Catch the rain

New phase of Jal Shakti Abhiyan should improve water availability

Given the urgency to alleviate widespread and steadily worsening water scarcity, the government has rightly decided to launch Phase-2 of its flagship water conservation programme Jal Shakti Abhiyan on April 1. Though various types of soil and water conservation programmes have regularly been taken up over the past several decades, the civic works related to them are rarely carried out before the onset of the monsoon, as should preferably be the case. The land is usually vacant and the water stock in the existing water bodies low or, in some cases, nil to allow maintenance and improvement works in the pre-monsoon period. But most often, such tasks are sought to be performed during the rainy season, which is the most inappropriate time for these activities. Phase-1 of the massive Jal Shakti initiative in 2019, too, was implemented from July 1 to November 30. The net gains from this phase, consequently, remained below par. In 2020, this programme could not make much headway because of the pandemic. The lags and lapses, therefore, need to be made up this year.

Another noteworthy aspect of this year’s water conservation campaign is its well-advised motto: “Catch the rain where it falls and when it falls”. This, essentially, is the sharpened version of the earlier slogan: “Khet ka pani khet mein; gaon ka pani gaon mein”, meaning retaining field water in the fields and village water in the villages. Only a few states followed this principle — and, that, too, only partially — by promoting the digging of field-level ponds to store surplus rain water for crop-saving irrigation. Well-designed and location-specific water-holding infrastructure is needed to be put in place prior to the monsoon season for in-situ water conservation.

Going by the estimates floated by the NITI Aayog, nearly 600 million Indians face “high to extreme” water stress. What is worse, the paucity is projected to exacerbate as India’s overall water demand is anticipated to double by 2030. This could potentially dent the country’s gross domestic product by 6 per cent by 2050. The situation is particularly worrisome in the groundwater sector. The water table in many areas is receding at an alarming pace despite restrictions on installing water extraction systems in over-exploited zones. India is the world’s largest extractor of groundwater. Its annual water withdrawals are more than those of the US and China put together. Such indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater is unsustainable. Adequate recharging of subsurface aquifers through rainwater harvesting is, therefore, indispensable.

Fortunately, the country’s average annual rainfall of around 120 cm (comprising 79 cm of monsoon rainfall and the rest during other times of the year and in the form of snowfall) can easily meet the genuine needs if managed well. But over 80 per cent of it is allowed to run off wastefully, eroding the precious soil in its wake. That said, the truth also is that part of the likely gains from the Jal Shakti Abhiyan could be eroded if the available water is not used efficiently, especially in the agriculture and industrial sectors. For this, appropriate pricing of water is imperative. Also, free or subsidised power supply for groundwater pumping must stop.