6%

• Freshwater availability per capita has HALVED from 3000 cubic metre to 1500 in the last 50 years. World average is 6k
  • We have moved to the Water stressed Region
  • And it is expected to fall much furrther due to rising population and economy
  • Although, Regional Dichotomy
    • Western Side – Over utilised
    • Eastern and NE – Under Utilised
• Economic Survey –
  • India EXPORTING Water
  • Flood Irrigation
  • Due to high exports of sugrarcane, rice, etc
  • We were a net importe till 1980s
  • Similarly, Virtual Water use – Water used during growing of crops – eg in Flood Irrigation

Groundwater

• Quantity
  • NASA study – water table dropping 30 cm a year
  • India uses 2-4 times of more water to produce a unit of crops than China/ Brazil
  • >33% of all blocks in the country have been classified as over exploited or semi critical
  • Problem particularly in Punjab region
• Impact on Surface Water
  • Since, river also connected with aquifers, impacts the river water as well
• Inequality –
  • As water table falls, only rich farmers can afford
  • Currently the pricing of water only recovers 15% of the running costs.
• Quality
  • Leaching of Fetilisers
  • Pollutants like Fluorides, Nitrates , Arsenic , Uranium ( Jaduguda)
  • Water Borne Diseases like Cholera, Typhoid
• Scheme
  • ATAL BHUJAL Yojana
    • 6k core
  • Punjab
    • Raising power costs
    • Rs 48k thousand payment to every farmer – DBT
    • Farmers would have an incentive to cut their electricity costs in order to save money

• Reasons
  • Population pressure – Household and Industries
  • Agriculture
    • Consumes 70% of freshwater
    • 1 Kg of rice requires 5k Litre of water, 1kg of sugarcane- 2k l
    • Over use of pesticides prevent percolation of water
    • Free electrcity
    • Total indirect water subsidy estimated to 0.6% of GDP
  • Leaching of Fertilisers
  • Concrete Cover
  • Climate Change – Erratic Rainfall
  • Unregulated Sand Mining
  • Fracking, Oil Drilling

Mihir Shah Committee’s recommendation

• More focus on Farm Level Irrigation
  • Har Khet ko Pani
  • CADP – Last mile Connectivity
  • Not just Big Dams
    • Cost overruns in Big Dams estimated at 1300%
  • Also need to charge famers – leads to accountability as well
  • Eg of Madhya Pradesh
    • In 5 years, it increased farms under irrigation by 5 times
    • In Contrast, as Maharashtra CM lameneted, Maharashtra has highest no of dams, but still witnesses huge droughts
• Similarly, Gujarat’s 10% growth seen in Agri recently was helped by this
• Merge CWC and CGWB
  • Would reduce Duplication of Efforts
  • Synergise the Protection network
• Water in Concurrent list to tackle givernance issues and inter state water issues
• Officebearers in these organisations be multi stakeholder like Economists, Ecologists, etc and not just engineers
• Dedicated body at a River Basin Level – to have a Bottom up
  • Rght now we have a top down model
  • And about 50% of the 22 River Basins do not have a dedicated body
• Against Inter Water Linking because of Ecological Impact

• Way out
  • WATERSHED MANAGEMENT

• Efficient management and conservation of surface and ground water

• Rainwater harvesting,, reducing subsidy on electricity, awareness, water conservation methods
  • Some states have made installing Rainwater Harvesting mandatory for all upcoming apartments. Needs to be expanded to all over India
  • Although as 2nd ARC points out rainwater harvesting can have the problem of diverting water flows which may effect the eco system
• Traditional techniques
  • Khadins in Rajasthan- especially for farmland rainwater harvesting
  • Aahars in Bihar – PROJECT JAL SANCHAY
  • Tankas in Rajasthan,
  • Bhandara in Maharashtra
  • Bawali in UP, Gujarat
  • Mission Kakatiya
    • Telangana
    • Raised water levels by restoring tanks and water bodies

• MICRO Irrigation
  • Frequent use of small quantiites of water for Irrigation
    • In contrast to Flood Irrigation
  • India
    • 13% under it
    • In contrast to 99% in Israel
  • Benefits
    • Prudctivity
      • Yield rise by 40% in wheat
    • Water
      • Saves 40% of water
      • Water use efficiency is 90 %

As compared to about 35% of Flood irrigation

• • Less weeds
  • Less pests
  • Less Labour
    • Con too
  • Fertilisers
    • FERTIGATION

Fertilisers are directly injected in the drip and trip water irrigation system

Causes lesser feriliser wastage and higher absorption

• • Lesser electricity
  • Cost savings in the long run
• Small Dams
  • Check Dams
  • Water storage per person very low in India – Gulati
  • Mihir Shah Committee

• AGRI
  • Change in Cropping Pattern
    • Away from Sugarcane, Rice
    • SRI
    • 0 tillage, organic Farming

• Separation of feeders for household and electricity use and rationalisation of electricity
  • 24 hours for household
  • 8 for electricity

• Governance
  • Water taxation
    • CASE STUDY – Directly as in Delhi
      • In fact free till 20k l, then charging will be a populist solution
    • Indirectly- Raising price of electricity, Feeder separation, diesel costs high

• Water budgeting– wherein eacch area, each community is given only a definite share to use water

• Integrate management
  • Mihir Shah committee recommended integration of CWC and CGWB (Central Ground Water Board) into NWC (National water commission )
  • Farm level irrigation

• Areas classsified as low priority or high priority
  • Low priority such as IPL matches, expensive resorts, apartments charged higher
  • Or be forced to use distillation for water use

• MGNREGA
• Avoiding planting of trees like Eucalyptus

• reduce Water Pollution
  • Mandatory water treatment plants in industries
  • See below

• Jal sangam –
  • A discussion platform by central govt
  • Need to emulate the platform at other levels too
  • Similarly Jal grams and Jal Mitras has been created
  • Recommended water framework bill

Broadly 3 types of Irrigation

• Surface Irrigation – Flood, Contour Farming, Furrow Irrigation
• Sub Surface Irrigation
• Micro Irrigation

National Water Framework Bill, 2016

• Groundwater will be taxed
  • Graded pricing system
  • Removal of “British Common Law” – Easement Act, 1882 which says that he who owns the land can extract any amount of groundwater beneath the land

• Ensures “Right to safe water ”
  • Fundamental right
  • Limits will be set by state depending on use
    • Like Poverty line is done
  • SC judgement has already included right to water as a integral part of Article 21

• Corporations
  • have to submit plans about detailing the use of water
  • And to ensure that any contamination was remedied
  • Limits on use

• Decentralise water management to Panchayat

• Fines between 5k to 5 lakhs

• Priority order Drinking > Sanitation > Women needs and only then industry

• Incentive to less water intensive crops

• National Water Quality Standard
• Focus on
  • Aviral Dhara – Continuous flow
  • Nirmal dhara – Clean flow
  • Swacch Kinara – Clean banks
• Con
  • Water state list
    • Puncchi commission and sarkaria both against the central law
  • Model Ground Water billl 2011 uses the principle of Subsidiarity and places them under the ambit of Panchayats

Guidelines for Ground Water use by Industries

• See Oct 17 53

See national hydrology project for better information collection using remote sensing

Inter River Connection

Situation

• 12 major river basins and > 10k rivers of length > 1.6 km
• 1st conceived during the British time
  • Sir Arthur Cotton proposed connecting Ganga with Kaveri
  • Railways made it redundnat
• In 1982, NWMA made for it
• National River Linking Project

• 14 himalayan rivers LINKAGSES and 16 peninsular rivers linkages
• 30 canals , 30k reservoirs
• 35k MW of electricity
  • Most of this though would be utilised in pumping the water from low lying Gangetic plains to the Peninsular area
• SC directed to speed up the process in 2002, plan to be completed in 2006
• Ken Betwa link
  • First of that
  • Controversy over passing through Panna reserve
  • Will help tp provide water to drought affected Bundelkhand

Advantages

• Mitigates droughts and floods by moving excess water from one river to another
  • Eg would divert water away from Kosi river
  • To Western water deficient areas
• Increases the efficient utilisation of water
  • Monsoon – 80% of rains
  • 70% of water is available to 35% ( half) of India’s area
• Hydro Electricity
  • 30k MW
• Irrigation Potential
  • 35 million hectares
• Indirectly increases agricultural productivity, fishing opportunities
• Reduces dependence on groundwater
  • Which helps the poor more
• Creates a national waterway network
• Already done in parts
  • Eg Beas satluj
  • SO apprehensions misguided

Disadvantages

• 11 lakh crore estimated
• Deforestation
  • 15k km of canal
  • Ken Betwa – Panna
• Displacement of 15 lakh people
• Challenges in making
  • Uplift of water
  • Ganga flat – large dams required
  • Land Acquisition
• Climate – unpredictable impact on monsoon
  • Mihir Shah Committee against this
  • Has instead called for greater focus on CADP, AIBP – distribution
• Disputes
  • Inter state river disputes as well as
  • International disputes (esp Bangladesh) will increase
• General issue of dams
• Less water to sea
• Impact on fisheries
• IIT Madras study
  • Declining inter regional variations
  • Hence no need of an expensive project

WATER POLLUTION

Froth discharging BELLANDUR lake of Bangalore

• Reasons
  • Formed by anaerobic decomposition of water weds like Water Hyacinth
  • Eutrohication
  • Discharge of laundry waste
  • Industrial swage
• Particular points on solutions
  • Phosphorous
    • It is phosphorus in our wastes esp laundry wastes which promotes Growth of such weds
    • International norm of limiting P to 2.2% in detergents
    • India much higher. Should reduce and accede to the treaty

What else is required

• Infra –
  • Expedite funds clearance,
  • Faster clearances for STP,
  • Needs strong synergy with Smart City, AMRUT and Swatch Bharat
• People –
  • PSC says inadequte focus on people – Involving school children, MGNREGA workers,
  • Civil Society cooperation as in Indore
• Legal –
  • Tougher sanctions for polluting on lines of recommendation by Girdhar Malviya Committee
  • Environmental Police as in China
• Tech –
  • Satellite monitoring, Drones, Data Analytics
  • Trash Skimmers – to clean surface of the river – skim the trash
• Industry –
  • Financial Incentives for Effluent Treatment Plants ,
  • Relocation of industries like Leather and Tanneries in Kanpur by setting up SEZs away from Kanpur
• Governance –
  • Adoption of Seechewal Model for better waste segregation
  • CWC and CGWB merger
• Agriculture
  • Promotion of Organic Farming
• Environment –
  • Afforestation along banks

Importance of Ganga

• 40% of population
• Perennial
• Tourism
• Religious cities and culture
• Wildlife – Dolphins in Sultanganj
• Dams – 4k MW

Why polluted

• 40% of Population
• Industries like Leather in Kanpur and Chemicals in Delhi ( Yamuna – tributary)
• Religious – Ashes of Dead are dispersed – Varanasi
• Tourism – Haridwar

NAMAMI GANGE

Review

• CAG
  • 2500 crore in Namami Gange Fund remains unutilised
    • The underutilisation ( eg CAG on RTE ) along with March rush is a significant problem in the Indian Governance ecosystem and is as important as low funds
• All villages near its bank now ODF
   
• The program has a budget outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore for the next 5 years.
  • Against 2k crore spent in the past 30 years
  • 10 timea higher value
• Not just Ganga- also tributaries
• Involve – Bottom Up Model
  • people living on the banks of the river to attain sustain0able results.
  • States and PRIs and ULBs
  • Ministries/Agencies of Central and State governments.
• Ganga Task force battalion force to check against insustry and civilians polluting Ganga
• Infrastructure
  • Plan of 0 liquid discharge (ZLD)
    • All water will be recycled before discharge
  • Sewage treatment plants, Effluent treatment plants, in situ treatment
  • Interception, Diversion of drains
• Tech
  • SMS info
  • Coordination with ISRO’s BHUVAN
• PPP
• Modalities
  • The program would be implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG),
  • three-tier mechanism a) High level task force chaired by Cabinet Secretary assisted by NMCG at national level, b) State level committee chaired by Chief Secretary assisted by SPMG at state level and c) District level committee chaired by the District Magistrate.
• Ganga gram Yojana
  • ODF of Villages around Ganga
  • 1k villages around the bank
  • Drains will be diverted
  • Toilets construction in every household
  • 1 crore per village
  • Sichewal model – participatory

Swachh Yug campaign

• Behavioural change – ODF of Villages near Ganga
• Under Ganag Gram Yojana
• See Vision June 12

• Uttarakhand High Court – Granted rights as a person to Ganga and Yamuna – Will help them to get legal remedies as a common man . Took place after continued inaction on the frontier
  • Sir, the idea is novel, but it has practical difficulties
    • Even the river can be sued now for causing damage – Flood,
    • Pandoras Box, Why not other rivers
    • And as Uttarakhand govt has argued, the 3 membered committee comprises of Uttarakhand Chief Secretary. And it would be unfair to lay the onus of any issue arising out of a Downstream state on Uttarakhand CS who would have little power on the issue
  • Took place after continued inaction on the frontier
• MP doing it for Narmada now
• Jan Bhagidari in Narmada -Need for a similar thing in Ganga

Waste Water

• See Vision 17 March 46
• 90% waste Water goes untreated -in India
• Also see Reduce, Remove ( low cost decentralised waste water treatment) , Recycle and Recover – UN

Dams

• 75% of all year rains in monsoon – Need to store
• Gulati –
  • Per person water storage capacity is 200 metre cube per person in India
  • Against 5k in Russia
  • 2009 floods led to damage worth 46k crore
• As Nitish Kumar said need for de-silting of river. Farkka barrage causing accumulation of sediments -> Bihar floods . Also causes obstruction to delta formation
• After Uttarakhand floods, a SC Panel found 23 out of 24 dams were causing irreparable damage to the biodiversity
• Role in Chennai floods

Disilting of rivers –

• Chitale Committee report
  • Formed to suggest Desalination
  • Observations and recommendations
    • No single solution
    • Sand Registry be maintainned
    • Watershed Development to minimise Agricultural silt flow
    • Instead of Keeping Silt Awat, strategy should be to GIVE SILT away
    • Deepen and More desilting at the Confluence Points where rivers are known to divert their channels to reduce floods

Tributaries

• Godavari
  • Penganga
  • Pranhita
  • Manjra
  • Indravati – Only vati that is not of Kaveri
• Krishna (source near Mahabaleshwar)
  • Koyna
  • Tungabhadra
  • Bhima
• Kaveri
  • Amravati
  • Hemavati
  • Kabini
  • Bhavani
• Brahmaputra
  • Dihang
  • Dibang
  • Lohit
  • Subansiri
  • Kameng
  • Manas
  • Sankosh
  • Teesta in Bangaldesh
  • Called Yamuna there
  • Mixes with Padma (Ganga) and Meghna ( Barak a tributary )

Independent west flowing rivers

• Kerala
  • Periyar
  • Bharatpuzha
• Karnataka
  • Netravati
• Goa
  • Mandovi
  • Juari
• Gujarat
  • Sabarmati
  • Mahi

East flowing rivers

• Subarnrekha
• Vamsadhara
• Brahmani (NW 5)
• Baitarni
• Pennar
• Palar

• Command Area Development Program
  • Program to ensure greater water utilisation by suitably modifying the slope of the land, creating distributaries and drains
• Acelerated Irrigtation Benefit Program
  • Loans to states to complete the delaued and inflated water projects