Alarming Situation

Rajasthan is possibly the driest state in India.  Although it has one- tenth of the land area of the country, over 5 per cent of its population and nearly a fifth of its livestock, its share of India’s surface and ground-water resources is under 2 per cent each.  The situation has worsened over time.  The state population growth rate is among the highest in the country.  Demand for water from uses such as industry, tourism and sanitation and environmental purposes has grown apace, while the supply has remained unchanged.  The primary source is scanty and uncertain rainfall confined to two months of the year.  Availability of water from all sources has come down to under 800 cum per person  per year and will soon reach a highly precarious   level.      Nearly   two-thirds  of  the  state  is  arid  or  semi-arid.    A disproportionate reliance on groundwater adds to the problems of water availability, especially  in  drought  years.    Similarly,  heavy  reliance  on  'imported'  water  from neighbouring states adds to the uncertainty.  Inefficiency in the storage, conveyance and  use  of  water  results  in  further  worsening  of  an  already  difficult  situation. Iniquitous access to water by different user groups, economic strata, and regions, as well as a steady deterioration of water quality compound this poor situation.  Thus, the water situation of the state is quantitatively and qualitatively precarious and the state is faced with formidable, almost insurmountable, handicaps.

 

 

Goals, Mission, Strategies

 

           Water Security for All: Water must be seen in an integrated and holistic manner, with a clear understanding of the mission, objectives and areas of strategic intervention. The state must accept access to water for survival as a basic human right.  The goal of water security for all and forever implies efficiency, equity, and sustainability as the guiding principles of water resources management. .  The chief objective of the state water policy would be socially optimum development and sustainable utilisation of the state’s water resources.  The mission would be "to ensure efficient, equitable and sustainable supply of water to the citizens of the state within a given time frame."

 

           Integrated Water Resources Management:  In view of the finite availability of and growing demand for water, the state water policy should advocate an integrated approach and prioritise various activities.  All sources of water, surface and ground, must be reckoned together, as should its uses, for drinking, irrigation, industrial and other purposes, rather than treating each fragment as an entity of its own.  The solutions  would  go  beyond  engineering  or  technology,  necessitating  a  multi- disciplinary approach.  Participation of the concerned population in planning and managing the use of water, due recognition of the crucial role of women and its incorporation  in  all  decision  spaces,  and  an  explicit  recognition  of  water  as  an economic  and  social  good  are  all  components  of  integrated  water  resources management.

 

           Basins as Unit of Planning: This suggests planning of water resources based on dependable information at the river basin (or canal or aquifer) level, co-ordinated at the  state  level.    The  basin  plans  in  turn  could  be  sub-divided  into  watershed development plans.  This involves realistic water budgets for the basin, transfers of water from surplus to deficit basins keeping in mind the environmental impact of such transfers, and establishment of basin management organisations.  In these areas, bodies such as duly empowered Water Users’ Associations would be required to ensure people’s effective participation.

 

           Elements of Strategic Interventions: Besides the above, conjunctive use of surface and ground water, requiring careful regulation of extraction and monitoring of both these  sources  and  their  integrated  utilisation,  facilitated  through  appropriate  and rational pricing of water will be crucial strategic interventions.  Clear delineation of the roles of various  stakeholders  – households, government, NGOs, panchayati raj institutions, private bodies  -, establishment of water rights and an enabling legal framework are adjuncts of the interventions.  Supportive measures include building up the capacities of users’ organisations enabling them to discharge their legitimate and warranted functions effectively, and state-wide data base, with appropriate monitoring and updating mechanisms.

 

Augmentation of Water Supply

 

           Supply  Deficits  and  Bottlenecks:  The  available  supply  is  short  of  the  state’s requirements by some 8 BCM at present, which will go up to 9 BCM by 2015. Natural monsoon precipitation averages 590 mm in the state, but varies widely from region to region and year to year.  The bulk of it is lost due to run-offs or evaporation. There are no perennial rivers.  A large part of state's water supply is through inter- state  flow  of  water,  which  adds  a  political  dimension  to  the  problem.    As  the experience all over the country suggests, riparian states try to pre-empt the water to meet  with  their  own  growing  needs.    Excessive  dependence  on  progressively dwindling  ground  water  resources  with  continuously  rising  cost  of  extraction  is another serious difficulty.

 

           Conservation as Means of Augmenting Supply: Since the availability cannot be increased, measures such as rain water harvesting, expeditious completion of projects under implementation, harnessing untapped potential and full utilisation of potential already created, re-charging ground water in a campaign mode, reducing evaporation losses, recycling the used water and, above all, saving of water by more efficient ways of conveyance and application all become important means of conserving supplies.

 

           Special  Attention  to  Ground  Water  Resources:  Rajasthan  is  overwhelmingly dependence on ground water.  Nearly 90 per cent of the drinking water and 60 per cent of the irrigation water is extracted from ground water reservoirs.  Over a period of time this situation has become precarious.  Only 32 blocks in the state can be considered "safe".  Overall exploitation of ground water at 11.6 BCM now exceeds overall recharge of 11.1 BCM Intensive efforts for recharging ground water are called for.  Artificial recharge may be possible in several areas, which must be attempted forthwith.  The quality of ground water has progressively deteriorated as wells are dug deeper  and  deeper.    Techniques  such  as  reverse  osmosis,  electro-dialysis,  flash distillation, etc have been used in other states to improve water quality.  Their utility to specific areas of Rajasthan needs to be explored.  They should be used wherever they are cost-effective.  The application of these technologies must be accompanied by proper education and sensitization of the users to their importance.

 

           Rights and Obligations: The communities' usufruct  rights for a given aquifer must be recognised, and accompanied by dependable information on the availability of ground water resources in the given aquifer.  The community should be sensitised to share this water responsibility.  Those who extract ground water should also be obliged to re- charge it.  Supportive regulation to control extraction of ground water, especially in the “dark” and potentially dark zones is required.

 

           Supporting Measures: All these tasks require a massive campaign to educate the people regarding the severity of the crisis and criticality of suggested actions.  The campaign must make effective use of all mass media and involve NGOs, which are better equipped to create mass awareness and mobilise people for such actions.

 

Domestic Use of Water

 

           Increasing Demand, Dwindling Supply: The problem of drinking water in Rajasthan is particularly acute.  The current demand of about 2.5 BCM for this purpose is likely to double in the next 40 years.  Another 2.0 BCM will be needed in that year for cattle for drinking purposes as well.  Rapid population growth, rising demand, neglect of old traditional sources, silting of reservoirs, change in land use, etc have shrunk the availability of water resources during the last few decades.  Consequently, ground water resources have been over-exploited and their quality has also deteriorated.  All these factors have affected sustainability of sources for drinking water supply.

 

           Remedies for Supply: A review exercise for each drinking water supply scheme to estimate demand of water for drinking and other civic uses for the next 10 to 20 years is needed to ensure its sustainability.  Availability of water from different sources should be assessed as a part of the exercise.  Planning for drinking water supply should ensure meeting the demand with 90 per cent reliability.  Additional sources should be created well before the availability is likely to drop below the sustainability. In case of groundwater sources, maintaining a carry-over storage of water equivalent to the demand for one year (excluding evaporation and percolation losses) would be desirable.  Such schemes should also include recharge by an amount equivalent to annual withdrawal.  Artificial recharging should be resorted to if found feasible.

 

           Poor Quality and its Rectification: The quality of ground water in the state, as indicated by the presence of various impurities and sediments, is among the poorest in the country.  A number of schemes have been taken up, or are being planned to supply safe water to problematic villages/habitations.  The proportion of such benefitted villages, however, is quite small.  This requires immediate correction.

 

           Equity  Considerations:  The  norms  for  urban  water  supply  need  to  be  revised downwards to ensure that there is some parity between urban and rural availabilities and the supply is stretched to meet the requirements.  Indiscriminate sinking of wells for domestic water supply leads to drying up of these wells and falling water tables. This needs to be checked.

 

           Costing, Economics and People’s Participation: The cost of supplying drinking water is rapidly increasing, as local sources are either not available or not adequate, causing water to be conveyed over long distances.  The government cannot bear all this cost.  Community participation could result in significant saving in operation and maintenance costs.  While the government could bear capital costs, users should bear the operating costs.  Poorer sections, however, should be provided targeted subsidies to ensure that paucity of means does not imply denial of access to water.  Public- private partnerships, especially in cities, could similarly reduce costs and increase revenue  realisations.    Distribution  losses,  non-revenue  supplies,  low  recovery  of operational costs, replacement of over aged and malfunctioning equipment, adequate funds for maintenance are some of the other issues that need to be addressed urgently to ensure that the available water is used efficiently and effectively.  As with other areas of water management, participation of an informed citizenry and NGOs in these tasks would greatly improve the situation.

 

Irrigation Management and Reforms

 

           Major but Inefficient User Segment and Tasks Ahead : Irrigation claims the lion's share,  over  80  per  cent,  of  the  available  water  supply  in  Rajasthan,  as  it  does elsewhere in the country.  It is also among the worst offenders in terms of losses and inefficiency.  Inadequate use of created potential, poor condition of irrigation head works,  canals,  distribution  structures,  poor  conveyance  efficiency,  absence  of people’s participation, irrational water rates, inadequate support from agriculture department for optimum water use, etc are among the factors leading to such a situation.  The tasks are two-fold: rectifying the current situation and managing the resource  judiciously  in  the  future  to  ensure  its  optimal  use.    A  mix  of  policy, technological, agronomic, and economic measures is required.

 

           Policy and Technology Issues: The existing poor efficiency of canal irrigation needs to be improved by emphasising maintenance.  Completion of projects underway, using available potential (as in southern humid basins), improving storage, etc will improve the availability of water.  Legal framework needs to be modified to ensure people’s  participation,  compliance  with  drainage  and  conjunctive  use  measures. Extensive, as against intensive, irrigation needs to be given preference.  Adoption of pressure  and  drip  irrigation,  encouragement  of  deficit  irrigation,  recourse  to  lift irrigation, would all serve the purpose of economising water use.  Some small, gated structures upstream may be permitted to meet the needs of local inhabitants, with a sharing formula that reserves the entire monsoon flow for the big system and the post monsoon flow for the small structures.                                                Structures downstream help harvest the overflow and the seepage of big systems as also the return flow of the canals.  Proper agronomic practices as well as selection of crops that use less water will again help improve irrigation water use for crop production.

 

           Irrigation Management and People’s Participation: Formation of Water Users’ Associations and their involvement in various operational and management tasks is essential for improving the water use efficiency and effecting savings of water and expenses.  Such organisations could be educated in the conjunctive use of ground and surface water to help improve water use pattern as well as avoid salinity.  Their capacities need to be built up, primarily through NGOs.  PRIs also have a legitimate role to play.  Sectoral and project studies help identify the environmental impact of projects should be mandatory for major and medium projects.  These would help design environment-friendly projects in future.

 

           Economic Issues: Water allocation priorities are drinking water, irrigation, power generation, industry, tourism and other uses in that order.  Allocations for the water sector must at least be protected if not increased in view of the dire situation.  The available funds must be judiciously allocated, first to maintenance and restoration of existing assets, next to completion of on-going projects and finally to new projects. The present low irrigation rates in the state do not reflect the scarcity value of water, nor the cost of providing it.  The guiding principle could be to recover at least the full O&M costs.  Incentives to those who apply the recommended measures as well as penalties or disincentives for those who willfully neglect such recommendations are desirable.    Implementation  of  the  various  reforms  and  changes  in  irrigation management, especially those associated with water rates, will require strong political will and great courage.

 

 

Administrative and Legal Aspects

 

           Persistent  Problems: Administration of the water sector in Rajasthan, as in other states of the country, suffers from many defects.  These include widening of the government role and consequent shrinking of the role of the community; attendant bureaucratisation, marked by a hierarchical, top-down, and fragmentary approach; profusion  of  departments  and  agencies  with  limited  co-ordination  among  them; simultaneous pursuit of development, management and regulation, with emphasis on development  and  neglect  of  maintenance,  which  affects  efficiency  and  reduces accountability.  The administration is not people friendly, its approach fragmentary and its competence lop-sided.

 

           Recommended Structures: The situation needs to be rectified at all levels and along many dimensions.  At the ground level, WUAs need to be strengthened and enabled to take on increasing roles in the planning and operation of specific projects in their areas.  This must form the foundation of the administrative structure.  They must receive adequate technical and managerial support to be truly effective.  Basin level committees should be formed and given adequate technical and financial resources to manage their areas.  These would help fill the gap between the ground level and the state.  A state-level water resources development organisation with multi-disciplinary staff should be set up. This department will take on the tasks which are presently distributed among many different ones with diverse interests and thus help achieve integration.  Placing the policy and planning function in a new, separate and highly professional department is essential for the state to manage this scarce and valuable resource in the broader public interest rather than being dominated by narrow sectoral interests as at present.  Implementing departments and agencies should concentrate on cost-effective and efficient service delivery in their respective sub-sectors and ensure proper functioning and productivity of the state's massive investment in the water resources infrastructure created over the years.  This department should be directly under the Chief Minister and headed by a very senior administrator.  A high-level State Water Council to oversee the whole sector from a wider perspective, ensuring efficiency and equity should be formed.  It should have a limited but functional co- ordination  and  not  merely  be  a  decorative  appendage.    A  separate  regulatory organisation is also needed to give due attention to this important task.  Such a body whose credentials are above board should  initiate the move towards more rational water rates.

 

           Legal Aspects: The State Water Policy would be enforceable only if it is backed by a comprehensive water legislation.  A law relating to management and rational use of surface water, ground water and share in interstate river waters is long overdue.  The first task is to filter and clean the large number of laws on this subject. Some existing laws or their provisions that have outlived their utility must be repealed or amended. Ownership of water should not vest in the government but it should be the property of the people.  The riverine community as well as those who have land above ground water sources may have usufruct rights subject to overall needs of the community. Enforceable  rules  for  regulating  ground  water  supply,  combining  positive  and negative   economic   and   administrative   measures   need   to   be   in   place.      A comprehensive Water Law will be the final, culminating reform.

 

Civil Society Organisations

 

           Policies for NGOs: Since public participation is essential in the critical water resource development activities, NGOs, which are close to people could play a pivotal role in mobilising and organising them as well as enhancing their capacity for undertaking the various tasks.  NGOs are much better equipped to create the above pre-conditions than the government.  The NGO policy framework is based on certain lessons drawn from Rajasthan and elsewhere. Water sector programmes must generate a sense of ownership among the users and allow freedom to innovate.  Collaboration among government, NGOs and user groups should be institutionalised in with specific and streamlined roles and responsibilities of each partner.

 

           Scope for NGO Participation: NGOs could be effective in awareness building in communities,  capacity  building  of  WUAs,  design  and  construction  of  water harvesting and conservation structures, design, execution and management of minor irrigation projects, sharing experiences and information with various stakeholders, and integration of information from various sources.  NGOs should be fully involved to the extent required in such activities.  More experienced NGOs should also find representation in planning forums at the state and the district level.

 

           Modalities  for  NGO  Participation:  Certain  procedures  should  be  followed  to encourage involvement of the right kind of NGOs.  These procedures cover their registration and empanelment, their assessment, approval of their projects, sanction and release of funds and their monitoring.  Detailed provisions and formats have been evolved for these purposes.

 

           Expeditious  Process  and  Transparency:  All  these  recommendations  concerning registration of NGOs, identification, screening of projects, technical approval, various sanctions,   fund   release,   etc   must   be   time-bound   and   transparent   without compromising the quality of the projects and works.  The intention is not to create one more category of civil contractors or to curb any existing good treatment offered to the reputed NGOs in entrusting the works.  The main purpose is to facilitate people’s participation in this extremely important task by institutions that are closer to people and are capable of empowering them.

 

Ensuring Participation of Stakeholders; Clarifying their Rights and Obligations

 

           Avoiding Dependency: The commanding position of the bureaucracy has in managing water resources leads to a dependency syndrome among water users.  The reason for several ills in this area is the alienation of users from the process of planning and distribution of water resources.  Farmer participation has led to improvement in water use efficiency in several states.

 

           Improving People’s Participation: WUAs positively impact irrigation to the tail- ender,  area  under  irrigation  and  revenues.  They  provide  effective  participatory management and need strengthening.  Similarly, the involvement of the constitutional PRIs  in  water  budgeting  and  auditing  helps  improve  people’s  participation. Inventorising the needs and availability of water at the panchayat level and collating them at the basin level, and again at the apex level will impart strength to local level institutions.

 

           Obligations: Obligations of water users are difficult to define, especially in view of depleting ground water resources.  It may be necessary to put a moratorium on digging wells not just in the dark zones, but even in other areas where paucity of ground water is imminent.  It is necessary to put in an obligation of recharge on well owners.  Restrictive regulations, such as prohibition on digging wells in command area of canals, may be withdrawn.

 

Cost Recovery and Privatization

 

Basis for Rationalisation: Beneficiaries pay an inadequate amount, whatever may be the concept and components of cost irrigation.  Drinking water should be considered a ‘natural’ good and a minimum supply of drinking water should be available to every citizen  as  a  matter  of  right.    The  state  should  reimburse  the  public  authority responsible for supplying drinking water to truly indigent sections. Rationalisation of irrigation dues between crops and between regions and the charges levied on drinking water   with   different   quantum   of   availability   need   priority   attention.      Such rationalisation will lead to better compliance.  The idea of cost recovery will not float without addressing the issues of efficiency and accountability of service providers.

 

           Privatisation: Private investment in surface water projects has not evoked much interest.  Unresolved public policy issues in the environment and social spheres impinge on large-scale private investment in the development of water resources. Private markets, particularly in irrigation, are justified, as it is a commercial, profit- oriented, activity.  Water could be considered as an economic good in that context. Water markets are, however, not easy to establish nor a panacea for all water-related problems.    Pre-conditions for their successful functioning resemble those for all contractual transactions.

 

Water Literacy and Awareness Generation

 

Changing Perspectives: The success of reforms in the water sectors hinges on public. There is a need to inculcate more balanced view that water is a scarce resource with multiple uses, multiple claimants and is inequitably distributed over time and space. There is also a tendency to view water related problems in a short-term perspective. These perspectives could be corrected by opinion leaders in different walks of life, whose help should be sought while introducing reforms.  This is especially useful, since the effect of price on controlling consumption will not be significant if the share of expenditure on water is relatively small in the consumer's budget.

 

Water Education: This is needed at all levels.  A concerted effort to educate students in their youth will have a lasting effect in terms of appreciation of water situation. The  population  at  large  should  be  sensitised  to  the  critical  nature  of  the  water situation. to the goals of efficient, equitable and sustainable water sector.  This could be possible by creating awareness about the benefits from reforms, and the price that is being extracted by present systems and arrangements, together with progressively enlarging the constituency of those who will benefit from the reforms.