Tamil nadu’s bold initiative on water

Tamil nadu’s bold initiative on water

It is commendable that Tamil Nadu plans to build 10,000 check dams this fiscal along floodplains, water channels and streams, to shore up storage, recharge groundwater and deal with its current water crisis. India mismanages its water more than it is short of water, with the result that nearly half the population nationwide faces high to extreme water stress. The way ahead is to boost storage, recharge aquifers, economise usage, recycle, adopt realistic water pricing, and better allocate resources for upkeep and maintenance of water systems.

The water availability of a region or nation is largely determined by hydro-meteorological and geological factors, and the utilisable availability from annual precipitation is well above our requirement. But as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his radio talk, we have storage capacity for barely 8% of annual rainfall. And, what is worse, due to general neglect of maintenance in water storage and supply, the effective holding capacity is likely to be still lower. Further, rapid urbanisation and rising variability in rainfall patterns make it imperative that we transparently manage water resources nationally.

Some 80-90% of our water need is on account of agriculture, but there is no reason why water demand for the main crops here remains three-to-five times the global norms. Hence the pressing need for demand-side management, less-water intensive seeds, efficient pricing of irrigation water, and aligning cropping patterns with agro-climatic conditions. In tandem, we need stepped-up supply-side measures to treat urban sewage and duly recycle water. Our cities produce some 40,000 million litres of sewage daily but barely 20% is treated. Urban water rates are too low to induce conservation. This, and attendant governance across states need reform.