Food for Thought in India

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203513204576047541282652696.html 

It is time for India's government to put its money where its mouth is. 

New Delhi has raised some $30 billion since March by selling state assets and telecom airwaves. That is about as much as the country will attract in foreign direct investment this fiscal year.

The neglect of India's farms threatens the nation's economic future.

There is one area above all else where this money should be directed: food security. New Delhi talks a lot about guaranteeing food for India's poor, but there's a need for smart investment to address fundamental problems. 

The neglect of India's farms poses a significant threat to the nation's economic future, not least through inflation. The persistence of double-digit increases in food prices earlier this year, regardless of weather, has made clear this is a structural problem.

Meanwhile, lagging productivity in agriculture is contributing to income inequality. The sector employs 52% of India's work force but the farm economy is growing at a rate of less than 2% a year. That is half its rate of growth in the late 1980s and 1990s. Yet GDP growth in agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty, compared with similar growth in other sectors, the World Bank estimates.

India's problems lie with infrastructure. A plan to target irrigation would be particularly compelling; 60% of India's farmland still depends on rainfall for its water needs. The Ministry of Agriculture's total annual budget, including spending on the development of such infrastructure, stands at just $4.6 billion, or 2% of India's annual budget. 

Building more storage capacity is equally important, so that millions of tons of food grain don't rot in open fields. The good news here is that foreign retailers, which would build their own cold-storage capacity, are eager to enter India. And government co-investment and tax incentives would go a long way toward speeding up investment.

Building up research facilities and setting up education programs would be more fruitful than other handouts. For example, New Delhi subsidizes fertilizers, but fails to educate farmers on how to use them properly. The resulting overuse is actually reducing crop yields.

India's successive governments have been criticized for not delivering on promises to make India's economic growth more inclusive and sustainable. They should use the recent financial windfall to change that.

On drawing board, WB-funded water project for 12 cities

India has decided to utilise a $1-billion loan from the World Bank to start round-the-clock paid water supply facilities in 12 major cities across the country. The union urban development ministry plans to launch the 24x7 water supply project on a pilot basis by 2012. "We are discussing the modalities of the project with the World Bank, which has given in-principle approval to the $1 billion worth of assistance. We are in the process of finalising the list of cities where the project will be launched," a ministry official told HT. 

The selected cities would have to adopt mandatory reforms like levy of user charges for consumption, and installing a metering system to check wastage, added the official. 

Sources said funds would start coming in by 2012, when the new five-year plan begins.

The project is, however, not an extension of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) — the ministry's flagship urban modernisation programme — that was launched in 2005 for a seven-year period with a total investment of Rs 1 lakh crore. Till date, 63 cities are part of the JNNURM.

"Though the broad outline of the programme would be similar to that of the JNNURM, but it is not going to be as broad-based because of limited funds. We will use the funds to modernise the water infrastructure," said another official.

A World Health Organization report has said that by 2017, India will become "water stressed" when the per capita availability will decline to 1600 cubic metre.

At present only two cities in the country — Jamshedpur and Nagpur — have 24x7 piped water supply systems. Only about 66% of the population in India has access to piped water.

A huge quantum of potable water gets wasted because of leakage on account of old and worn-out water pipelines, which has also resulted in inequitable distribution.

Water, crying for attention -The Hindu

Water, crying for attention

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Even though the National Water Policy 2002 addressed the various issues pertaining to sustainable development and efficient management of water resources, the ground level action after eight years is short on results but long on roll-out of a multiplicity of programmes.

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G. Srinivasan
New Delhi, Dec. 29

On the water front, the writing on the wall is crystal clear with international institutions highlighting in recent years water-related issues and challenges in India's water sector and calling for timely action to recover the fast depleting resource that is a basic human necessity.
Latest in the litany of woes on the country's water front, after the World Bank and the World Economic Forum's lament, has come from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).
In a a draft ‘Water Operational Framework 2011-2020' ADB stated that “the Bank will be challenged by the water stress that dominate large parts of Asia, manifest most clearly in countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam”.
It explicitly cautioned that water shortages are likely to aggregate 40 per cent in developing Asia by 2030 and that in some countries such as India demand will exceed supply by 50 per cent.
While the data gleaned by the ADB were from Water Resources Group, which estimated the aggregate 2030 demand and supply at 1,498 billion cubic meters (BCM) and 744 BCM respectively, the country's National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development (NCIWRD) has assessed that “with the desired efficiencies, the water requirement by 2050 could be brought down to about 1,180 BCM in a high demand scenario.
It needs to be noted that the average annual water availability is estimated at 1,869 BCM.
The increase in population over the years has indubitably reduced the per capita availability. Whereas in 1951, the per capita water availability was 5,177 cubic metre a year, the per capita availability based on the population in 2001 census works out to be about 1,820 cubic metre a year.
As the 2011 Census findings will be known on April 1, the per capita availability of water would have definitely come down further.
As the Ministry of Water Resources has conceded that in view of the topographical constraints and hydrological features the utilisable water has been assessed to be about 1,123 BCM, NCIWRD projects the water requirement by about 843 BCM and 1180 BCM respectively provided the existing water resources are efficiently utilised.
Even though the National Water Policy 2002 addressed the various issues pertaining to sustainable development and efficient management of water resources, the ground level action after eight years is short on results but long on roll-out of a multiplicity of programmes and plan of actions purely as political gimmicks.
A House Panel report in April on inter-linking of rivers, deemed a crucial plank for providing a thrust to the whole water issue, has drawn attention to the fact that out of 30 identified links by the National Perspective Plan (NPP), the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for only one link, – the Ken-Betwa link – has been completed so far.
It said that though the DPRs for two other links, Par-Tapi-Narmada link and Damanganga-Pinjal link had been taken up in January 2009, the preparations of DPRs for remaining identified 27 links have not yet been taken up.
The nub of the matter is that though all the States had agreed to the inter-linking of river (ILR) programme in principle, problems did surface when it came to the brass-tacks and specifics of the issues of water sharing and other related benefits.
The long-pending Cauvery river water dispute between the riparian States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is only one instance of the intransigence, albeit the lofty proclamation of the National Water Policy that the water sharing/distribution among the States should be guided by a national perspective with due regard to water resources availability and needs within river basins.
Policy analysts say that ILR is only one component and there are vexatious developments such as the alarming rate of ground water depletion, lack of potable water to lakhs of poor villagers and pollution of major rivers by the dumping of industrial waste and other dregs.
Unless a national campaign to underscore conservation, spatial distribution across the country and recharging of water tables is evolved, the battle lines for water would get clearly drawn.
It is a sad reflection of the reality that only 12 States have adopted the State Water Policy with Delhi, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli having pitched for the National Water Policy.
Critics warn that in the absence of a concerted move crafted by consensus to address the serious water problems plaguing the country, the warfare on water would break out before long, offering scant comfort to a high growth economy.
geeyes@thehindu.co.in

India-centric model needed to study impact on water resources

India-centric model needed to study impact on water resources

Former secretary to the union ministry for  water resources, C D Thatte, has highlighted the need for developing an India-centric model to study the impact of climate change on the monsoon system and river basin-wise water resources.

"We have to scale down global models to suit Indian requirements," Thatte said while presenting a broad overview of the theme papers furnished by international and national experts for the Global Indian Scientists and Technocrats (GIST) forum's maiden convention on `Sustainable use of water resources', which began here on Sunday.

"The contribution of snow or glacier melt in the rivers in North India is not as critical as it is made out to be," said Thatte, who also heads the GIST's scientific programme committee. He acknowledged that the present trend does suggest that the climate change might lead to a "slight" increase in precipitation, but insisted that there was no need to set alarm bells ringing.

A general consensus emerges from the theme papers that India's water resources in year 2050 are likely to be adequate provided the country takes apt steps to mop up the existing water resources potential in the next two to three decades, he said. This includes improving the water use efficiency, which is of vastly varying nature at present, and promoting reuse and recycling of fresh water resources (FWRs), he added.

From the viewpoint of hydrology and climate change, the experts have made out a strong case for expeditious development of the Indus, Ganga and Bramhaputra FWRs; adopting measures for storages as per the National Water Mission and building defences against floods/droughts, said Thatte.

He also called for a better understanding of the limitations of measures like water shed development and rain water harvesting, which, he said, should not be viewed as a magic wand.

Among other things, the experts have called for quickly building the remaining irrigation infrastructure for sustaining food production and security, besides tapping the huge potential for hydro-power in the Himalayan rivers and working out trade-offs and going for carbon credits.

"The supply of FWR in urban areas is fair, but augmentation of quality and quantity of water required for rural areas is needed," said Thatte. Efforts are also required for removing the waste water treatment mismatch; adopting zero effluent strategy for industry and going for organised drainage of irrigated areas to check non-point source pollutants of agriculture, he said.

Madhav Chitale, also former union water resources secretary, said, "India's capability for handling climate change issues is steadily growing, but the country needs more effort to handle issues related to hydraulogy. Especially, issues like regulating technologies like drilling of ground water resources. The drilling technology has been at the root of depleting ground water levels."

Chitale called for measures to strengthen field research on water resources. "We are strong in terms of laboratory and campus research, but we are weak when it comes to field research. The university pattern of study needs to be realigned with field research aspects," he said.

State minister for water resources Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar said, "The GIST provides a perfect platform for the scientists and technocrats to come out with long-term policy solutions for an integrated way of dealing with water resources. This will help us integrate the solutions into our water policy for the state."

Read more: 'India-centric model needed to study impact on water resources' - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/India-centric-model-needed-to-study-impact-on-water-resources-/articleshow/7169024.cms#ixzz19cDdewqh

Understanding Conventional and DWLR Assisted Water Level Monitoring

1. CWC Document on "Understanding Conventional and DWLR Assisted Water Level Monitoring"-68 Pages
2. CGWB Site

The Hydrology Project has enabled construction of a large number of scientifically designed
piezometers tapping unconfined and the deeper aquifers. These piezometers have the
necessary hydraulic connection with the targeted aquifers and are suitably isolated from
overlying/underlying aquifers. Further, digital automatic water level recorders (DWLRs) are
installed in these piezometers. This ensures measurement of undistorted piezometric head
at the desired frequency, which may be much larger than the present frequency. In fact, the
frequency may be so high that the resulting piezometric hydrograph may almost be
continuous.