Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Riskful Confusion of Drought and Man-Induced Water Scarcity Author(s): Jayanta Bandyopadhyay Source: Ambio, Vol. 18, No. 5 (1989), pp. 284-292 Published by: Springer on behalf of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4313587 Accessed: 30-05-2016 10:37 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Springer are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ambio This content downloaded from 132.174.255.204 on Mon, 30 May 2016 10:37:37 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Transcript
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Riskful Confusion of Drought and Man-Induced Water ScarcityAuthor(s): Jayanta BandyopadhyaySource: Ambio, Vol. 18, No. 5 (1989), pp. 284-292Published by: Springer on behalf of Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4313587Accessed: 30-05-2016 10:37 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Springer are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Ambio
This content downloaded from 132.174.255.204 on Mon, 30 May 2016 10:37:37 UTCAll use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Article i Jayanta Bandyopadhyay
RiskfuI Confusion of Drought and Man-Induced Water Scarcity
In India, as in many other tropical countries, acute scarcity of water resources has become a major problem. The scarcity is generally being blamed on drought or meteorological deviations in rainfall. While the last 3-4 years have seen reduced rainfall in India, the paper argues, the level of water scarcity cannot be related to this reduction in precipitation alone. By the turn of the century, India will reach a saturation point in terms of the use of all freshwater sources. To ensure continuity of development and the well being of the people the new water plan will have to address ecological issues and equality of access.
Substantial reduction in the snowcover of Himalaya has
been noted as a result of meteorological drought (photo
taken In November 1987). (Photo J. Bandyopadhyay).
*. . -v Pi .. mb~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I~
INTRODUCTION
Acute scarcity of water is affecting India with increasing rapidity. Through all the decades of development water resources have been taken for granted; today we are face to face with an acute water scarcity that is posing a grave threat to the poten- tial for the development of the country. Water resource management strategy in India has so far been guided by the philo- sophy that "water is strictly a fixed re- source and we cannot really destroy it on any significant scale" (1). On the basis of this philosophy, which assumes that water is undestroyable because it is renewable, India has, in fact, extensively depleted her water resources. Disrupted water cycles can turn water from an abundant renew- able resource into a vanishing nonrenew- able resource.
This ecological risk assumes a tremend- ous significance in view of the fact that by 2025 AD the current maximum utilizable annual freshwater resource of India, which is estimated at 104 million hectaremeters (Mha * m) will be utilized to the extent of 92% (2). There are enough indicators to suggest that even at the present scale of utilization most parts of the country are already facing acute water shortage (3).
The most alarming and exponential in- creases in water scarcity in India cannot be exclusively linked to fluctuations in rain- fall. Although rainfall has been deficient in recent years there has been no long-term deviation (4, 5). This necessitates a deeper ecological look into drought and water scarcity.
DIMENSIONS OF DROUGHT AND WATER SCARCITY
Hydrological Drought
In India, a 25 % departure from normal rainfall is considered moderate drought while a departure greater than 50 % is con- sidered serious drought (6). The US Weather Bureau defines drought as a "lack of rainfall" so great and long con- tinued as to affect injuriously the plant and animal life of a place and to deplete water supplies (7). Fluctuations in the monsoons largely determine the incidence of drought. There are, however, many other processes which lead to the generation of water scarcity. Deforestation and de- stabilization of hydrological conditions in the mountain catchments can lead to dry- ing up of rivers and streams during the post-monsoon periods because of high run-offs. In such situations "surface water drought" can occur in spite of normal pre- cipitation. Similarly, soils can lose their effective moisture conserving capacity through a complex of processes and the consequent aridization may be described as "soil-water drought". Again, this can clearly happen in spite of normal rainfall and hydrologically stable catchment. Fi- nally, the mining of groundwater through excessive pumping can create an almost irreversible "groundwater drought" even under conditions of normal and good rain- fall as well as good soil conditions. While the various forms of drought can be gener- ated independently, rainwater, surface wa- ter, soil water, and groundwater are not
ecologically separable. These systems are closely linked in a water cycle that de- scribes the dynamics of the continuously changing water resource. Under normal conditions streams and rivers have peren- nial flows derived from groundwater sources in the upper catchments, whereas groundwater in the flat plains of river ba- sins is recharged from the surface water available from streams, lakes and rivers. Surface and groundwater depend on pre- cipitation for renewal. Except for the geological water trapped in deep aquifers, all other water forms are actively linked to each other.
Meteorological Drought
Most earlier attempts to define drought as a meteorological phenomenon are not de- finitive. Furthermore, the impact of very similar meteorological irregularities may differ for different parts of the country depending on population density, soil types, etc. Meteorological drought is not a new phenomenon. Human activities, eco- nomic and physical, as well as changes in ecological conditions, e.g. green cover, may have long-term impact on rainfall patterns and the world climate. Climatologists have studied the factors responsible for meteo- rologically generated drought (8), but the phenomenon needs extensive and long- term studies that are related to the shift of the Inter Tropical Conversion Zone or even solar cycle. However, for the im- mediate crisis of water scarcity facing In- dia, urgent attention to hydrological drought is needed.
284 AMBIO VOL. 18 NO. 5, 1989
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India's weather conditions are charac- terized by short-term fluctuations. During the monsoon period, depressions and cy- clonic disturbances can cause appreciable spatial variations in rainfall. At the same time these disturbances show no common pattern. For example, the 1917 and 1918 monsoon seasons were the wettest and driest, respectively, in India during the period 1901-60, but the number of distur- bances in these years coincided (9). Again, the seasonality of rainfall in India, when seen through a temperate bias, may look like a permanent drought condition with evapotranspiration exceeding rainfall for 8-9 months in a year (10).
While no long-term trend in rainfall has been observed, the frequency of the re- currence of drought, described as 25 % de- ficiency in rainfall, has been studied by Gadgil et al. According to them, 13.2 % of India's total geographical area has a drought frequency of less than 3 years (11).
The natural vegetation in the tropics has a great influence on soil and water conser- vation. It helps to transform the enormous seasonal rainfall in the upper catchments of areas like the Western Ghats or the Himalayas into perennial streams that feed the major rivers of India. There appears to be a relationship between vegetation and rainfall but its exact nature is yet to be determined. On the basis of vegetation and rainfall studies from 29 stations for over 100 years, Meher-Homji has shown that, as a rule, the larger the area of de- forestation the greater the tendency to de- crease in the number of days with rain and
amount of precipitation. The exclusive identification of meteoro-
logical fluctuations as parameters for de- claring an area drought affected has led to a paradoxical situation (12). While the devi- ations in rainfall and drought are part of India's meteorological endowment the na- ture and dimension of the present day wa- ter scarcity and floods are not totally ex- plained on the basis of meteorological drought alone. There are strong indica- tions that India's crisis is closely related to problems of managing water resources following precipitation. For example, on the basis of rainfall data since 1945, several studies have indicated that no meteorolog- ical drought has occurred in otherwise drought prone Rayalaseems (13).
SURFACE-WATER DROUGHT
The obvious indicator of water scarcity is the drying up of streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes. While, theoretically lack of rainfall may result in nonavailability of surface-water, the destabilization of condi- tions in the upper catchments is more di- rectly related to hydrological drought.
Under conditions with more uniformly distributed precipitation, bypassing infilt- ration paths and reducing evapotranspira- tion rates through clearfelling can acutally increase total water yield in the rivers. Re- sults from 30 studies reported by Hibbert indicated that reduction in forest cover in- creased water yield (14). Clearcutting lodge-pole pine in Colorado increased stream flow by about 30 % and removal of
all woody vegetation from a watershed in Coweeta, North Carolina, increased stream flow more than 70 % during the first year (15).
Citing water yield experiments in 94 controlled catchments, Hamilton attributes the dilemma not to the temperate bias but to some semantic problems. It is indeed both. Environmentalists usually see de- forestation and resulting land degradation as an integral package while hydrologists require that they be separated (16).
The temperate zone bias is rooted in the fact that "most controlled watershed ex- periments have been carried out in the temperate zone." There is, on the other hand, a tropical zone bias, mainly among environmentalists. Generalized statements like "the principal cause of recent floods in the Indian subcontinent was the removal of tree cover in the catchment area for fuelwood" do not throw any new light on the increased occurrence of the flood- drought phenomenon (17).
In general, forestation programs have been located to tropical upland watersheds as a measure against floods and drought. Lack of information on tropical hydrology has led to increased conversion of natural forests into profitable monoculture planta- tions, e.g. Eucalyptus in the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh. From a more general viewpoint, the question of land use and management in the upper catchments may appear to be unrelated to drought in the plains. However, the upper catch- ments are within the single ecozone of the same river basins and their ecological per-
AMBIO VOL. 18 NO. 5, 1989 285
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formance is most vital for controlling floods and droughts.
Several other important factors have contributed to the enhancement of the flood-drought phenomenon. Hydrological stability of the upland watersheds has been damaged by ecologically hazardous min- ing, reckless road construction, overgraz- ing, and the increasing nonterraced ag- riculture. Quantitative data on these fac- tors are scanty. The case of Doon Valley in the Garhwal Himalaya is an important ex- ample. The valley with an average annual rainfall of more than 2000 millimeters has rich limestone deposits at its northern end in the Mussoorie Hills. Quarrying of this limestone over the last 20-25 years has drastically changed the surface-water flow in the valley turning many perennial rivers into carriers of monsoon floods only (18). Most of these perennial streams were re- charged by rainwater conserved in the limestone aquifers in the Mussoorie Hills. Following an appeal to the Supreme Court of India by the residents of the valley, limestone quarrying has been strictly con- trolled (19). In southern India iron-ore mining in the Western Ghat watersheds of Tungabhadra is creating a situation of drought by reducing the base flow and in- creasing the silt load in the river. In the case of hill roads, Narayana and Rambabu calculated that each 10-meter stretch of Himalayan roads contribute two tons of debris per year deposited on the riverbeds, reservoirs, and floodplains (20).
An analysis of the total surface water resources of India by Ghosh, however, presented the picture that nature has blessed us with a considerable surface wa- ter resource (21).
This apparently fortunate situation of abundance is not however reflected in dai- ly experience. Nor in quantitative terms will India be in a satisfactory situation vis- a-vis freshwater supplies in the near fu- ture. The national water balance in 1985 and 2025 given in Table 1 clearly indicates that even under normal rainfall conditions, an absolute scarcity of water is going to overtake the country in three to four de- cades.
Big Dams for Flood Control and Drought Protection
In an attempt to tackle the problems of ever increasing floods and droughts, plan- ned development in India gave encourage- ment to large river valley projects. From the beginning of the Five Year Plans till now about 200000 crore rupees (15% of the total plan expenditure: 1 crore = 10 mill. rupees) was spent on the river valley projects. As a result 1554 dams were built and many more are in various stages of planning and completion (22).
Such heavy investments have at best affected a fraction of agricultural land in India. What is more disturbing, the dams are increasingly becoming sources of the floods they were to control. Only recently, on 31 August 1987, several areas of the Burdwan and Medinipur districts of West Bengal were flooded by water released by Damodar Valley Corporation projects and the Kangsabati project (23). Floods caused by poor construction or operation of dams are now occurring almost with the same predictability as floods caused by excessive overland flows in the catchments that re- sult from intense rainfall.
In September 1980 a serious flood was
created in Orissa in a similar manner when water was released from the Hirakund dam (24). The Sharavati floods of July 1980 that wiped out a stretch of 40 kilome- ters and affected 27000 people resulted from overlooking the threat to the Ling- anamakki dam (25). These are instances of a general trend caused by several factors such as accelerated silting, enhanced run- off in the catchment, and to the compul- sion to keep high levels in the dams for power generation. Drought protection as a result of the dams has also been only a fraction of what was promised. Different sectors like power and irrigation, different areas like rural and urban, different ripa- rian states, are constantly at loggerheads with each other in their claims on water resources. The crisis of surface-water re- sources in India is most directly related to the near collapse of the water conservation processes in the upper catchments. Surface water, however, is limited in its spatial availability. Large areas in the country are also affected by two other vital forms of water scarcity: i) the scarcity of groundwa- ter for both domestic and irrigation pur- poses; ii) groundwater drought and the scarcity of moisture in soil available for plant growth (soil-water drought).
Figure 1. National projections for development of total areas irrigated by groundwater schemes.
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GROUNDWATER DROUGHT
Though quantitatively less significant, the most vital source of domestic water in In- dia is predominantly groundwater. The ex- ploitation of groundwater through hand- pumps forms the core of the drinking wa- ter availability (26). The occurrence and availability of groundwater is mainly gov- erned by geological factors such as type of rock formation and compaction. Except for the Indo-Gangetic basin, the rest of the country has very limited groundwater re- sources and wise estimation of the sustain- able levels of exploitation will be necessary for the future. Indeed, when acute meteorological drought occurs groundwa- ter becomes a very important resource to fall back on. In India, groundwater has also been exploited substantially during the past few decades for irrigation. Figure 1 shows annual rates of groundwater ex- ploitation in India (27).
This very rapid growth in the utilization of groundwater is based on the financial support that is being given to energized pumps.
Most groundwater utilization in India is from the shallow aquifer zone at depths less than 100 meters. While pumps have liberally been sanctioned, to encourage irrigation in the arid and semiarid areas, the close hydrological link between the lo- cal surfacewater sources, the dug wells, and the shallow aquifer borewells have not been given due importance. Accordingly, while drought is being mitigated for the cashcrop growing farmer, energized pumps are creating new drought for the marginal and poor peasants by draining the watertables below reach. This phenomenon has become so pervasive in the hard-rock areas of Maharashtra, Kar- nataka, Andhra Pradesh, etc. that large areas have been excluded from further groundwater overexploitation. However, in the absence of a proper legislative tool this artificial creation of groundwater drought is going on.
In arid regions, where rainfall is low, percolation into the ground and, thus, re- charge of groundwater resources is even lower. In the final analysis, local rainfall is the only source of groundwater recharge, especially in the nonalluvial regions. Table 2 shows the percentage of rainfall available for recharge in different geological regions (28).
Under current conditions drought is more permanent and pervasive in most parts of peninsular India not because of any lack of precipitation but because of water table falling to great depths. With shallow aquifers totally exhausted, dug wells and tanks can not store water for any length of time, thus a pseudo drought con- dition is created. Intensification of these pseudo drought conditions are due to the promotion of groundwater-based irriga- tion, sometimes with the declared objec- tive of drought relief. A study of the Ray- alaseems region by Olsen concluded that; "Irrigation has left us with popular percep- tion that this drought is more severe and more permanent than any past drought. Climate change is a myth brought on by the novelty of exponential growth in water usage.., the falling water-table is evi-
dence of overuse of water, not of climatic change." (13)
Figure 2 shows that in fact there is hard- ly any meteorological change in terms of total annual rainfall in Rayalaseems over the 40 year period from 1946 to 1985 (13). Table 3 presents the growth of the number of electric pumpsets in Rayalaseems dur- ing 1968-1984. While practical experience in many similar districts indicates an over- exploitation of groundwater and a resul- tant drop in the water table, the current thinking in water-resource planning seems to be based on a picture of groundwater abundance in all parts of the country. In fact, according to a recent document the Water Resources Ministry districts marked as negative balance districts in the 1982 report of the Central Groundwater Board have now been described as positive bal- ance districts.
International examples of unplanned groundwater exploitation abound. In the Beijing area of China, heavy uptake of groundwater has led to reduction of the watertable by 4 meters in one year. In the high plains of the US excessive irrigation exhausting the Ogallala aquifer, left the farmers literally high and dry.
In the recent annex to the draft water policy the figure of 41.9 Mha * m was given as the utilizable groundwater resource to be compared to the net draft of 10.5 Mha i m, resulting in a positive balance of 31.4 Mha * m. The actual utilizable groundwa-
ter resource and present utilization as been estimated at 29.4 and 17.4 Mha - m, re- spectively (2). In a separate publication Dakshinamurti has pointed out that; "The working group of the Planning Commis- sion on the Task Force on Ground Water Resources estimated that the total usable ground water potential would be only 75 to 80 per cent of the net ground water re- charge available and recommended a fig- ure of 21.26 Mha * m per year as the long term potential for ground water develop- ment in India... The total utilization of ground water, inclusive of irrigation, in-
T01able ;f2.:Percen;tag. rainfall l1nfritotna to groundwater bodyf :In Var ou rok tps :0and formatos
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dustry, domestic and livestock has been estimated at 21.61 Mha * m in 1988-89 as against 20.36 Mha * m of the estimated total usable ground water available in the country. It is thus visualised that the entire potential is likely to be tapped even before the end of the Seventh Five Year Plan (1988-89) unless the recharge rate is in- creased by suitable ground water recharg- ing techniques". (30)
This diversity in the data base, at the micro-level leads to a situation where following one set of data may lead to deci- sions that are exactly opposite to decisions based on the other data sets.
Depletion of groundwater resources in many of India's negative-balance districts can be linked to the rapid expansion of energized deep tubewells to irrigate cash- crops. In Maharashtra State, the sugar fac- tories have actively supported sharehol- ders in deepening borewells. As a result public wells and the shallow wells belong- ing to small farmers have run dry. During the Sixth Plan, 15 302 out of 17112 villages with water problems were provided with water, leaving only 1810 as problem vil- lages. The rapid depletion of groundwater resources has increased the number of "problem" villages, with no source of drinking water, to a staggering 23 000 vil- lages. In Maharashtra, while the govern- ment cites drinking water scarcity as the reason for increased grants for water de- velopment and the failures of food crops for drought relief, the cultivation of sugar- cane has expanded.
Incomes have risen as a result of shifting from rainfed coarse-grain production to irrigated cash-crop cultivation. But the costs have been heavy. Manerajree village of Tasgaon Taluk is among those that have benefitted financially, but lost materially, by the expansion of energized groundwa- ter use for sugarcane cultivation. A new
water scheme with a potential supply of 50000 liters was commissioned in November 1981 at a cost of Rs 6.93 lakhs (1 lakh = hundred thousand). The source- well yield lasted for one year and it went dry by November 1982. To increase yields three bores were sunk near the well to a depth of 60 meters. The yield from all three wells with power pumps was 50 000 liter per day for 1982 and all the wells had gone dry by November 1983. At present water is being brought by tankers from a distance of 15 kilometers. More than 2000 privately-owned wells in this sugarcane district have also gone dry.
In the case of Karnataka, field studies undertaken by the author have established that the human suffering associated with water scarcity is on the increase and is almost exclusively due to anthropogenic factors. In the district of Kolar, uncontrol- led expansion of Eucalyptus plantations with high water demand and uncontrolled use of groundwater for irrigated cashcrops like grapes, vegetables, flowers, etc., have resulted in a groundwater drought leading in turn to the quick drying up of surface- water sources.
As already mentioned, shallow ground- water and surface-water systems are not separate entities, and both are dependent on rainfall for recharge. The traditional tank system was a mechanism for increas- ing recharge of groundwater by increasing percolation from surface storage of rain- water. The first erosion of these indigen- ous percolation tanks took place during the colonial period, and since then tank decay has continued. The destruction of village panchayats, and the creation of zamindars and imamdars (landlords) also led to their decay. The current groundwa- ter drought has created a readiness among the village communities to re-establish col- lective control of water use and carry out
restoration of traditional tanks and ponds (31). However, the present policy seems to encourage privatization of groundwater and uncontrolled exploitation. It rewards those individuals and groups who have acted irresponsibly in water matters. Com- mon water resources available in tanks and dug wells are thus being destroyed as access to water narrows down to those who can afford to deepen their energized wells for irrigation of cash crops. The policy of encouraging uncontrolled exploitation of groundwater is emphasizing water access and water use inequalities. Water develop- ment is thus having a severe polarizing effect in rural society (32).
The examples of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka show how
The lure of groundwa-
ter overpumping-the
greening is soon
followed by browning
in most hardrock
areas. (Photo J. Bandy-
opadhyay).
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288 AMBIO VOL. 18 NO. 5, 1989
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groundwater mining for commercial ag- riculture has created serious water scarci- ty. It is obvious that resource and water intensive changes in agriculture, to which only the rich have access, have often led to the creation of drought. The conversion of temporary meteorological drought into a long-term ecological process of desertifica- tion has serious political and economic ramifications, since the costs are mainly borne by the poor and the marginal popu- lations, while the short-term benefits go to the rich sectors of the rural communities. As Gupta has pointed out, "planners must recognize that drought and its debilitating effects are triggered by the same set of macroeconomic policies which generate surplus" (33).
.rd. .......... B a
Animals look for drinking water in a dried up tank bed. (Photo J. Bandyopadhyay).
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AMBIO VOL. 18 NO. 5, 1989 289
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SOIL-WATER DROUGHT
Water resources in streams, rivers, lakes or groundwater aquifers are mainly used in agriculture. The availability of required amounts of water at the appropriate time is important in deciding the level of ag- ricultural production. The nonavailability of required water quantities at appropriate periods may be described as soil-water drought. However, this is a relative con- cept that depends on the nature of the soil and the type of the crop being cultivated. Historically, the choice of crops has evolved to optimize the potential of local soil conditions and water availability. When water supplies fail, either from lack of rain or because of irrigation systems, crop loss occurs. In India, this is the worst socioeconomic manifestation of drought resulting in large-scale suffering for both human and animal populations.
Storage and transfer of water to protect agricultural crops from drought has a long history. Although indigenous systems of canals, anicuts, tanks, and wells were lim- ited in water-discharge capacity they pro- vided a proven means of irrigation. The British altered the indigenous systems, by transforming inundation canals to peren- nial ones. One major intervention was the construction in 1836 of the Ganga Canal. This trend towards increased irrigation po- tential was further encouraged after inde- pendence in 1947.
The water demands of green revolution based on intensive agriculture have cre- ated a rather wasteful water distribution system. With the availability of irrigation water in the fields the farmers quickly shifted to water intensive, but price pro- tected, crops like paddy, wheat, or sugar- cane to the detriment of water prudent crops. It is interesting to note that when water resources are scanty, and productivi- ty must be optimized against unit volume of water input and not unit area of land, indigenous dry crops prove high yielding.
Since irrigation could not reach all ag- ricultural fields and since irrigated agricul- ture received preferential government fi- nancial support for inputs, the efforts and attention of the farmers were focused on irrigated lands. The drylands suffered from lack of attention and degradation set in. This process of degradation of the soil in the drylands has been eloquently de- scribed by Mann. "Yet another agricultur- al result has followed in these Deccan ca- nal areas in the draining of the manurial resources of the surrounding dry country into the watered region. The growing of sugarcane demands a very high degree of manuring and every source for manures must be tapped, apart from the oilcake and artificial manures which are brought by the sugarcane growers. For quite a large region round the Nira Canal area cattle manure and other similar materials have been drawn into the watered zone with the result that the dry crops there have been to that extent starved of the manures which they might have had." (34)
The relative destabilization of dryland agriculture is further aggravated by dispro- portionate allocation of irrigation water to the cash crops. Thus, while the staple crops in drought stricken areas of
Maharashtra, Karnataka, or Andhra Pra-
desh are denied water, sugarcane fields or grapevines are flooded. Thus, a soil-water drought is created not by an absolute scar- city of water but by preferential diversion of a limited source of water. The processes of degradation of dryland agriculture and loss of drought resistance are further en- hanced by the reduced crop residues that go back to the soil as organic matter. Use of inorganic fertilizers and intensive irriga- tion create the problem of lodging, which occurs due to quick growth of the plant from fertilizers and weakening of the roots due to lack of aeration from the layer of irrigation water. As a solution to this prob- lem dwarf varieties with much less non- grain biomass were introduced.
Water intensive green revolution ag- riculture has also affected the productivity and built-in drought resistance of dryland agriculture. As reported by Reddy and Bandyopadhyay crop loss was found to be taking place due to the increased vulnera- bility of crops to soil-water drought (35). Figure 3 shows rainfall, and number of rainy days in Dharwar, the area studied, over the period 1971-1984. Though there is no major indication of a sharp fall in total rainfall, crop failure has become chronic in Dharwar due to the drought vulnerability of recently introduced crops.
Prior to 1965/66, the cropping pattern in the region consisted mainly of jowar (Sor- ghum bicolar), groundnut (Arachis hy- pogea), and bajra (Pennisetum typholdes) with a diversity of other crops mixed and in rotation. The jowar crop was mixed with pulses like Indian bean or avare (Dolichos lablab), niger (Brassica nigra), toor (Cajanus cajon) and green gram (Phaseolus aureus) etc. in the proportion of 1:10 to 1:5. The mixed-crop provided an insurance against drought. A further insur- ance against unexpected failure of crops
due to low rainfall was the cultivation of a very hardy food crop called "samey" or little millet P (Panicum miliare). In the early 1960s the HYV (High Yielding Vari- ety) sorghum was introduced under irri- gated conditions.
After the serious undermining of the in- digenous cropping systems, the cultivated area under green revolution crop varieties is also decreasing due to uncertain water supply. The HYV jowar does not allow mixed cropping, hence the HYV monocul- ture is more vulnerable to damage by pests, or drought, than the indigenous mixed crops. The combination of the vul- nerabilities of the green revolution pack- age has created frequent crop failures even under conditions of normal rainfall. Farm- ers are thus compelled to try to cultivate the indigenous varieties again. For exam- ple, in Kurugund village the area under HYV jowar, which was 337 ha in 1982/83, had dropped to 187 ha in 1984/85 and in 1985/86 it was 186 ha. The crop failure in Dharwar can naively be described as a re- sult of drought, but in reality it is mainly due to the vulnerability of green revolu- tion processes. Varieties that were drought resistant, and in normal rainfall years pro- duced crops that could be stored for a few years, to compensate for the low rainfall years, have been displaced by less resistant varieties. With the introduction of HYV jowar fodder production has suddenly de- creased and the crop has become suscept- ible to failure even under short drought periods. The decreased organic matter production destroys the only effective means of drought control in drought-prone regions. Addition of organic matter to the soil contributes significantly to its mois- ture-holding capacity.
The nonsustainability of agriculture is linked to the neglect of drought insurance mechanisms such as mixed cropping, or-
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ganic manuring, etc. This neglect has re- sulted in increased vulnerability of agricul- ture to drought. Consequently, large-scale and long-term desertification trends have been initiated. Microanalysis of landuse changes in other regions also bear out that ecologically unviable agricultural practices are a major reason behind the threat of desertification.
In districts like Jhabua, which are among those covered by the Drought Pro- ne Area Programme (DPAP), drought proneness has increased because the DPAP activities were guided by short- term economic returns and issues of long- term ecological rehabilitation and water conservation in these areas never received serious attention. The status paper of DPAP prescribes a shift from millets to paddy in spite of the total inappropriate- ness and nonsustainability of water inten- sive paddy cultivation in drought-prone areas (36).
Ecologically sound and less water de- manding methods of land and water man- agement for enhancing agricultural pro- ductivity in drought-prone regions could be evolved without extending the area under intensive irrigation. The national average productivity of irrigated lands is even less than 2 tons * ha-1. In contrast a recent experiment of rainfed sorghum pro- duction using local moisture conservation methods without extra cost under an annu- al rainfall of 435 mm produced an average yield of 2.187 tons * ha-'. The highest yield achieved was 5.32 tons * ha-'.
Crop loss or crop failure due to soil- water drought cannot be exclusively blamed on lack of rainfall. Proper soil and water conservation techniques and proper selection of crops can ensure that the im- pact of meteorological drought is minimized.
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ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT OF DROUGHT AND WATER SCARCITY
In terms of water resource utilization, In- dia is at a very important juncture. Ap- proaches and decisions taken now may have crucial implications for future de- velopment and survival. As has been re- ported earlier, in about 30-35-years time the whole potential of freshwater re- sources of India will be fully utilized. This will lead to serious social and political con- flicts at the regional, sectoral, and state levels if measures are not taken now. For most parts of the tropical world important modifications in the approach to freshwa- ter have been recommended (37, 38). This becomes most urgent against the background of increasing urbanization, since water requirements for individuals in urban areas is greater than that for rural areas. The simple fact that water resources will become scarce, not because of any quantitative reduction due to natural fac- tors, but by sheer level of utilization, re- quires the demystification of the term "drought". While the national water plan is being drafted, it is high time to examine the possible water scenario for the 21st century.
Drought and floods resulting from either failure of rainfall or excessive rain- fall, are products of intrinsic meteorologi- cal variability. Such variabilities have al- ways been part of India's weather condi- tions and little can be done to eliminate them. However, a great deal can be done to limit the impact of such variations in the form of surface-water drought, soil-water drought, and ground-water droughts as well as floods that are increasing dispro- portionately. Concern is reflected at sever- al levels of society but the solutions sug- gested are highly diverse. The profession- als in water-resource management recom- mend larger storage possibilities and large- scale interbasin transfers, while citizens and voluntary activities recommend a de- centralized simple technology conserva- tion-based solution. The formulation of ecological resource-management pro- grams and their efficient execution remain to be tested.
Arid and Semiarid Regions
In tackling the current water-resource crises one has to break out of the tradition- al approach to water-resource manage- ment. One has to forget that the arid and semiarid regions that cover 151 districts of India, accounting for about 53.9% of the geographical area of the country and about 40% of the total population, represent a weak, dependent socioeconomy.
While describing the strong points of dry areas, Gadgil et al. writes; "The variability of rainfall has not only shaped the farming systems in the region but has greatly influ- enced the public policies and programmes for these areas. The only difference be- tween the two is that through diversifica- tion and flexibility of farming systems, the farmer tries to adopt both to good and to bad rainfall situations, whereas the policy- maker and administrators often respond only to the negative side of the rainfall variability" (39).
The British invested heavily in canals firstly as transportation outlets, secondly as carriers of irrigation water. The concept of conservation was not attractive to finan- cial interests. In fact when the feasibility of extending canal irrigation became an un- realizable myth, attention was shifted to improving dry farming through capturing soil-moisture.
The current all India Coordinated Re- search Project on Drylands Farming is carrying out research into the concrete strengths and potentialities of dryland farming. When seen from an ecological point of view, and in view of the high productivity obtained in high-nutrition dry crops with better land and water manage- ment, it is this half of Indian agriculture that may provide food and nutrition for the future. Accordingly, water-resource policies must encourage local conservation instead of staring blindly at the use of large dams of dubious economic efficiency. The ecological suitability of indigenous crops does not match the aspirations of the socioeconomic milieu of today. The nutri- ent-rich millets are rejected on the basis of an urban cultural bias and a support price system that encourages consumption of water demanding paddy or wheat. The market demand for these products limits the attention being given to drylands. On the successful solution of this paradox de- pends the future of dryland farming.
Ecological Regeneration Through People's Programs
On the basis of the ecological strength of the dry areas, and the weaknesses of the present irrigation system, the programs for minimizing monsoon floods and nonmon- soon drought in the form of scarcity of surface-water, soil-water, and ground-wa- ter, becomes a national task for ecological regeneration. The need for a shift in the focus of water-resource management, from dependence on only large-scale collection in big dams to a continuum starting from conservation at the local level, is obvious. However, operationalizing such a change will remain a difficult task, since the mac- ro-to-micro shift has important cognitive, organizational, political, and financial im- plications. Possibly, these strong limita- tions will always mean that Indian policy documents will be vague in operational terms. After all, it is difficult to impress upon the politician that he or she should agree to a program for bringing water to a region through sanctioning a canal if this does not imply political gains. It is difficult to impress upon the highly powerful con- struction industry that collecting all the water in large dams may not be in the best economic interests of the country. It is equally difficult to make the technocracy agree to a system where their grip on the distribution of irrigation water to water- starved farms will be lessened. It is no less difficult to convince grape-producing farmers that wine is less necessary than water, so that wasteful overpumping of precious groundwater in drought prone re- gions should be stopped. Finally, it is difficult to make any political system agree to a program that reduces the importance of relief by controlling floods and drought
AMBIO VOL. 18 NO. 5, 1989 291
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Irrigated cashcrops like sugarcane in drought-prone areas have been a main point for ecological criti- cism. (Photo J. Bandyopadhyay).
ecologically. The relief over the years has turned out to be more effective in ensuring the survival of individual politicians than the people they are elected to represent (40).
It is here that ecological water-resource use will face the real challenge. With in- tensifying water crises, control over water will constitute major political issues. Accordingly, large-scale collection and
distribution of water may not have the sanction of science but will have the support of vested groups and the new caste system that has evolved around the new temples of India. When water resources are considered in the ecological perspec- tive and whole river basins are seen as integral parts of one land mass, only then will water budget and interstate conflicts be resolved.
In a similar manner, groundwater utili- zation needs to be viewed more scientifi- cally. Experiments must be carried out to measure and enhance the actual infiltra- tion rates under the changing land cover in different geological zones. A general and critical review of large dams and canals as well as strict legal control over the use of groundwater must be given priority, as must protection of drinking water sources from competition from agricultural and other uses. Financial support to ecological- ly destructive water use has to be with- drawn in the larger interest of all people.
India has not lost her water in an abso- lute sense, but has lost control over the water resource. The challenge of the ecological water-resource policy is for the people to regain control. New awareness through experiments like Pani Chetana in Rajasthan, Pani Panchayat or Mukti San- gharsh in Maharashtra, Ganga Mukti in Bihar and many more, both in the volun- tary action sphere and in the various re- search organizations will, hopefully, result in collective action for realizing the ecolog- ical water-resource policy. The biggest challenge of the 21st century, for India, remains nature's oldest challenge to humanity-managing the water resources for food and nutrition security. It is from this point of view that the new water policy has to be approached and water scarcity has to be seen at depths beyond the sim- plistic concept of drought.
References and Notes
1. Kalbaug, S.S. 1986. The water crisis. Moving Technology 1, 3.
2. Shah, R.B. 1987. Water resources development scenario for India. Diamond Jubilee Commemora- tive Volume. Central Board of Irrigation and Pow- er, New Delhi, p. 81.
3. For examples see: Water crisis hits most UP areas. Hindustan Times (New Delhi), June 13, 1983; Acute water crisis grips Uttar Pradesh. Indian Ex- press (New Delhi), May 19, 1984; Serious water crisis in UP hill district. Indian Express (New De- lhi), June 15, 1984; A drought hit people. Times of India, July 26, 1987.
4. Mooley, D.A. and Parthasarthi, B. 1984. Fluctua- tions in all-India summer monsoon during 1971-1978. Climatic Change 6, 287-301.
5. Pathasarathi, B. 1984. Interannual and longterm variability of summer monsoon rainfall. Earth Planet Science 93, 371-384.
6. Planning Commission. 1972. Report of the Task Force on Integrated Rural Development. Govern- ment of India, New Delhi.
7. Chow, V.T. 1964. Drought and low stream flow. In Handbook of Applied Hydrology. Chow, V.T. (ed.). McGraw-Hill, New York, Section 18-1.
8. Mason, B.J. 1979. Computing climate change. New Scientist, April 19, 196-198.
9. Dhar, O.N., Kulkarni, A.K. and Ghose, G.C. 1978. Hydrol. Sci. Bull. IASH 23, 2.
10. Black, J. 1983. Hydrology and Water Resources in the Tropical Region. Elsevier, Amsterdam, p. 5.
11. Gadgil, S., Huda, A.K.S., Jodha, N.S., Singh, R.P. and Viramani, S.M. 1987. The effects of climatic variations on agriculture in dry tropical regions of India. In The Impact of Climatic Varia- tions on Agriculture 2. Parry, M.L., Carter, T.R. and Konijn, N.T. (eds.). Reidel, Dordrecht, p. 410.
12. Rangasami, A. 1987. Mismanagement of financing in drought relief. Paper presented in seminar on Control of Drought, Desertification and Famine. India International Centre, New Delhi.
13. Olsen, K.W. 1987. Manmade drought in Ray- alaseema. Economic and Political Weekly XXII, March 14, 441-443.
14. Hibbert, A.R. 1967. Forest treatment effects and water yield. In Forest Hydrology. Sopee, W.E. and Lull, H.W. (eds.). Pergamon, Oxford.
15. Wilm, H.G. and Dumford, E.G. 1948. Effect of timber cutting on water available for stream flow from a lodgepole pine forest. USDA, Technical Bulletin, p. 1968.
16. Eckholm, E. 1976. Losing Ground. W.W. Norton, New York.
17. Openshaw, K. 1974. New Scientist, Jan. 31, 271- 272.
18. Bandyopadhyay, J. and Shiva, V. 1985. The con- flict over limestone quarrying in Doon Valley. En- viron. Conserv. 12, 131-139.
19. Shiva, V. and Bandyopadhyay, J. 1985. Mountain Research and Development 15, 294.
20. Narayana, V.V.D. and Rambabu. 1983. Estima- tion of Soil Erosion in India. J. Irrig. Drainage Engng 109, 409-434.
21. Ghosh, R. 1987. Irrigation development through surface and ground water resources in India. Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Volume. CBIP, New Delhi, p. 54.
22. Register of Large Dars in India 1979. CBIP, New Delhi.
23. Ghosh, B. 1987. DVC discharge floods fresh hooghly areas. The Telegraph, Calcutta, Sep- tember 1.
24. Dogra, B. 1987. Flood control-Failure at the source. Aquaworld 2, 113-116.
25. Paranjapye, V. 1981. Dams: Are we damned. In Major Dams-A Second Look. Sharma, L.T. and Sharma, R. (eds.). Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi, p. 23.
26. Ghosh, G. 1988. Management of drinking water in drought. 14th WEDC Conference, Kuala Lumpur.
27. Report of Task Force on Groundwater Resources. 1972. Government of India, New Delhi.
28. Raghava Rao, K.V., Raju, T.S. and Ramesam, V. 1969. An estimation of ground water potential of India. Soil and Water Management Symposium, Hissar, p. 6.
29. Olsen, K.W. 1987. Op. cit. 30. Dakshinamurti, C., Michael, A.M. and Mohan, S.
1973. Water Resources of India. Water Technology Centre IARI, New Delhi, p. 106.
31. Reddy, S.T.S. 1985. Personal communication. Re- port of the Expert Committee on Utilisation of River Waters 1. Govt. of A.P., Hyderabad.
32. For a broader description of the polarisation pro- cess see: Bandyopadhyay, J. and Shiva, V. 1982. The political economy of technological polarisa- tion. Economic and Political Weekly XVII, No. 45, November 6.
33. Gupta, A. 1986. Drought and deprivation: Socio- ecology of stress, survival and surrender. Paper presented at seminar on Control of Drought, De- sertification and Famine. India International Centre, New Delhi.
34. Mann, H.S.H. 1985. The economic results and possibilities of irrigation. Indian J. Agri. Econ. 11, No. 2.
35. Omvedt, G. 1985. Maharashtra fighting famine. Economic and Political Weekly XX, 1955-1956.
36. Ministry of Agriculture. Status Paper on DPAP. Government of India, New Delhi.
37. Falkenmark, M. 1986. Fresh water-Time for a modified approach. Ambio 15, 192-200.
38. Falkenmark, M. 1986. In Global Resources and International Conflicts. Westing, A.H. (ed.). SIP- RI, Stockholm, p. 85-113.
39. Gadgil, S, Huda, A.K.S., Jodha, N.S., Singh, R.P. and Viramani, S.M. 1987. The effects of climatic variations on agriculture in dry tropical regions of India. In The Impact of Climatic Varia- tions on Agriculture 2. Parry, M.L., Carter, T.R. and Konijn, N.T. (eds.). Reidel, Dordrecht, p. 435.
40. Rangasami, A. 1974. Economic and Political Weekly IX, No. 45-46, p. 1885-1888.
Dr. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay is a well- known Indian ecologist with special
interest in natural-resource conflicts
and environmental management. His research publications have been im-
portant in a number of cases in the Supreme Court of India related to nat- ural resources. With a number of public interest professionals he has established the Research Foundation for Science and Ecology (13 Alipur Road, Delhi 110054 India) to foster the use of science in people-based ecologically sustainable develop- ment. His current contact address is: ICIMOD GPO Box 3226, Katmandu,
Nepal.
292 AMBIO VOL. 18 NO. 5, 1989
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