Perilous water

India continues to mismanage its abundant water resources

As Indians across the country prepare to celebrate Holi, news has come in again about the shortage of water. An acute water crunch in Latur forced the Maharashtra government to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 to stave off water riots. This may be in store for many regions in the coming summer, given two consecutive failed monsoons, insufficient water stocks in most reservoirs and heavy depletion of groundwater reserves. Coping with such situations requires prior planning to conserve rainwater and economise on its use. Water-guzzling crops like sugarcane, paddy and even hybrid cotton need to be discouraged in water-stressed areas. This, sadly, has not happened in Latur - or, for that matter, in any other drought-affected region. And water wars between states as demand swells in the summer might worsen the crisis.

India is not an inherently water-scarce country - but the mismanagement of available water has made it so. The country's average annual rainfall of around 1,200 millimetres (mm) is higher than the world mean average of 980 mm. This, coupled with water available as snow, should, if managed well, have been sufficient. However, a sizable part of rainwater is allowed to flow down wastefully to the sea. The 90-odd major reservoirs and numerous smaller water bodies can hold barely a year's requirement of water, where many countries have water storage capacity for two or more years. Moreover, inter-state disputes hinder the optimal use of available water. Upper riparian states can be extravagant in tapping river waters; those downstream are frequently denied their share. At least a dozen of these inter-state water conflicts have defied resolution through mutual agreements, high-level political interventions and even adjudication by specially created tribunals. Once in court, disputes stay there for decades. The longest lasting ones are over the Vansadhara river, the Mandovi river, the Babhali barrage and the Mullaperiyar dam. Arbitration by special tribunals has also failed to settle disputes over the sharing of the waters of the Godavari, the Krishna, the Narmada, the Cauvery, the Satluj and the Yamuna. Only a few tribunals have pronounced their awards and fewer still have been notified. None of the awards has been implemented successfully.

Making water part of the State List of the Constitution was, clearly, a historic blunder. Ideally, water, a dynamic natural resource, should have been under the jurisdiction of the Centre. However, since rectification of this anomaly through an amendment of the Constitution is not feasible - as no state would like to give up its control over water - other available options need to be explored. One possibility is to make full use of Entry 56 of the Union List of the Constitution which allows the Centre to make laws on the regulation and development of inter-state rivers and river valleys when required. Unless such options are explored and gainfully used, the country's water security will remain perilous.