EXTRACTS FROM THE DISCUSSION
DAY, DATE:- Saturday, 1st August 2020
As rice and sugarcane are water intensive crops, according to NITI Aayog, more focus should be given for production of millets, since they contain 81% more proteins than rice and they are rainfall resilient.
According to a survey, in Maharashtra, Sugarcane is grown in only 4% of total Agricultural land, but it utilizes about 65% of irrigation water.
Both surface and ground water should be seen with an integrated view and not as separate entities.
There is a huge inequality in the utilization of groundwater, which is a common pool resource, in villages. There is over exploitation of ground water by the large farm holders, leading to a crisis for small and marginal farmers.
Some of the very useful government laws regarding ground water usage are not implemented properly. And we are still following the groundwater laws laid during colonial rule.
We should have a shift in perspective from resource production towards resource management(like groundwater recharge, maintenance of wells, lakes, etc.)
More importance should be given to participatory and community management approaches for water sharing. Aquifer mapping should be done in villages in a participatory way.
There is a huge difference between water potential created and water supplied to villages. Most water doesn’t reach villages far from dams and reservoirs.
Priority should be given to villages’ drinking water supply and it’s maintenance.
There is less adequate data regarding water(in states like Jammu Kashmir, UP, etc.).The data regarding rainfall and ground water is collected at taluk and district levels, not at village levels.
Inter river linking is expensive and it destroys river ecosystems. Instead of this, water storage and groundwater recharge at local level should be focused.
Groundwater levels are going down since lakes, natural water percolation grounds, are being utilized for urban development. And there is no place for water percolation in urban areas.
The loss of Sahyadri forest cover, prevents the condensation of monsoons in south west regions, hence droughts are being observed in these regions. And as a result, heavy monsoons hit Himalayan regions, leading to extreme rainfall and floods, in the north.
We should try to study and understand the water cycle in regions like the Amazon river basins, where the water cycle is completely localized.
Solutions for water crisis like cropping patterns and watershed structures should be region specific and localized for villages.
One should conserve native trees which act as natural water conservers.
Automatic Weather forecast stations should be set at village levels, which could help farmers in cultivating crops in sync with the unstable rains.
We should also restore traditional water conservation techniques, and native climate resilient crops.
Urban people should ponder from where they are getting water, just because they have purchasing power, they shouldn’t waste water without any care.
