Technical and Research Needs for South India Water Management Programme

1
PRESENTATION

• Technical and Research Needs for South
  India Water Management Programme

By Oxfam India, Bangalore, India
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Project Goal

• To secure livelihoods and ensure food security
  for the marginalised through integrated
  management of water resources by rural and urban
  communities on long term basis in South India.

3
Project Purpose

• Ensure food security to women and men of the poor
  in rural areas through integrated water
  management.
• Influence national water policy in favour of the
  poor.
• Strengthen Oxfam India by enhancing its supporter
  base from a current 17,000 donors.

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Project Scope

• Focus is on 6 river basins across the 4 States of
  South India.
• Project will address policy and legal issues
  relating to water management.
• Target group - women and men of Dalit and
  landless families, small and marginal farmers and
  other poor sections in rural and urban areas.

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Water Resource Regions of India
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Location of Rivers Selected
Location of Rivers Selected
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Arkavati river, Karnataka

• Drainage Arkavati ?Cauvery ? Bay of Bengal
• Location Near Bangalore City
• Area 1460 sq. km.

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Major Issues Urban part of Arkavati

• Price of rapid development
• Conversion of tanks in Bangalore? loss in quality
  of life and in Microclimate.
• Kempambudhikere tank ? City Bus stand
• Sampangikere ? Sports Stadium
• Tanks allotted to various Government Departments
• Nagashettihallii Space department
• Kadugondanahalli- Medical College
• In 1890 2000 tanks in Bangalore Urban Rural
  districts
• In 2003 700 of which only 127 alive

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Issues Urban Arkavati..contd

• Equity concerns within city
• Slums pay more rich colonies pay less.
• No differential pricing mechanism for getting 5
  Star Hotels, etc. to pay more.
• Roof Water Harvesting
• Legislation for making roof water harvesting
  mandatory just tabled. But skills for this not
  available widely.
• Water Quality
• Poor control over industrial and household
  pollution ? polluted water.

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Issues Urban vs Rural Arkavati

• Appropriation of water by city
• City draws water resources but does not develop
  them.
• More cash crops are grown for city ? more water
  used in rural areas ? transfer of embodied water.
• Transfer of Pollution
• City dumps waste in Arkavati ? pollution
  downstream.
• Industries relocate to suburbs ? waste dumping.

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Issues Rural Arkavati

• Degradation of water resources
• Catchments encroached degraded.
• Excessive extraction by rich sections ?
  Groundwater dropping sharply ?
• Drying of shallow open wells
• Increase in incidence of flourosis.
• Increased water markets ? poor pay to water
  lords.
• Livelihood Impacts
• No water ? Migration to City or take to sex
  working ? Increase in HIV
• Pesticides in water ? poor water quality
• Poor unable to cope with cash agriculture ? Debts
  ? Farmers suicides

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Rural Issues- Arkavati...contd

• Equity Concerns
• Sections facing exclusion from water entitlements
  
• Poor - lack resources to dig deeper ? subsistence
  agriculture impossible.
• Landless - have no stake in developing water for
  agriculture.
• Lower castes - denied access to water due to
  untouchability.
• On the Positive Side
• Number of demonstrations of judicious use of
  water are available
• Organic farmers in rural Arkavati grow organic
  fruits and vegetables.
• Madagsacar method of paddy cultivation spreading
  fast.

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Activities taken up in Urban Arkavati

• 1. Study of Water situation and resources in
  Bangalore
• Results expected
• Forming a Citizens Forum on water conservation
  and rejuvenation of tanks.
• Design - campaign for tackling diverse issues on
  water entry point through preservation of tanks
  in Bangalore.
• Incorporation of water management in Urban
  Planning for Bangalore.

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Activities in Urban Arkavati contd

• 2. Fellowship Water Conservation
• Fellow Ayyappa Masagi
• Areas of work
• Design do-it-yourself booklets on roof water
  harvesting for 3 budgets.
• Train masons, engineers, etc. in roof water
  harvesting- domestic industrial use in rural
  urban areas.
• Scale up work done on recharging borewells and
  open wells.

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Activities in Rural Arkavati

• Initial meeting of stakeholders of basin
  conducted. Need for forum felt.
• Campaign on water being planned.
• Hydrological study in 2 first order streams of
  Arkavati with CSWCRTC, Bellary initiated.

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Rural Arkavaticontd.

• 2. Fellowship Dalits Water
• Fellow C S Parthasarthy
• Areas of work
• Studying socio-economic, political and
  caste-based exclusion of lower castes from
  water entitlements.
• Working on building in equity for lower castes
  in IWRM projects.

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Issues in Musi river, Andhra Pradesh

• Weavers town Pochampalli Clean water not
  available for processing and washing silk dyes.
  Quality has deteriorated ? shrinking customer
  base.
• Other issues same as Arkavati

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Issues in Chitravati

• Resource concerns
• Declining agriculture productivity ? large-scale
  migration to urban centres like Anantapur and
  Bangalore.
• Poorest women resorting to sex-working ? a rapid
  increase in HIV incidence.
• Good example of conversion of irrigation tanks to
  percolation tanks in Anantapur. Remarkable impact
  on water table. Scaling up of this in other parts
  of the district / state ?
• Equity concerns
• Landed vs landless
• Upper vs lower castes
• Upstream vs Downstream villages
• Interstate issues upstream in Karnataka,
  downstream in Andhra Pradesh

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Sarda River, Andhra Pradesh

• Feasibility for micro hydropower unit on
  irrigation canal. Combining Participatory
  Irrigation Management and Community Microhydel
  programme.
• Build capacities of local people to own and
  manage the irrigation and Microhydel programmes
  and industries.
• Organising village communities into co-operatives
  for ensuring fair price to their produce.

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SAKTI

• Objectives of collaboration with SAKTI
• Studying the legal and administrative principles
  and practices in IWRM in four Southern states.
• Identifying areas where people can participate to
  check abuse of legal system.
• Capacity building of partners, preparation of
  manuals on legal and administrative matters on
  water.
• Support struggles of tribals for their water
  rights and strengthen their bargaining power
  though Panchayats.
• Explore opportunities for equity in distribution
  of natural resources to ensure food security.
• Study privatisation proposals of water.

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Emerging issues for Technical and Research Support

• A. Areas for Support
• 1. Hydrology
• Geo-hydrological studies for groundwater mapping
  and estimation for early warning and to minimise
  wastages in drilling.
• Potential of using tracers for groundwater
  mapping and estimation.
• Methods ? monitoring impact of groundwater
  extraction on groundwater reserves.
• Techniques for recharging groundwater in diverse
  geo-climatic landscapes.

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2. Action - Research Health of River Ecosystems

• Ecological aspects of river basins framework
  for proscriptions and prescriptions and means to
  operationalise the same.
• Freshwater biodiversity in flowing and stagnant
  water bodies in selected river basins.

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3. Basin Level Water Management

• Mechanisms for addressing equity concerns between
  
• Rural and urban areas
• Rich and poor households in rural and urban areas
• Downstream and upstream users
• Land-owning and landless households
• Higher and lower castes exclusion by
  untouchability.
• Basin level conflict resolution mechanisms
• Water parliaments, payments-downstreamers,
  cropping pattern, etc.
• Formulation implementation of participatory
  river basin level plans for water management.
• Modelling and basin level scenario building s/w -
  WEAP

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4. Demand Side Management of Water

• Water budgeting exercises at demand and supply
  side at basin, village and household level as a
  tool for demand management.
• Technical and institutional issues in waste water
  recycling at basin level to increase water use
  efficiency.
• Advantages and pitfalls of water markets in
  demand side water management.

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5. Water in Agriculture

• Experimentation / comparative analysis of various
  water conservation methods for more crop per
  drop
• Drip, Sprinklers, Composting, Alternate cropping
  patterns, Organic agriculture Composting,
  Integrated Pest Management, etc.
• Sustainable water management in reducing farmers
  suicides.
• Embodied Water Analysis of current cropping
  patterns.
• Testing / upscaling low cost, portable water
  soil testing kits.
• Issues/ methods in designing and realizing
  sustainable groundwater management strategy.
• Water markets in agriculture Water Lords in
  selected sub-basins in South India.

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6. Urban Dimensions of Water

• Potential of integrating water management
  concepts in Urban Planning the case of
  Bangalore and Hyderabad cities.
• The potential and technical, legal and capacity
  building issues in roof water harvesting for
  rural and urban needs.
• Technologies and management issues in waste water
  recycling in urban areas.
• Methods for regeneration and sustainable
  management of lakes/ tanks for micro-climate
  improvement in Bangalore.
• Recycling and processing of urban waste for
  reducing health hazards and improving water
  availability in urban areas.
• Technical, legal and public administration
  measures to estimate and treat industrial water
  in urban areas.

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7. Issues Related to Drinking Water

• Technological options for low cost water quality
  testing kits for drinking water.
• Water pollution monitoring and treatment
• The role of drinking water markets in use,
  wastage and equitable management of drinking
  water in selected river basins.
• Understanding linkages of agriculture with
  drinking water quality and quantity study of
  contamination of drinking water by agriculture
  inputs like fertilisers and pesticides.

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8. Other Suggested Areas for Research

• Understanding strengthening linkages of water
  with land, livestock, forests biodiversity
  resources in various agro-climatic zones of South
  India.
• Legal and administrative ways to increase water
  entitlements of poorer sections in rural and
  urban areas of South India.
• Health of river ecosystems in basins where human
  presence has been present for centuries tank
  systems in South India.

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Other Suggested Areas contd

• Energy aspects of water management role of
  microhydels in increasing quality of life and
  building stake in sustainability.
• Role of Private sector in Water Management
  profits, corporate responsibility and technical
  assistance.
• Use of modelling tools for water supply and
  demand - selected sub-basins.
• Constraints/opportunities current policy, legal
  administrative systems for better equity at
  State level (to start with).

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B. Nature of Collaborations possible

• Collaborative projects with universities,
  research institutions and other resource agencies
  on specific technological and research issues
  related to water resources management.
• Placement of students / volunteers to do basic
  research work on focused subjects.
• Capacity building in water resources management
  for building pools of trained manpower.
• Learning from experiments in other parts of the
  world in all above issues.

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Major Collaborating Institutions

• CSWCRTI, Dehradun and its Centre at Bellary,
  Karnataka
• Centre for Science Environment, New Delhi.
• Centre for Social and Economic Studies,
  Hyderabad.
• Centre for Water Resources, Anna University,
  Chennai.
• Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
• Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
• Institute for Social and Economic Change,
  Bangalore.
• International Water Management Institute, Colombo
• Irrigation Management and Training Institute,
  Tiruchi.
• Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai.
• MANAGE, Hyderabad.
• Tarun Bharat Sangh, Alwar, Rajasthan
• Water and Land Management and Training Institute,
  Hyderabad.
• Water and Land Management Institute, Dharwad.
• Water Technology Centre, TN Agri University,
  Coimbatore.

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• Thank You for your patience !