抄録
India is facing increasing water stress due to population growth, increase in water demand, vulnerability from climate change and deterioration in water quality from domestic as well as industrial and agricultural pollution loads. India occupies about 2.45% of the world area and has a 5% share of the global fresh water resources and with this share of vital natural resources approximately 16.87% of the world population is to be catered. Currently the population of India is a little over 1 billion and it is expected to reach a figure of approximately 1.5 billion by the year 2050. The water availability per capita per year at present is 1730.6 CM (m3) and has almost reached to water stressed (<1700 CM) conditions.
Despite the tremendous economic development and growth of industries and service sectors, the livelihood of approximately 68% of the Indian population depends on agriculture directly or indirectly. More than 70% of its population lives in rural areas although there is an increasing trend of urbanization in the last two decades. Irrigation water accounts for approximately 90% of the total utilization of water resources. India stands at a crossroads in institutional options for natural resources management at the local and village levels. The emphasis on future options like watershed development through participatory approaches coupled with sustainability issues is now widely recognized as a potential approach for vitalizing the rural economy.
Climate variability in India in terms of rainfall and temperature has noticeable spatial and temporal variations. Even after achieving full irrigation potential from surface and sub-surface water resources, a major portion of cultivated area shall remains rainfed. Furthermore, the conditions may deteriorate with severity of droughts and intensity of flash floods under a climate change scenario. In this article different measures for soil moisture conservation through rainwater harvesting on a watershed basis in problematic Laterite, coastal saline and hill zones of West Bengal State of India are discussed.
Although in recent years, both Government and Non-Government Organizations have stepped up their efforts in water conservation by rainwater harvesting on a watershed basis through a participatory approach, the Government of India's Commitment to Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) with the help of Water Users Associations (WUAs) needs to be strengthened through adoption of a framework from the state level down to the village level. An attempt is made in this article to highlight some key factors in the structural framework as well as in the operation domain of PIM involving WUA from the Indian perspective.
