Context: This editorial is based on the news “A looming crisis: How India can balance its water demand and supply across sectors?” which was published in the Financial Express. To improve water management India needs to adopt a comprehensive approach rather than policies in silos, since it is critical to our food and energy needs.

Balancing Water Management Across Food, Land, and Energy Sectors

• The food, land, water and energy sectors are critically interlinked, and action on one of these sectors without careful consideration of the trade-offs in the other sectors could lead to detrimental impacts. 
  • For Example: The impacts of such one-track policies during India’s Green Revolution, such as power subsidies for groundwater irrigation in Punjab and Haryana, are still visible.

A Closer Look at India’s Agricultural Water Crisis

• In 2020, while India’s domestic sector required 54,000 billion litres of water, the agriculture sector needed 14 times more—776,000 billion liters.
• According to estimates by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), the agriculture sector will account for 87% of India’s water demand by 2030. 

Steps to Improve India’s Water Management and Water Security

• Elevating Agricultural Sustainability: Governments in the states should scale up improved on-farm irrigation and water practices such as precision agriculture, micro-irrigation and mulching.
• Holistic Nexus: Food, land, water and energy policies should integrate the nexus at all stages—design, implementation, monitoring and impact evaluation.
• Strengthening Policy Planning and Coordination: An independent body within the government could guide the planning process of schemes and policies administered by nexus-relevant ministries like the ministry of jal shakti, ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, ministry of new and renewable energy, ministry of petroleum and natural gas, and ministry of power.
• Scaling up community-managed groundwater practices: Scale up community-managed groundwater practices to make this critical resource sustainable. 
  • For Example: In Atal Bhujal Yojana whereby planning for water security and necessary data are to be collected at the gram panchayat level by the community.

Also Refre: India Will Be Losing Groundwater Three Times Faster In 2041-2080

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