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Union
Budget 2004-05:
Focus
on Water Management
The
budget brings quite encouraging signals to the plastic industries
that are into the business of micro-irrigation, pipes and rainwater
harvesting. It is now the right time to aggressively focus and make
necessary strategies to capitalise on the situation for ushering a
new era in water management in India.
Budget
Extract
“I now turn to one of my big dreams. Water is the
lifeline of civilization. We have been warned that the biggest
crisis that the world will face in the 21st century will be the
crisis of water. Water is indeed a renewable resource but, in
any given year, it is not inexhaustible. The crisis of water has
affected the lives of millions of our fellow citizens. In some
cities, whole households keep awake to receive one or two buckets
of water well past midnight. In rural areas, the girl child is
often pulled out of school in order to fetch water. I am deeply
concerned about the impending crisis. I, therefore, propose an
ambitious scheme. Through the ages, Indian agriculture has been
sustained by natural and man-made water bodies such as lakes,
tanks, ponds and similar structures. It has been estimated that
there are more than a million such structures and about 500,000
are used for irrigation. Many of them have fallen into disuse.
Many of them have accumulated silt. Many require urgent repairs.”—
Budget Speech, Mr. P. Chidambaram. |
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Thrust
on Water Management is a strong theme in this year’s union budget
presented by the Hon’ble Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram.
The budget has clearly spelt out its priorities. Thrust and action
areas include:
Drinking Water for all
Water Harvesting
Water Shed Development, and
Micro-irrigation
Irrigation
India is an agricultural state and a quarter of
the GDP is contributed by agriculture. Since independence, although
this sector has been given priority, there is lot more to be done.
Farmers still have to depend heavily on a good monsoon for their crops.
The agricultural output is still far from satisfactory and completely
dependent on monsoon. Keeping these facts in mind, this year’s
budget has had greater focus on the irrigation sector. The Accelerated
Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) introduced in 1996-97 could not
deliver the desired result. Out of 178 large and medium irrigation
projects, only 28 have been completed. This year’s budget allocation
for AIBP is Rs. 2,800 crores.
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Published
in the Times of India, Ahmedabad Edition on 7th June, 2004.
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Water,
water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!
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South
Gujarat, the area south of the Narmada comprises twenty per
cent of the state’s area, but it has 80 per cent of the
water resources. All perennial rivers, except the Mahi are located
in south Gujarat. Narmada and Tapi, two of the biggest west
flowing rivers of midland India drain into the Arabian Sea.
This being the case, any talk of water shortage, that too of
drinking water, in this part would appear ludicrous. But then
this is woefully the truth. In the past five years, south Gujarat
in general and Surat in particular have been experiencing drinking
water shortage. When you say drinking water shortage, it is
not that of availability. If you dig 25 ft anywhere, except
the undulating tribal terrain, you will strike water. But then
it is not potable. Some seven years back the total dissoluble
solids (TDS) were around 250 particles per million (PPM). This
was a permissible limit for water to be potable. But gradually
the TDS value has been increasing. Three years back it was around
2000 in Surat and nearby villages. This year the TDS in coastal
village water is around 6000. Thus this water is totally useless
not only for drinking but even for other domestic use. Several
housing societies in Surat had their own sources (bores), which
have become useless because of high TDS. Saline and other dissoluble
solids have increased so much that you cannot even bathe with
this water. Soaps cannot form lather and it induces hair loss.
There is ample rain in the tribal areas of south Gujarat. Dharampur
and Dangs average 80 inches. Even then you have drinking water
shortage in summer. Earlier, when vegetation cover was better,
the land used to sustain the rain water. Now because of scanty
vegetation coverage, the rain water simply flows down to the
Arabian Sea. The rising population in south Gujarat, increased
domestic consumption, water intensive crop pattern and industries
having perennial water treatment have led to water shortage.
Then there is over drawing of ground water. This shortage in
coastal area has also been followed by salinity ingress resulting
in increased TDS. There is, however, no salinity ingress in
tribal areas. Authorities take steps which are ad hoc in nature.
Merely purifying saline water by reverse osmosis does not help
much. Brine, which comes out as effluent, creates further water
pollution increasing salinity of the ground water. This is a
vicious circle. District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA) in
these parts have come out with rain water harvesting plans.
But dominated as they are by civil engineering men, their vision
does not go beyond checkdams. Several methods of cheap water
harvesting are not accepted by DRDA. Unless there is a paradigm
shift in our water policy and programmes, the water problem
will persist. What a pity! (Source: Times News Network)
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The program is now being restructured .The projects which can be completed
by March 2005 will be given top most priority while the projects which
can be completed by March 2006 will also be taken up during current
fiscal. From next year onwards, the government will focus on the remaining
projects with the same logic as above. Rural Infrastructure Development
Fund (RIDF) that was initiated by NABARD in 1994-95 will again be
revived. Rs. 8000 crores have been allocated allocated for RIDF and
guidelines have been revised. Only on-going Irrigation, Flood Protection,
Watershed Management projects were financed under RIDF-I as a ‘last
mile approach’ to facilitate completion of the projects delayed
on account of financial constraints. The financing of rural Road &
Bridge projects was started during RIDF-II. Subsequently, coverage
of RIDF was broad-based and at present, a wide range of activities
covered include the Rain Water Harvesting and Rural Drinking Water
Supply Scheme. Hon’ble Minister of Finance has a big dream. His
dream is to restore all the water bodies in this country back to their
glories and augment the storage capacity of these water bodies by
100%. He has proposed the following action plan for restoring water
bodies, which can revolutionize the landscape of this country, can
bring smiles to its crores of thirsty Indians....
....contd.
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