Sociocultural Dimensions in Water Resources Management: Policies, Practices, and Challenges critically explores the complex challenges of ensuring sustainable development and effective water governance
The water shortage that threatens humanity will have wide-ranging consequences for agriculture and energy production, requiring significant shifts in the way this precious resource is managed.
Global energy consumption is expected to grow by 50% by 2030, squeezing already scarce water resources. Mike Hightower and Suzanne A. Pierce recommend ways to integrate water and energy planning.
India is considering an ambitious plan to link the majority of its major river basins through a vast network of canals, diverting billions of litres from the country's more water-rich river basins to
Water (either from the sky or the irrigation canal) is often a key factor in determining crop yields, squeezing more crop out of the same drop will be central to one of the biggest challenges of this
Water is life: The impact of water shortage is being felt all over the world, in the industrialised as well as developing countries.
Book>> Environmental Issues in India: a Reader
We are into a period of global food shortage and rise in food prices which were not anticipated even a few years ago. A steeply rising food import bill in the medium term could well be on the cards. This is likely to put a severe strain on the Indian government's efforts to reduce poverty and more equitably distribute the economic gains of the last four years. But this challenge can be turned into an opportunity and gives the country's policy makers a chance to address and partially solve the related problems of low agricultural growth and stubborn poverty in rural areas. The challenge and opportunity are both contained in a comparison with China. Though India has 1.47 times more arable land than China, the latter uses its land much better. Its cereal yield is 2.18 times India's. If Indian farm productivity and incomes can be dramatically raised, both global poverty and food shortage will be partially mitigated. To meet the challenge, absolutely the first task is to improve water management
M. Rajivlochan Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony by Ramaswamy R. Iyer. Sage. Pages 270. Rs 350. Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, HarmonyOUR pot of water woes is brimming over. That does not seem surprising, according to Ramaswamy R. Iyer, since even though India is one of the few countries in the world which is blessed with an adequate quantity of water, there is a tremendous amount of mismanagement of water resources. While the country has over 4,000 billion cubic meters (bcm) of annual rainfall and almost 2000 bcm of river flow, the reality remains that we have had constant lamentations about the shortage of water and the destruction of fertile soil because of the overuse of water. According to experts, we have already poisoned most of our major rivers to the extent that their waters are not fit for drinking any more and very soon would be unfit for irrigation as well. Under such circumstances, Iyer suggests, it is important to remove ourselves from the hurly-burly of water conflicts, mull over our relationship with water a little more than it has been possible till now and then, serendipitously think of a constructive way out. That calls for wisdom which has been lacking till now in our management of water resources. In this thought-provoking book, Iyer quickly takes us through the various conflicts that have marked the use and misuse of water since Independence. He looks at the various demand-driven policies made by the government for the management of water. However, fulfilling the demand does not necessarily result in an efficient use of water. For a long time, the main focus of the government was to increase the amount of water for irrigation to increase food grain production. Today, over 80 per cent of the total water used in India is for agriculture. However, of the water available for irrigation, more than 60 per cent is wasted. India is one of the few countries in the world where the cities provide as much as 200 litres per capita per day of water. It goes without saying that most of it is wasted, used for cleaning toilets, washing cars and maintaining gardens. No wonder our fields and cities constantly starve for water and our states busy fighting over it. Karnataka battles Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra fights with Karnataka, Punjab has its sword drawn against Haryana and Madhya Pradesh is getting ready to battle both Utter Pradesh and Gujarat. The fights have become so intense that today even the Supreme Court is wary of pronouncing firmly on the judicious distribution of water resources lest it be drawn into an irresolvable conflict. While the state governments battle each other for water, they find it increasingly difficult to manage the supply to their own citizens. Hence they are trying to palm off the management of water resources to private parties in the hope that private ownership of water would ensure market rates being charged for the water use and correspondingly less wastage. Whether this would generate even more inequalities is a matter that the states are not willing to consider at the moment. All this suggests that we are completely lacking in water wisdom, insists Iyer. Hitherto we have left the matter of planning for water in the hands of experts. Engineers, planners and economists may be very well in providing suggestions on how best to go about using our water resources, but for every expert there seems to be an equal and opposite expert who under political pressure is willing to provide contrary advice equally strongly backed by scientific evidence. Hence, Iyer suggests, the need of the hour is to get out of the conundrums created by experts and apply some Gandhian thinking. First and foremost this means restraining our greed for more water and bringing about a change in the way that we think about water as a resource. The state needs to play the role of a trustee over this resource and the people have to be involved in preserving it and encouraged to live in harmony with nature and each other.
Understanding hydrological and hydro-geological flows is crucial to determine how wisely we use water, writes S.Vishwanath Precious source: The need to harvest and share water is growing these days. Major conflicts around water pit nation against nation, state against state, communities against communities and individuals against individuals. Come summer and the shortages abound and conflicts increase. How do we then create a paradigm around sharing and conflict minimisation? Let us look at examples of sharing waters. The
This book is a synthesis of strategies and best practices adopted by various countries in irrigation management transfer. It identifies key concerns such as water user associations' structure and functions, financial mobilization and constraints, repair and maintenance of physical structures, operation of canal systems, capacity building and monitoring mechanisms. It also identifies enabling environments, including regulatory mechanisms, and the role of non-governmental organizations. It is largely based on secondary sources, with references to experiences across the world.
