Sustainable Water Practices, Rainwater Harvesting, 

Watershed Conservation: The practice of using water more efficiently and responsibly to ensure its sustainable availability for current and future generations. It is a critical aspect of environmental stewardship, given that water is a finite resource and essential for various human activities, agriculture, industry, and ecosystems. 

• Watershed Management: Exploring Conservation and Community in Addressing Water Challenges 
  • Definition: It refers to efficient management and conservation of surface and groundwater resources. 
  • Enhancing Water Sustainability: It involves prevention of runoff and storage and recharge of groundwater through various methods like percolation tanks, recharge wells, etc. 
    • However, it includes conservation, regeneration and judicious use of all resources – natural (like land, water, plants and animals) and humans within a watershed.
  • Achieving Harmony: It aims at bringing about balance between natural resources on the one hand and society on the other. 

• • The success of watershed development largely depends upon community participation. 
  • Haryali is a watershed development project sponsored by the Central Government which aims at enabling the rural population to conserve water for drinking, irrigation, fisheries and afforestation. 
    • The Project is being executed by Gram Panchayats with people’s participation. 
  • Neeru-Meeru (Water and You) programme (in Andhra Pradesh) and Arvary Pani Sansad (in Alwar, Rajasthan) have taken up constructions of various water-harvesting structures such as percolation tanks, dug out ponds (Johad), check dams, etc. through people’s participation. 
  • There is a need to generate awareness regarding benefits of watershed development and management among people in the country, and through this integrated water resource management approach water availability can be ensured on a sustainable basis. 

• Rain Water harvesting: 
  • Rain water harvesting is a  low cost and eco-friendly method to capture and store rainwater for various uses. 
    • Benefits of rainwater harvesting: It is also used to recharge groundwater aquifers. 
      • It increases water availability, checks the declining groundwater table.
      • It improves the quality of groundwater through dilution of contaminants like fluoride and nitrates.
      • It prevents soil erosion, and flooding and arrests salt water intrusion in coastal areas if used to recharge aquifers within the watershed. 
      • It also decreases the community dependence on groundwater for domestic use. 
      • Besides bridging the demand supply gap, it can also save energy to pump groundwater as recharge leads to rise in groundwater table.  

• • Traditional Rainwater Harvesting Methods in the Watershed: In rural areas it is done by using surface storage bodies like lakes, ponds, irrigation tanks, etc. 
    • In hill and mountainous regions, people built diversion channels like the ‘guls’ or ‘kuls’ of the Western Himalayas for agriculture. 
    • A Kul: It is a circular village tank, from which water is released as and when required.
    • Lhadin and Johad: In arid and semi-arid regions, agricultural fields were converted into rain fed storage structures that allowed the water to stand and moisten the soil like the ‘khadins’ in Jaisalmer and ‘Johads’ in other parts of Rajasthan. 
    • Kund or Tanka: In the semi-arid and arid regions of Rajasthan, particularly in Bikaner, Phalodi and Barmer, rainwater harvesting structures locally known as Kund or Tanka (a covered underground tank) are constructed near or in the house or village. 
    • Many houses constructed underground rooms adjoining the ‘tanka’  within the watershed to beat the summer heat as it would keep the room cool. 
    • Palar pani or Rainwater, as commonly referred to in these parts, is considered the purest form of natural water. 

• Watershed in Multi-Purpose River Projects And Integrated Water Resources Management: 

• • Dams:  Dams were traditionally built to impound rivers and rainwater that could be used later to irrigate agricultural fields. 
    • Dams are now referred to as multi-purpose projects. 
  • Example: 
    • In the Sutlej-Beas river basin,  the Bhakra – Nangal project water is being used both for hydel power production and irrigation; 
    • The Hirakud project in the Mahanadi basin integrates conservation of water with flood control (Refer Figure 7.18).
  • Watershed in Multi-purpose Projects: These are launched after Independence with their integrated water resources management approach, and were thought of as the vehicle that would lead the nation to development and progress, overcoming the handicap of its colonial past. 
    • Jawaharlal Nehru proudly proclaimed the dams as the ‘temples of modern India’.

Controversies and Impacts: Watershed Issues in Multi-Purpose Projects

• In recent years, multi-purpose projects and large dams have come under great scrutiny and opposition for a variety of reasons. 

• • Disruptions to Natural Flow and Aquatic Habitats within the Watershed: Regulating and damming of rivers affect their natural flow causing poor sediment flow and excessive sedimentation at the bottom of the reservoir, resulting in rockier stream beds and poorer habitats for the rivers’ aquatic life. 
    • Dams also fragment rivers making it difficult for aquatic fauna to migrate, especially for spawning. 
  • Vegetation Submersion: The reservoirs created on the floodplains also submerge the existing vegetation and soil leading to its decomposition over a period of time. 
  • Social Movements Against Large Dams  within the Watershed:  They have also been the cause of many new social movements like the ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ and the ‘Tehri Dam Andolan’ etc. 
    • Resistance  within the watershed to these projects has primarily been due to the large-scale displacement of local communities. 

• • Ecological and Social Impacts: Irrigation has also changed the cropping pattern of many regions with farmers shifting to water intensive and commercial crops. 
    • This has great ecological consequences like salinisation of the soil. 
    • At the same time, it has transformed the social landscape i.e. increasing the social gap between the richer landowners and the landless poor. 
  • Inter-state Water Disputes: These are also becoming common with regard to sharing the costs and benefits of the multi-purpose project.
  • Paradox of Flood Control Dams: Ironically, the dams that were constructed to control floods have triggered floods due to sedimentation in the reservoir. 
    • The floods have not only devastated life and property but also caused extensive soil erosion. 
    • Sedimentation also meant that the flood plains were deprived of silt, a natural fertilizer, further adding on to the problem of land degradation.
  • Unintended Consequences within the Watershed: The multi-purpose projects have induced earthquakes, caused water borne diseases and pests and pollution resulting from excessive use of water.

Conclusion

Addressing the complexities of multi-purpose projects requires a nuanced approach centered on the watershed. Recognizing the impact on aquatic habitats, social movements, and unintended consequences, watershed management emerges as a vital strategy for sustainable water practices and environmental stewardship.

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