Water panel recommends various measures to meet scarcity challenges

The Central Water Commission (CWC) has recommended construction of water harvesting structures, inter-linking of rivers and construction of new storage structures as some important measures to meet the challenges of overall water scarcity scenario in the country, an official statement said.

The CWC, which carried out a study, has also suggested various long and short-term measures to mitigate water scarcity situation.

The commission also said in its report that ground water levels have been falling in almost all regions of the country due to over exploitations and inadequate recharging mechanism for ground water.

"However, no specific observation on water quality has been reported at most of the areas except in Gujarat, where problem of salinity in coastal areas has been reported," said a Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry release.

In areas like Marathwada of Maharashtra, and Bundelkhand of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Commission has recommended river linking.

"Water budgeting and planning the cropping patterns for the oncoming agricultural seasons, the strategy for avoiding water-intensive crops to the extent in consultation with the relevant expert departments are also crucial for checking such situation. Micro irrigation (sprinkler and drip) should be adopted to achieve more crops per drop," the report said.

The study also clarified that at almost all places, minimum domestic water requirements are being met through importing water from other regions and if required, by digging local deep bore wells and also by tankers.

According to the report, the water scarcity situation is prevailing in the country, but some pockets like Marathwada, Bundelkhand, as well as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are more affected by water scarcity situation.

"The main cause of water scarcity in country is consecutive failure of monsoon, resulting low storages in dams, during last two years. Rainfall deficit in country as a whole during 2015 was 14 percent and in 2014 it was 12 percent," the report said.

--IANS

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