Effectiveness of Watershed Management- Means Of Economical Development- A Case Study

Abstract

Water is the life-blood of the environment, without water no living beings can survive. Water plays unique role in development of all sectors in any economy of every country. Water is used for agricultural, domestic, industrial, power generation and other various purposes. But misuses of water resources cause widespread degradation of soil and disrupt the supply of potable water, generate massive economical loss. Hence it becomes necessary to harness the water resources available on Earth through the application of science and technology. This paper presents one such case study where large amount of rainwater is possible to direct to recharge ground water resources. Kaneri is a small village located at distance of 10 Kms. from Kolhapur city. It is planned to take such engineering and biological measures which will direct this extra runoff to ground water storage. The most significant feature of the work is that if such technologies are developed and adopted at larger scale in rural areas, it will prevent thousands of villages of the country from water supply by tankers. Moreover this will also help us for economical development of village people which mainly occurs due to water scarcity. Keywords Watershed, Watershed management technique, Socio- economic survey, Water budgeting, Inter- cropping pattern, Farm pond, Gully plugs, Contour trench, Groundwater storage, Economical development. I. INTRODUCTION Rainwater, a scarce and critical resource for growing food and providing livelihood support for rural populations, is under threat particularly in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Rainfall in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) generally occurs in short torrential downpours. Most of this water is lost as run-off, eroding significant quantities of precious top soil. The current rainwater-use efficiency for crop production is low ranging from 30 to 45 percent; thus annually about 300-800 mm of seasonal rainfall goes unproductive, lost either as surface run-off or deep drainage. Generally, if the water availability in the region or state is less or equal to 1700 m 3 / person / year it experiences periodic water stress and if the availability is 1000 m 3 / person / year the state of region will be under water scarcity. The above norms reveal that northern part of India comes under water stress and southern parts of India experience water scarcity. The economical development and management of villages in India is one of the most important factors for the growth of Indian economy. India is the agriculture based country. Agriculture contributes nearly one- fifth of the gross domestic product in India. Most of the villagers of these areas have agriculture as their primary occupation. The traditional agricultural practices mainly depended on monsoon rains. Generally monsoon rainfalls occur between June and September months. But in spite of sufficient rainfall, people have to depend upon tankers even for their domestic water supply in summer. This is mainly due to large runoff which is responsible for water loss as well as soil loss of the land. A raindrop, when flows along the slope, carries the loose soil along it. In this case the topmost layer of soil is lost rapidly. Due to high intensity rainfall, it is estimated that, more than 100 tons of soil is lost. By having soil and land management along with the water management thus developing watersheds, economical development of rural area is possible. This paper gives case study of Kaneri village, which is 10 km away from Kolhapur city (Maharashtra). In Kaneri village, requirement of water for farming is very high but there is depletion of water resources. So reduce crop yield and income from agricultural activity is low. There is increasing demand of drinking water, food, and firewood for people and fodder for livestock. Peoples have to depend on supply of water by tankers. So it has become necessary to develop the means to storage of runoff and recharge ground water resources which are essentials for improving living standard of people.