Integrated management of water resources in the National Capital Region-Delhi

Abstract

Competing demands between various sectors of water users such as agriculture, industry, urban and domestic use have put enormous pressure on the fresh water availability in India. Some investigations have shown that the per capita availability of water has gone down drastically in the last few decades. Yet, there is a little evidence to show that measures are being drawn up either to augment fresh water resources or to manage existing resource equitably. The reasons usually cited for the decline of water availability are deforestation, intensive water use in agriculture, growing population etc. Remedies must therefore be addressed to all these issues. However, there is an urgent need to look at the opportunities available in a country which is said to have had a riverine civilization and one which has the blessings of intensive precipitation during the monsoon months. Thus, on the one hand there are enormous possibilities available in rationalising water use in the agriculture sector, recycling water for industrial use and harnessing monsoon precipitation through water harvesting on a very large scale. It is also necessary to look at some of the policy aspects, legal aspects and financial aspects of water management. For instance, it needs to be asked whether official policy of conjunctive use of surface and ground water is being followed adequately. Also it needs to be asked whether, given that water is a State subject, there is adequate coordination among the States in order to facilitate optimalities in water use. In this context, it may be useful to re-evaluate all the existing inter-State water agreements which were drawn up several decades ago. Further, it needs to be investigated whether the moneys being spent on different aspects of water management such as inter-basin transfers, dam and canal construction, ground water management etc. are being done in a manner that is economically justifiable. Simultaneously, the existing fiscal mechanism in relation to water use should also be reexamined to see the future scope of making water use economically viable.