India stands on the threshold of an acute water situation. Accounting for about 18% of the world’s population, but having only 4% of the world’s freshwater resources, water demand is expected to more than double supply, by 2030.
How did we get here? Whilst it’s a complex, multifaceted issue, India’s Green Revolution has a lot to answer for. Yes, it was transformative in increasing the productivity of agriculture, and enhancing the nation’s food security to address the looming threat of famine, but the Green Revolution triggered the uncontrolled extraction of groundwater, fuelled inefficient water irrigation practices, and propagated the overuse of fertilisers and pesticides, which have put India’s precious groundwater resources, under threat.
Today, India is the largest user of groundwater in the world, extracting more than the US and China combined. And with groundwater being the only source of water for most of India’s population, in the face of its depletion the time has come for solutions.
There is hope. A movement to generate more ‘water literate’ communities, who are empowered with the knowledge, skills, behaviours and technologies to plan, track and monitor their own water supply and demand has begun, and we now know that the power to ‘turn this situation around’ lies in the hands of the people themselves!
What it Means for a Community to be ‘Water Literate’
‘Water literacy is the culmination of water-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors.’ It encompasses remembering and reigniting the age-old traditional forms of water harvesting and fostering once more the ‘reverence’ a community has for water – once prominent in its various forms of community rituals, religious traditions, songs and dances – after all, it is the elixir that sustains life itself.
In order for a community to sustainably manage its water resources – which must be shared across ecology, economy and sheer existence of life – a community must learn how to work together to determine how much water it has available to meet its many varied local needs; and understand the total sum of water available in the community to meet those needs.
Via a detailed water budget and community water plan, along with people’s institution to oversee and manage water use progress, communities are taking charge of their own water scenario, and learning to manage it sustainably.
Water Literacy in Gir Somnath, Gujarat
We need only turn to Gir Somnath in Gujarat, to see how Water Literacy is securing the water future for communities.
An area prone to salinity and water scarcity, villagers across 15 villages came together to enhance their water literacy and security. Working with an NGO, people mobilised into 3 clusters and commenced Participatory Groundwater Management (PGWM), with villagers learning to monitor and manage the groundwater as a common resource, themselves.
All villages analysed water scenario following the participatory appraisal in presence of water experts and learnt about the available water in their respective villages and their usage pattern. In 15 villages, it was estimated that the total water requirement was 71.93 MCM for annual water use for agriculture, drinking and domestic use, however, the estimated available water through rainfall in villages was only 44.42 MCM with a deficit of 27.55 MCM. A ‘Water Security Plan’ was developed for each village, along with a ‘Village Water Policy’, which outlined core rules around water usage, allocation of drinking water and source protection.
Taking a multipronged approach, everyone got to work. Firstly, 8 Bhujal Jankars were appointed – local representatives to help collect data, monitor water usage, conduct a well inventory, install and monitor water usage meters to track irrigation, and sensitise villagers on the results.
A variety of interventions were also identified to boost water supply – recharging 278 wells, renovating 30 check dams along with 15 ponds; construction of 18 new check dams and 29 percolation wells; and interlinking of 3 mined out pits to recharge groundwater.
Meanwhile, in an effort to curb water demand, farmer education kickstarted on soil moisture conservation and methods to enhance rainwater use efficiency. To manage and oversee this crucial water work, 15 PGWM Committees were formed with training on 12 modules of Participatory Groundwater Management.
Conclusion
It’s a lot of work, but the time is nigh, for villagers to take back control of their water. We have already seen that the centralisation of water does not work – only encouraging people to give up the responsibility they used to have for managing and caring for water, and seeing it instead, as a resource that is ‘doled out by the powers that be.’
It’s high time that rural Indian’s took charge of their own water story - Village Development Committees, Paani Samitis, Water User Associations, Watershed Management Committees, and Self Help Groups are all-powerful institutional vehicles to drive local solutions to local problems—and water is one of the biggest problems facing rural India today. By enabling the power of the people via water literacy, India’s rural villages can – just like the villages of Gir Somnath – become sustainable in terms of water, once more.
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