Of domestic water between lifeline and luxury uses in the urban areas.
Come election time, candidates of every political hue promise water to the people. Such promises reverberate through the constituencies, especially the drought prone ones as also the cities.
Water scarcity is everywhere — rural as well as urban. Maharashtra reports that almost all of its reservoirs are getting empty. The Sangli and Satara district administration issued prohibitory orders to stop water theft as the water crisis in these two districts deepens. Twenty-seven blocks in Maharashtra are witnessing a groundwater drought — deficiency in groundwater levels and availability — says Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA) report for the month of March. Bengaluru’s water crisis is a subject of discussion everywhere. After the elections everybody, including those who get elected on the promise, forget about it. Till the next elections.
SUPPLY SIDE OPTIONS
Election promises are always about supply side options. They are all about ways of getting more and more water to the area — whether it is for agriculture in the rural areas or drinking water to the cities. Substantive issues in the water sector like sustainable use, equitable access and participatory governance never become part of the election agenda. The imagination is about getting water from longer distances, sometimes hundreds of kilometres. Or getting water from centralised, mega projects. Today, even to provide decentralised and dispersed needs, for example domestic water needs that would require 5-6 per cent of available water, the governments build centralised water grids and huge water infrastructures.
The gigantic Mission Bhagiratha with a financial outlay of ₹42,853 crore, initiated by the previous Government of Telangana to provide drinking water to the State, is an example of this. At the national level there is the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections to all households in rural India by 2024 with the attractive slogan ‘har ghar jal’ (water in every house). There is cynicism creeping in about this very ambitious infrastructure project. Will it bring taps but no water?
‘HYDRAULIC MISSION’ PROBLEMS
The imagination of the political class is about large water infrastructure, often called the hydraulic mission mode. It emerged as a distinctive approach to water towards the end of the 19th century in the West. It got fully developed as a system in the 20th century. Large dams, power generation and huge transmission networks and large-scale water resource development are the outcomes of this approach. Interlinking of rivers (ILR) takes the hydraulic mission approach to newer heights. It is worth noting that the West, where the hydraulic mission mode originated, has long given it up for more ecologically sustainable options.
ALTERNATIVE WATER AGENDA
The Vikalp Sangam manifesto sets a radically dierent agenda for water. It says that water policies and programmes should have the following sequential water use prioritisation: water for life (drinking, washing, sanitation, livestock, wildlife), ecosystem needs and functions, livelihoods (including food production), adaptation to changes (climate, land use, livelihoods, etc), and industrial/infrastructural use.
There is a need to disaggregate water use taking place under the rubric of domestic water between lifeline and luxury uses in the urban areas. There is a need to curb luxury and wasteful uses. There are no curbs presently on water from the rural areas and from agriculture getting re-allocated to the cities.
This is happening everywhere in India. Maharashtra has been in the lead. The Prayas Resources and Livelihoods Group study report (2013) shows diversion of agriculture water to non-irrigation purposes, especially to meet urban domestic water needs, between 2003 and 2010 was to the tune of about 2000 Mm3 (million cubic meter) from 51 dams. This seems to have reduced the irrigation potential by about 323,300 ha. More water entering cities does not guarantee water to the urban poor. They continue to depend on informal water markets and tankers. Interestingly, there is no articulation coming up from our cities saying that the cites can do with much less water.
There is tremendous scope to reduce water footprint. Take the case of thermal power plants in the country. They take up the highest proportion of industrial water used. Indian thermal power plants are one of the most ine¡cient when it comes to water used per unit power produced. It has been estimated that by converting all thermal power plants from once-through open-loop to closed-cycle cooling systems using recycled water, about 65,000 million litres per day of fresh water can be saved.
WATER CONSERVATION
Agriculture accounts for 80-85 per cent of total water use. Within agriculture, rice, wheat and sugarcane account for the bulk of water use. There are many promising agronomical practices that are being promoted especially by civil society organisations across the country around these crops that can result in large water savings. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in the case of Rice and Sustainable Sugar Initiative (SSI) are examples of these.
In India the gap between Irrigation Potential Created (IPC) and Irrigation Potential Utilised (IPU) has been increasing mainly since the Sixth Five Year Plan period (1980-85). NITI Aayog estimates the gap presently to be about 24 million hectares. Amongst other reasons, one important reason is the absence of water distribution system; and even if the system is there it is in a state of perpetual disrepair. Bridging this gap can ensure water to large rainfed areas without going for new dams.
The emphasis should be on soft options. It means prioritisation of decentralised harvesting and governance over mega-projects and centralised governance, with appropriate combinations of traditional and modern knowledge. This requires support for regeneration, restoration, and de-polluting of wetlands and water sources and the regeneration and conservation of their catchments. Are politicians listening?
The writer is part of SOPPECOM, Vikalp Sangam and Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India