A New Paradigm of Water Management

Too much or too little? An excess of anything is bad, no matter how good it seems. So let it be with the monsoons. When the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted a better-than-normal monsoon[1], nobody took it seriously. Now it seems they are correct as many parts of India have got more rain than they normally do; all but five of the country’s meteorological regions have been so blessed. But we seem to lack the capacity to capitalize on this bounty even though India is pockmarked with hundreds of dams and barrages, all designed to hold water.

Instead, we are flooded for a few weeks, and then face water shortages for the rest of the year. Why is it that each time the heavens open up, we are drowned in water?

There are many reasons. Our rivers, lakes and other natural reservoirs and water channels are choked and encroached. They have been robbed of their ability to transport water safely and hold it. The dams and barrages are not designed to handle such large quantities of water even though we had heard that dams are built to handle a one-in-a-hundred years flood. This makes you think – where did the data for assessing this flood come from? From measuring the water flow? From what I have seen of this measurement, it is a joke – the people taking the measurement stand on a bridge, throw in a ping-pong ball on one side, rush across and see how long it takes to appear on the other side. That gives them the speed of water, but what about the depth and width of the river? Then we have alarming report of the Bhakra Nangal dam tilting under the weight of the impounded water; the authorities are expectedly quick to dismiss this as normal[2].

Year after year, the dams and allied infrastructure we have built has proved to be ineffective at controlling floods. Every year, the authorities are forced to open the sluices when it rains heavily, flooding downstream areas. There seems to be constant tension between the power, irrigation and flood departments; nobody seems to be on top of the basic problem that this method will not work anymore either to store ‘excess’ water or prevent floods.

One is a design issue, the other is a management problem[3]. There is a growing view, worldwide, that building dams is too simplistic a solution for controlling floods, irrigation or even generating power. In summer when power demand peaks, the reservoir levels are too low to generate power to fill the gap.

Can we instead look at a new paradigm of water management, one that is not purely technology driven and focused on large reservoirs[4]. One that considers all forms of surface and sub-surface storage, watershed treatment and people’s participation. Dams also have a high social and environmental cost. Besides, their cost-benefit ratio is often doubtful since the data on which they are designed is unreliable. For instance, the Narmada dam simply does not have enough water to meet the needs of people living at the tail-end of the catchment[5]. It seems this deficiency will now be made good by diverting ‘surplus’ water from the Tapi river.

My contention is, small is good, viable and doable. Small is acceptable to user communities and can be scaled up to provide water security. Small can provide water storage of the same order that a large dam can albeit without the social, environmental and financial costs. Small can be designed in keeping with the local geology, micro-climate, labour, material, water available and end-use. For example, people make stone and mortar underground storage tanks with a surface catchment area in Rajasthan; these tankas can store a full year’s drinking water[6]. Pookhris in Assam impound water from the Brahmaputra or other river for human use and help maintain the groundwater levels. These small structures for catching and storing water are also easy for the local people to manage.

There is a sound geo-hydrological reason for small schemes. Reservoir induced seismicity (RIS) is one of the great safety concerns of dams[7]. Will the water stored behind them force its way into a deep fault and trigger and earthquake? Can the dam survive such a quake? Reservoirs may raise water levels downstream and in surrounding areas, but as they are mostly in hilly areas this does not benefit anybody. Associated canals help recharge aquifers en route, but there have been many reports of waterlogging than of any accruing benefits. Small schemes, on the other hand, suffer from fewer such ailments. There is little risk of RIS since each holds only a small quantity of water. They help recharge shallow aquifers and increase soil moisture in neighbouring fields. They can be deepened or widened to increase storage capacity at little cost by local people. They store rainwater runoff near the point of use and are thus an assured source of water for most of the year without the need for a costly distribution mechanism. Women particularly find them useful since they do not have to walk long distances. Nearly all small structures have a way to get in and out, making it easy for women to get at the water.

The utility of small schemes can be simply and cheaply extended. If more capacity is needed, an existing pond can be deepened by manual dredging; nearly two-thirds of all work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is on creating or restoring water structures[8]. Sometimes, if a new one is needed, it can be built on the village commons or if no such suitable location is available, on a person’s field (by consent) who can be compensated with land elsewhere. Many tanks can be linked by canals so the overflow of one fills the next, maximizing the catchment area of each. As they are made of locally available mud and stone, with minimal use of cement and iron, people can make them without any special equipment. All existing structures are located where rainwater runoff converges thus occupying low land that is unsuitable for any other use.

These small schemes are good for recharging aquifers. They can be used for deep aquifer recharge as well provided the water quality is good. Water from a tank can be channeled to an abandoned deep tube well (preferably high yielding, or a re-bored one to increase recharge speeds) if the main purpose is groundwater recharge. Another ways to force recharge is to fracture rocks (in hard rock areas) with explosives. A more expensive option is to build underground reservoirs or sub-surface dams in areas with porous soil. Storing water underground is probably the most sensible thing in a hot country like India where evaporation losses are high and the cost of the option needs to be weighed against that of providing water from other sources. Before using surface water for groundwater recharge, it is essential to test the latter’s quality.

Small structures have evolved in situ; people are familiar with their construction and maintenance[9]. In places where they have been restored, such as Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, people have developed their own ways of keeping the water clean by keeping animals out and preventing people from defecating or dirtying the pond or its catchment. Now, this approach is being called a best practice by international agencies such as the World Bank[10] and Asian Development Bank[11]. Several state governments have started programmes for tank restoration in addition to mega projects.

New technology can help make these structures more relevant in today’s world. GIS mapping can help optimize their location and size. An integrated approach at the micro-watershed level can improve the quality and quantity of water and reduce siltation. I’ve already mentioned a couple of other new methods to improve groundwater recharge. Women’s work load can be further reduced if a system to provide piped water to all households is built, sourcing water from the pond; the pump for the system can be solar- or wind-powered.

However, small schemes also have challenges especially when it comes to local ownership and department issues. Different government departments control village ponds and they community ownership of these resources is anathema to them. It needs an enlightened local leader or NGO to break this spiral of mutual dependence, a race to the bottom, and get people interested in taking back their control of their resources. So it is not only time for a paradigm shift in managing water resources but also for a generational change.

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[1] Indian Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India; http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/Monsoon_frame.htm

[2] Newspaper reports, August and September 2010

[3] Dutt, Umendra; http://punjabnewsline.com/content/bhakra-reservoir-being-operated-casual-adhoc-manner/24068

[4] McCartney, Mathew and Smakhtin, Vladimir, 2010. Water Storage in an Era of Climate Change: Addressing the Challenge of Increasing Rainfall Variability; International Water Management Institute

[5] Jauhari, V P 1999. Operation, Monitoring, and Decommissioning of Large Dams in India; Paper prepared for Thematic Review IV.5; World Commission on Dams

[6] Mishra, Anupam. Radiant Raindrops of Rajasthan; Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi

[7] ibid

[8] Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India

[9] Jacob, Nitya 2008. Jalyatra, Exploring India’s Traditional Water Management Systems; Penguin India

[10] Deep Wells and Prudence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India. The World Bank. 2010

[11] Rehabilitation and Management of Tanks in India – A study of select states, 2006. Asian Development Bank