Water Resources:

Introduction:
For a big country like India water resources management strategy is important as it is used for
various purposes like drinking water, irrigation, water to industries, energy sector etc.,. A
proper water resource management would ensure a sustainable future with
adequate water for life, agriculture, economic development, social
ecology and environment. However, as per Central Water Commission, the current availability of
water has decreased from 1816 cubic meters (cu m) per person to 1544 cu m per person in
2011. This per capita water availability levels, as per Falkenmark Index most commonly used
measure of water scarcity, India is typically experiencing water stress. To prevent any
unforeseeable circumstances India’s water resources management strategy should establish
following goals:
1. Provide adequate and safe drinking water and water for proper
sanitation for citizens and live stock.
2. Provide irrigation to all farms (Har Khet Ko Pani) with improved on-farm water-use efficiency.
3. To provide water to industries, encourage industries to utilize recycled. Treated water ensures
zero discharges of untreated effluents from industrial units.
4. Ensure aviral and nirmal in the Ganga and other rivers along with their tributaries.
5. Implement additional water storage capacity project to ensure 100% utilization of surface
water.
6. Increasing and sustaining the level of ground water resources

Constraints: Possible reasons behind pressure on renewable water

resources are polution explosion, urbanisation, rising demand
for water from agriculture & industry, pollution, inadequate management and poor institutional m
anagement. India’s combined annual precipitation in India is about 4000 bcm, about 53.30% of it
is lost due to
evapotranspiration. About 99 majors and medium government programs for irrigation has been
identified and kept under a common umbrella Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana
(PMKSY). All these are prioritized to complete by December 2019. A lot of work need to be
done in clean and rejuvenate polluted rivers especially Ganga also in terms of meeting targets of
sewage treatment plans and of controlling the household and industrial waste. Furthermore
following are major constrains: Underutilization of irrigation potential which is 112.5 million ha
in 2012) but the irrigation potential utilized is only about 89.3 million ha. Also, the efficiency of
irrigation systems is low at 30 per cent to 38 per cent for surface water and 55 per cent for ground
water.
Suggestions:
1. On-going programmes: complete the ongoing programs to increase the water storage capacity
needs to be increased from current level of 253 bcm to 304 bcm. Identify reasons behind delay in
completion of projects and take corrective measure to ensure speedy implementation.
2. Water efficiency: surface(flood) irrigation has present formidable challenge in agricultural this
can be addressed by incentivizing adoption of sprinkler and drip irrigation. Revitalize, renovate
and repaire water bodies with irrigation potential.
3. Recycle of waste water: industries should be encouraged to use recycled/treated water for their
demands.
4. Ground water management: there is an urgent need to develop ground water rechanging zones
at identified places to make ground water resources sustainable using check dam, farm ponds,
task and injection wells. Participatory aquifer management should be strengthened through a
network of partnerships to conduct unbridled, competitive extraction of groundwater since it is
virtually impossible to police more than 30 million groundwater structures through licences and
permits. Encourage behavioral changes and community engagement
in ground water management.
5. Water harvesting: developing strategies to tap water through the watershed in rain-fed areas
helps expanding micro-irrigation coverage and link ground water development to aquifer
mapping. Reduce the time line for watershed development project from seven years to four years
to achieve the aquifer mapping faster. Introduce public-private partnership in the water sector,
initially to develop micro irrigation-based CAD works based on hybrid annuity model.

Sustainable Environment:
In the wake of climate change, depleting natural resources marinating a sustainable environment
should remain the highest priority. The broad objective is to maintain a clean, green and healthy
environment with people’s participation to support higher and inclusive growth through
sustainable utilization of available natural resources. The goals for
India@2022 include setting targets in the respective areas and typically achieving them Air
pollution, solid waste management, water pollution and forestry.
About 302 polluted river stretches identified along 275 rivers, government has launched National
Mission for Clean Ganga to address this concern. The raise in air pollution can be attributed to
rapid industrialization, high urbanization, increased use of vehicles, uncontrolled burning of the
crop reside and emissions from coal power plants and brick kilns etc. forests are critical
to achieving sustainable environmental management. The ministry of Environment, forest and
climate Change release the Draft national forest Policy, 2018 largely focused on the production
and revenue generation aspects. Increasing the forest cover from present 25% to
33.3%. Solid waste generation and its effective treatment is a pressing issue as present estimated
62 million tonnes of annual waste generation.
Major constrains and recommendations in the sustainable environment:
1. Burning crop residue is the major contributor to air pollution, convincing farmers to
discontinue this practice is major challenge. To progressively
eliminate this government should introduce suitable modifications in
their guidelines of schemes for farm mechanization to provide support to farmers to purchase
equipment to collect transport and sell biomass to processing sites.
A task force on biomass management constituted by NITI Aayog under the “cleaner air, better
life” initiative has made few recommendations titled “Action plan for biomass management”:
- Extend financial support to farmers.
- Create a “Clean Air Impact Fund” to provide viability gap funding (VGF) for projects with long
gestation periods and low returns on investments.
- Upscale technologies for crop harvesting and utilization of the farm reside
- Reward and monitor at the local level
- Provide regulatory support for business models for the crop resides utilization.
- Create awareness amongst farmers for better soil management practices.
2. Solid waste management and air, water and soil pollution: effective implementation of solid
waste management rules, 2016. Remediation of contaminated sites, safe disposal of hazardous
substances, protection and restoration of ecosystems through stringent enforcement of relevant
Acts. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has already achieved resounding success and continued
effort is made.

3. Forest management: Afforestation should

be done by involving people and private sector. Denuded forests and wastelands could be leased
to the private sector for afforestation and encourage people dependent of those forests, can be,
encourages along with the private sector. Public land available along railway tracks, highways,
canals, etc., may be used for planting trees. Agroforestry should be put in to implementation.

4. Climate change: India has the target for generating 40% power from non-fossil fuel
based. Financial support for green climate initiatives. Designing a sustainable agriculture
to increase agricultural productivity and contribute significantly to achieving the vision of
doubling farmer’s income by 2022.