The famous English poet Wystan Hugh Auden had\nonce rightly said that \u201cWater is the soul of earth\u201d as all prominent\ncivilisations such as the Indus Valley Civilisation, the Mesopotamian\nCivilisation have come up on the banks of the Indus and Nile rivers. The land\nalong the rivers was very fertile and all these civilisations have reaped the\nbenefits of the life giving properties of the river and its fertile land. Water\nplays a vital role in the human life. It can be used for domestic purposes as\nwell as industrial purposes. The importance of water can be judged from the\nfact that we have witnessed some international conflicts such as the Jordan\nriver conflict between Israel, Lebanon and Jordan and the Nile river conflict\nbetween Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan as well as the national conflicts like\nHogenakkal Dam issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. A good water supply\nensures a good harvest and increases the revenue of a country like India where\nagriculture contributes around 17-18% to the GDP and employs over 50% of the\nworkforce. As a result the irrigation projects have seen an increased\nallocation in the Union Budget 2018-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India is a land of rivers which can be grouped\nunder two categories\u2014Himalayan Rivers and Peninsular Rivers. The Himalayan\nRivers are fed by the glacier and flow in the Northern Plains. As a result they\nare a useful source of irrigation. On the other hand the Peninsular Rivers are\nfed by rains. Since the rainfall in the country varies so does the water level\nin these rivers. This variation in rainfall has given rise to a need of water\nconservation projects. The severity of this development can be gauged from the\nfact that Tamil Nadu and Karnataka faced drought-like conditions in 2017 whereas\nAssam and Manipur were flooded due to incessant rains. India received a 12.9%\ndeficient rain in 2014-15 and 14% deficiency of rain was recorded in 2015-16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deficiency and seasonal fluctuation in rains\naffect irrigation in a negative manner. Irrigation in India includes a network\nof major and minor canals but according to the World Bank report of 2013 two\nthirds of cultivated land still relies on the erratic monsoon as an irrigation\nsource. The irrigation in India is carried out through wells, tube-wells and\ncanals. Well irrigation accounts for more than 60% but greater parts of\npeninsular India cannot implement this scheme because of the rocky terrain. On\nthe other hand, tubewell irrigation is cheap and the nutrient rich ground water\nincreases the fertility of soil but this scheme cannot be implemented in areas\nwith brackish water or in the areas with low ground water supply. Though canal\nirrigation proves cheaper in long run, it is suitable only for plain areas as\nthe construction costs escalate in rocky areas. Moreover, the excessive flow of\nwater into the fields leads to deposition of alkaline salts in the soil. Due to these disadvantages of the\nconventional techniques, there is a need of new irrigation techniques that will\nreduce the wastage of water. Drip irrigation and sand bore irrigation are such\ntechnologies which aim to minimise the water wastage. In drip irrigation, the\nwater is directly delivered to the root of plants in the form of drops. Drip\nirrigation has showed a reduction of 20-40% for crops such as sugarcane and\ncotton. On the other hand sand bores utilise water from a depth of 30 feet\nwithout adversely affecting the groundwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Central Government in Union Budget 2018-19\nhas allotted Rs. 9,429 crore to the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.\nThis scheme which was launched in 2015 focuses on achieving precise irrigation\nand minimal wastage of water. This scheme also comprises of a sub component\ncalled \u2018Har Khet ko Paani\u2019 which aims at developing groundwater irrigation in 96\ndistricts where less than 30% of land is assured of irrigation. Israel is a\nwell established leader in the field of water management, desalination and\nrecycling techniques. Under the \u2018Make in India\u2019 scheme, technology transfer of\nthe innovative Israeli irrigation techniques combined with support from Israeli\nagronomists has led to cheap and affordable irrigation solutions for the\nfarmers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solution to solve water crisis is to make\nrain water harvesting compulsory for all buildings. Tamil Nadu was the first\nstate to implement this law in 2001. Other states such as Maharashtra have\nfollowed suit. Pune has made rain water harvesting compulsory for buildings.\nOther innovative and cheap solutions like rain water syringe which provides\npure drinking water can be encouraged in rural areas. Alternative measures to\nimprove water conservation would be to impose fine on parties that are involved\nin wastage of water. The Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi has increased\nthe tariff over water usage over 20,000 litres by 20%. This would lead to\nreduced water theft cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More\nfunds should be released for the research and development of drought tolerant\ncrops which consume less water. Currently these seeds were developed under the\nproject \u2018Water Efficient Maize for Africa\u2019, an initiative supported by Bill and\nMelinda Gates Foundation. A similar project could pave a revolution in India in\nthe field of food security as maize is the third most important crop of India\nafter rice and wheat. Implementation of water saving agronomic steps would also\nsolve India\u2019s irrigation woes. For example, direct seeding of rice reduces the\nwater consumption by 30% compared to the flooded transplantation of rice.\nProactive encouragement of technology adoption coupled with incentives for\ninnovative irrigation techniques mentioned in the preceding paragraphs would\nlead to success. Some of these methods have been discussed for long but all\nthat we need now is a singular focus toward their implementation to solve the\nimpending water crisis.\n\nAt present, India accounts for 25% of extraction of groundwater. India\nis ranked first on this list. The groundwater usage has increased from a mere 7\ncubic kilometre, in 1940 to a whopping 270 cubic kilometre, in the past decade.\nAccording to Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, Executive Director of Advanced Centre for\nWater Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM) it would take at least 30\nyears to restore the groundwater to normal levels. To make matters worse,\naccording to him there are no proper records for water usage by industries\nwhich is often clubbed with domestic usage. Thomas Fuller once said \u2018We never\nknow the worth of water until the well is dry\u2019 which holds true for the\npresent. It is high time and if steps are not taken towards water conservation we\nwould be staring at a very dark and bleak future.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The famous English poet Wystan Hugh Auden had once rightly said that \u201cWater is the soul of earth\u201d as all prominent civilisations such as the Indus Valley Civilisation, the Mesopotamian Civilisation have come up on the banks of the Indus and Nile rivers. The land along the rivers was very fertile and all these civilisations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}