WATER- the most 'underpriced' resource

The Deputy Chairperson of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on Wednesday said

• Water is the most 'underpriced resource' of the country and called for setting up of a regulatory mechanism to ensure rational water use.
• Voicing concern over the increasing scarcity of water, Ahluwalia asserted there was an acute lack of awareness among people about sustainable usage of resources.
• "Water is the most seriously under-priced resource in the country. I mean if you were to do any kind of economic costing, many people are assuming that water itself has no value, that the only thing, the cost, is the cost of the pipe and the cost of collecting it," said Ahluwalia.
• "But water is becoming scarce. It has an opportunity cost," he added.

Ahluwalia further highlighted the need to

• Initiate and set up water regulation systems and institutions to prevent a possible disaster.

 "I mean, we should do better pricing of water. But actually, the prices that would be needed in order to bring about rational water use are far too high. So, it has to be some form of regulatory control. Even the legal basis for this regulatory control does not exist," he said.
 The issue of water remains a crucial flashpoint within India as well as with its neighbouring countries. For instance, India and Bangladesh continue to be at loggerheads over the distribution of water from the River Ganges that flows through both countries. (ANI)

How to increase Water User Efficiency in Irrigation Sector

How to increase Water User Efficiency in Irrigation Sector

Some of the management practices that need to be taken up in right earnest are

• Implementation of restructured CAD&WM programme in States
• Participatory irrigation management (PIM), modernisation of irrigation system
• Rationalization of water rates
• Benchmarking of irrigation systems
• Conjunctive use of surface and ground water
• On farm management, etc.

Africa and Water Resources Management (WRM)

• Water management is critical for meeting Africa’s development challenges.
• Though water is vital for agriculture, only about 7 per cent of Africa’s cultivated land is irrigated.
• Hydropower is also largely undeveloped in Africa; less than 10 per cent of its potential has been tapped.
• Water for people and animals is vital for survival and livelihoods, yet only 58 per cent of Africans have access to safe drinking water.
• In addition, the majority of people in Africa live in countries which share water with other countries, such as the riparian countries of the Gambia, Nile, Niger, Senegal, Zambezi, Volta and Congo River basins. They are amongst the poorest and most food insecure countries in the world, in regions that are highly vulnerable to water shocks, including recurrent floods and droughts.
• In addition to natural climate variation in Africa there is an urgent need to determine and mitigate the potential impacts of climate change and to ensure that growth and poverty reduction efforts result in resilience to climate change. The centrality of shared waters in Africa has motivated many countries to seek regional cooperation through river basin organizations.

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Source : World Bank's site

“Sustaining Water for All in a Changing Climate” (2010)- implementation progress report

The implementation progress report “Sustaining Water for All in a Changing Climate” (2010) reaffirms the strategic directions for the World Bank Group’s approach to supporting water resources management. Itemphasizes a water development agenda that is integrated with energy, climate, agriculture, land use, and overall economic development and the importance of tackling institutional reforms along with infrastructure upgrades.
World Bank - water-resources-management- Page Link

Download this 117 page Report in pdf form
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World Bank lending in Water Resources Management (WRM) has doubled since 2009. WRM is emerging as a driving theme in the Bank’s portfolio, having increased from $274 million in 2006 to $2.0 billion in 2011. 
This funding has responded to the need to address both development and management issues by promoting integrated water resources planning, and by tackling institutional reforms along with infrastructure upgrades for various sectors in the context of green, climate-resilient growth. These issues include flood management, hydropower, agricultural water management, pollution control, transboundary water management and climate change adaptation.
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World Bank Projects in South Asia

http://water.worldbank.org/water/wb_projects?title=&regionname[]=SOUTH+ASIA

Publications on Water Resources Management

Publications on Water Resources Management

National Water Policy - An alternative draft for consideration by Ramaswamy R Iyer - Economic and Political Weekly

National Water Policy - An alternative draft for consideration by Ramaswamy R Iyer - Economic and Political Weekly

Mother of All Links related to " Water Resources" at global level

Mother of All Links related to " Water Resources" at global level

ICOLD Book on " Dams & the World Water"

ICOLD Book on " Dams & the World Water"

Conjunctive Use of GroundWater and SurfaceWater

World Bank Site says

"Conjunctive water use refers to simultaneous use of surface water and groundwater to meet crop demand. 

To optimize conjunctive use of water, the best way forward is to concentrate on capacity building of irrigation system managers to improve system management and reshape hydraulic infrastructure of large and small-surface systems.

To sustain groundwater use in tube well-irrigated areas, enhancing recharge from precipitation and surface water imports is necessary. 

None of these improvements can be made without the proper institutional and organizational development, including investment in the capacities of local governments to lead on participatory groundwater management and integrated water resources management. "

 For more info :

CONJUNCTIVE USE OF GROUNDWATER AND SURFACE WATER

Global changes and water resources

Global changes and water resources

 

-How climatic and human-induced changes will affect the world’s water resources.

-It has been difficult, even with current technology, to accurately assess the state of world water resources.

- There is no carefully maintained and clear record of global hydrologic change by which to judge the cumulative impact of human activities on the world’s freshwater and coastal support systems...

-While process-based hydrological research remains successful on a small scale, there is a critical need for synthesis studies of complex drainage basins on continental or global domains. This need has provided the impetus for several major international and national observational and modelling programmes.

-more on these studies at  unesco site

 

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of ecosystems and the environment.
 

IWRM is emerging as an accepted alternative to the sector-by-sector, top-down management style that has dominated in the past.

The basis of IWRM is that

• The many different uses of finite water resources are interdependent. (High irrigation demands and polluted drainage flows from agriculture mean less freshwater for drinking or industrial use; contaminated municipal and industrial wastewater pollutes rivers and threatens ecosystems; if water has to be left in a river to protect fisheries and ecosystems, less can be diverted to grow crops.)  There are plenty more examples of the basic theme that unregulated use of scarce water resources is wasteful and inherently unsustainable.

• Integrated Water Resources Management is a cross-sectoral policy approach, designed to replace the traditional, fragmented sectoral approach to water resources and management that has led to poor services and unsustainable resource use.

• IWRM is based on the understanding that water resources are an integral component of the ecosystem, a natural resource, and a social and economic good.

http://globalwaterpartnership.wordpress.com/what-is-iwrm/

Pay Attention to Water Issues- Some thoughts

• If you want to feed the world—and contribute to poverty reduction, human health, and economic prosperity—pay attention to water.
• How can we feed a burgeoning population? Agriculture already uses some 70% of the world’s water. So if food production has to increase to feed today’s population (not to mention tomorrow’s), the stress on water resources will only get worse. How will we meet our energy needs?  productivity issues? climate change issues on say wheat, rice?
• Again, it’s about water. How will we eliminate many water borne diseases?
• Water resources management is about a host of issues such as government policy, financing, allocation, transboundary conflict, and the ecosystem. 
• Sustainable development will not be achieved without a water secure world.
• A water secure world harnesses water’s productive power and minimises its destructive force. It is a world where every person has enough safe, affordable water to lead a clean, healthy and productive life. It is a world where communities are protected from floods, droughts, landslides, erosion and water-borne diseases. Water security also means addressing environmental protection and the negative effects of poor management.
• A water secure world reduces poverty, advances education, and increases living standards. It is a world where there is an improved quality of life for all, especially for the most vulnerable—usually women and children—who benefit most from good water governance.

http://globalwaterpartnership.wordpress.com/manage-water/

THE IMPORTANCE OF HYDROLOGICAL DATA

THE IMPORTANCE OF HYDROLOGICAL
DATA

Hydrological observations are, in a broad sense, a method of clarifying

quantitatively each process in the water cycle, encompassing
an extremely wide range of phenomena. The prevention of disasters
caused by floods and droughts would be impossible without
rational forecasting technology based on an understanding of the
rainfall runoff phenomenon and statistical analysis of past hydrological
data, which cannot be achieved without hydrological
observations.

And whether intentional or not, human, social and
economic activities have a great impact on the hydrological cycle.
For example, large-scale changes in land use and/or the construction
of structures intended to control the hydrological cycle
change natural runoff patterns. It is extremely important to collect
and to analyse hydrological data continuously over long periods of
time in order to evaluate these effects and to take appropriate mitigation
measures.
Thanks to the rapid growth of data communication
networks in recent years, it is now possible to use these networks
to disseminate hydrological data and allow its on-line use by the
public. Information of this kind is extremely beneficial, because,
when a disaster is forecasted or actually occurs, users can obtain

real-time data and analyse it appropriately in order to prevent or to
minimize the disaster.
The accumulation and active use of hydrological data in
this way plays an extremely important role in total watershed
management, including flood control, water use and environmental
conservation.

Source: Hydrological Data Management  Present State and Trends--

3 good books from WMO

• WMO (1994) Guide to Hydrological Practices, 5th ed., WMO-No. 168. Chapters 20, 21.
• WMO (Terakawa, A) (2003) Hydrological Data Management: Present State and Trends, WMO-No. 964. (Available through http://www.wmo.int/).
• WMO (2008) Guide to Meteorological Instruments and Methods of Observation, 7th ed., (Available through http://www.wmo.int/