With only a few elders left, all other have migrated from this drought-hit village in Anantpur.
“Congratulations to all ... we have achieved 50 degree temperature this year. Let’s cut more trees to achieve 60 degrees the next year,” a sarcasm-speaking tweet the other day had come as a jolt. It was however hard to tell whether the quiet sarcasm had gone over majority of reader’s head who are following the Twitter or had made more and more people to sit up and think.
Whatever had been the impact, the fact remains that while 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record in the past 140 years since the world began to keep a track on temperatures, NASA expects 2019 to be still hotter. The heat is therefore on. In India, a 22 per cent deficit has been recorded in pre-monsoon showers in the months of March, April and May – the second lowest in past 65 years – and with monsoons delayed by a fortnight or so, daily temperatures have been sizzling. Churu in Rajasthan has already crossed 50 degrees Celsius thrice this season, and even Delhi burnt with an all-time high of 48 degrees.
With nearly 43 per cent of the country engulfed in a drought, an estimated 600 million people are reeling under its fury. With temperatures soaring, water sources going dry, parched lands staring as far as one can see, “hundreds of villages have been evacuated as historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water,” reports The Guardian. In Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, such is the wrath of a continuing drought that more than 50,000 farmers have shifted to 500 camps meant for cattle. There are 1,501 cattle camps in Maharashtra, where 72 per cent of the area is faced with a drought. Reports say village after village around the capital city of Mumbai has been deserted. More than 88 per cent of Karnataka is somehow surviving under a severe drought. With 156 of the 176 talukas declared drought hit, Karnataka has faced 12 years of drought in past 18 years.
Karnataka’s economic survey for the year 2018-19 projects a negative growth rate of minus 4.8 per cent in agriculture. Therefore, while drought has taken a heavy toll of standing agricultural crops, and also crippled the farming-led economic activity not only in Karnataka but in nearly half the country, adequate attention is finally getting to the declining ground water levels. With the conundrums of water conflicts between states, between communities within a state, and as well as individuals standing in queues increasing over the years, policy makers are now realising the importance of water conservation. Already an alarm has been raised with a recent report by Niti Aayog warning that 21 cities – including the four metropolises -- Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi -- will run out of ground water by 2020, just a year-and-half away. Since ground water provides for 40 per cent of the water needs, about 600 million people across the country are expected to be hit.
But the problem of ground water depletion is not only confined to the cities. In fact, it is because of the unbridled exploitation of ground water that even a short dry spell turns into a more destructive drought. At most places across the country the rate of depletion exceeds 0.5 metres a year and often touches 1 metre. Add to it the reduced availability of water from shrinking rivers; the resulting water crisis has reached worrying levels. Reports say the water availability from the mighty Narmada River for instance has declined over the past decade, from 30.84 million-acre feet in 2007-18 to 14.80 million-acre ft in 2017-18. Ministry of Water Resources estimates water levels in 91 reservoirs falling to 18 per cent of their capacity. Moreover, water from numerous dams is being diverted from agriculture to meet the needs of the urban areas, including providing for drinking water. This has added on to farmer protests leading to rural-urban conflicts.
Somehow down the line, over the years, the emphasis had shifted from water conservation, water harvesting and groundwater recharge. Revival of traditional water bodies, which could have played a major role in drought-proofing, received lip service. Restoration of ponds and measures for recharging groundwater remained incomplete, abandoned or preceded at a slow pace. There still exists close to 200,000 traditional water bodies, ponds and tanks across the country, which needs to be revived. In Punjab, where 110 of the 138 blocks are in the ‘dark zone’ which means over-exploited, revival of the 15,000 ponds and traditional water bodies could not only help in recharging ground water but also in providing irrigation. So far only 54 such village ponds have been rejuvenated. Strangely, even in Rajasthan, instead of reviving the excellent water conservation structures perfected over the ages, the emphasis is on drip irrigation. Not even a drop of rain water was allowed to go waste in these baoris (step wells). In Karnataka, an estimated 39,000 traditional ponds and tanks existed. While nearly three quarters of them have dried up, encroached upon or turned into sewerage dumps, there is still a sizeable number that can be revived. Meanwhile, Karnataka has launched a jalamruthascheme under which the traditional water bodies would be rejuvenated. A good initiative, but the pace of resurrecting traditional water bodies needs to be hastened.
Traditional water harvesting structures have more or less disappeared. Although Karnataka is trying to preserve the traditional water harvesting structure – kalyanis, Odisha has the kutta and mundatraditional water harvesting systems, some still in operation, but the traditional wisdom association with the traditional water harvesting system has been more or less lost. Several years back, travelling to Texas A&M University in America, I was surprised when they showed me the traditional water harvesting structures of Tamil Nadu being followed. I am not sure whether the Tamil Nadu government knows about its own traditional water harvesting system. Centre for Science & Environment had sometimes back published a book Dying Wisdom listing all the traditional water harvesting systems. There is a dire need to rediscover the dying wisdom.
India is drying up, fast. The Tribune. June 18, 2019
https://www.tribuneindia.com/
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