THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 30 December 2019 (Not a drop to waste (Indian Express))

Not a drop to waste (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2 : Governance
Prelims level : Composite Water Management Index
Mains level : Highlights of the Composite Water Management Index Report

Context:

  • In 2020, according to the Niti Aayog, 21 Indian cities, including Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru, will run out of groundwater.
  • The Aayog’s “Composite Water Management Index” (CWMI), released in June, notes that “Seventy per cent of our water resources are contaminated”.

Highlights of the CWMI report:

  • Several other reports, including the Central Water Commission’s “Water and Water Related Statistics 2019”, have thrown light on the poor state of India’s groundwater aquifers.
  • The urgency of the Atal Bhujal Yojana, launched by the Union Jal Shakti Ministry last week, can, therefore, hardly be overstated.
  • The groundwater revival scheme ticks quite a few right boxes.
  • It seeks to strengthen the institutional framework of administering groundwater resources and aims to bring about behavioural changes at the community level for sustainable groundwater resource management.
  • However, the Yojana that will be implemented in seven states — Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — should only be seen as the first step towards restoring the health of the country’s aquifers.

Background:

  • India has had a Groundwater Management and Regulation Scheme since 2013. The Atal Bhujal Yojana will draw on some of the institutions created by this scheme, especially village-level water user associations (WUAs).
  • The Jal Shakti Ministry will have its task cut out.
  • The Niti Aayog’s CWMI notes that though “80 per cent states have a regulatory framework to establish such associations, progress on the ground is weak”.
  • Less than 50 per cent states involve the WUAs in critical groundwater management decisions like those pertaining to irrigation resources, according to the CWMI.
  • The Atal Bhujal Yojana would do well to follow the Niti Aayog’s recommendations for strengthening the financial state of the WUAs, including allowing these bodies to retain a significant portion of irrigation fees.

Significance of groundwater boosting:

  • Groundwater contributes to more than 60 per cent of the country’s irrigation resources.
  • Power consumers in the agriculture sector are billed at highly subsidised rates, which several studies have shown accounts for the over-extraction of groundwater.
  • However, there is also a substantial body of work which shows that it is politically imprudent to install electricity meters on farmers’ fields.
  • The discourse on groundwater use has to move beyond this binary: Ways must be found to balance the demands of farmers with the imperatives of reviving the country’s aquifers.
  • One solution — tried out in parts of Punjab — is to gradually reduce subsidies and offer cash compensation to farmers for every unit of electricity they save.

Conclusion:

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the EChO Network, consider the following statements:
1. It is a national program to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership in India with the specific focus of increasing research, knowledge, and awareness of Indian ecology and the environment.
2. It would develop a national network to catalyse a new generation of Indians who can synthesize interdisciplinary concepts and tackle real-world problems in medicine, agriculture, ecology, and technology.

Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) None of the above

Ans: C
Mains Questions:

Q.1) What are the major objectives of Atal Bhujal Yojana? How it will became helpful for groundwater boosting in the country?