India's Gujarat state shows the way to water management
By Nilesh Shukla/The Pioneer
Under the leadership of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, India's Gujarat state has emerged as a model to emulate in water management. Gujarat is the only State where groundwater levels have considerably increased over the last eight years. This is seen in the data put out by the Central Ground Water Board.
Over 5.5 lakh water management structures have been created over the last 10 years, which include check dams, boribands and khet talavadis. Besides this, 4.5 lakh hectares of land covered under micro-irrigation schemes have resulted in the highest decadal agricultural growth rate of 10.97 per cent in the period 2000-01 to 2009-10.
Gujarat is among the front-runners in the country in taking up new techniques in water harvesting, water harnessing and water management. One of the remotest villages of Gujarat, named Eval, in Patan district, has reported wonderful results in a mere one year's time, to become a model village for the rest of India.
Once a parched village where farmers could only dream of a lowly pearl millet, Eval today has every farmer cultivating castor and cumin. The average productivity of cumin varies from six to eight quintals/ hectare, while for castor it is 25-30 quintals/ hectare.
Overcoming a challenging situation, where 20 per cent of the State's area had 71 per cent of water resource and the rest of the area had had to do with 29 per cent of water resource, Gujarat speeded up rainwater harvesting, replenishing the rapidly depleting groundwater levels which led to water security and sustainability.
Mr Modi has taken water resources management to the people's doorstep, down to the village-level through Water and Sanitation Management Organisation's participatory distribution system - the United Nations award-winning initiative of the State.
Gujarat State Watershed Management Agency is the nodal agency to implement the Integrated Watershed Management Programme across Gujarat. The main aims of the IWMP are to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water.
The outcomes proposed are prevention of soil run-off, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain-water harvesting and recharging of the groundwater table. This is expected to enable multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed area.
Mr Modi's vision of Jal Shakti to Jal Kranti has led to watershed development, construction of check dams, farm ponds and methods to obstruct the flow of water through cement-filled bags, spearheading a people's movement and showing a futuristic approach to water harvesting and conserving water for the future.
Right from the planning phase of the project, scientific tools have been used to ensure accuracy and efficiency. The approach followed for planning involves: Creation, development and management of geo-spatial data base depicting present conditions of land, water and vegetation with respect to watershed under different ownerships at village level; compatible socio-economic aspects and their analysis; and historical perspective land-water treatment of the area. The working module developed by the Gujarat State Watershed Management Agency has also been widely appreciated.
A total of 21.34 lakh hectares with an outlay of Rs 2769.72 crore have been covered under IWMP for the implementation of the project. For effective monitoring, Geographical Information System has been put to use.
Processes have been standardised and, accordingly, technical manual, capacity building manual, human resource manual, livelihood manual and operational guidelines have been framed and operationalised.
It has been made mandatory that these projects converge with other schemes and programmes to bridge the fund gap and remove duplication in work. Convergence worth Rs 283.02 crore had been taken up for the projects sanctioned in 2009-10.
For the first time in the watershed programme, livelihood activities have been included to extend benefits to landless and asset-less people of the project area. A livelihood action plan is being implemented across the State. Batch-wise budgetary allocation for livelihood is $50 million, $43 million and $45 million for projects sanctioned in the year 2009-10, 2010-11 and also 2011-12 respectively.
The outcome of the watershed programme has been impressive. A study conducted by the Gujarat Institute of Development Research for the National Institute for Rural Development recently has provided the following impacts of Watershed Development Programme: Around 90 per cent of watersheds report increase in ground water by more than one metre; 88 per cent of watersheds have reported reduction in soil loss by more than 25 per cent.
Also, 85 per cent of watersheds have reported more than 100 per cent increase in cropping intensity; 60 per cent watersheds have reported an increase in cereal yield by more than 50 per cent; and, 62 per cent reported increase in yield of more than 25 per cent of cash crops; 93 per cent of watersheds have reported an increase in employment in terms of labour days.
The initiatives being taken by the Narendra Modi-led Government in Gujarat in watershed management programme have been recognised by even the Union Government. The Prime Minister's award for excellence in public administration conferred on Civil Service Day 2012, went to Gujarat.
The success of water management programmes in Gujarat is a lesson for all States.
Send Feedback/Contribution |
Print this page













