Water policy & the water harvesting communities

India is discussing, for the last more than three years, about bringing a new water policy. The current policy is a decade old. In this last decade, things have changed, and drastically so. Rainfall has become more erratic than ever before. Extreme climate events have become the norm. Even though floods and droughts were not unknown to the country when it attained independence, no one thought about climate change back in the 50s. Planners wanted to improve conditions of the farmers by enhancing irrigation coverage. That was aimed at increasing water security for the nation that has always been dominated by the farming sector. Water resources was continued to be extracted for development of the farm sector and other sectors. Industries, energy and urban areas then emerged as the other major sectors that used a lot of water. Plans and policies emerged to harness existing water resources through various kinds of structures ranging from small water harvesting structures to large dams. Over time, all these 75 years, while we have achieved many positive results in using water resources for development of the economy and society, we have transformed from a water rich country – on average terms – to a water stressed one. More than half of the country now faces severe to acute water scarcity. That’s mainly because, for the love of engineering structure based water management, we forgot some of our glorious water harvesting traditions. Despite all the modern technology that we boast about, we cannot fight impacts of climate change – that is mostly felt through water challenges – without restoring our water resources. And for that to happen, the tradition of water harvesting – still found all across the nation – needs to be revived and strengthened.
Even as we discuss the policy formulation, the Government of India has already launched a campaign to promote water conservation awareness and has an intended goal to promote five targeted interventions: water conservation and rainwater harvesting; renovation of traditional and other water bodies/ tanks; re-use and borewell recharge structures; watershed development; and intensive afforestation. All that intent looks pretty well in line with what is actually needed. This now needs to be backed by strong policy actions. Our water policies have virtually become wish lists without being implemented towards achieving what they are intended to. Or else, we would not be facing such a precarious water crisis situation at the moment, which is going to be worse in a few years. It’s not that our existing policy documents don’t talk about water harvesting. They do and many programmes and campaigns are already in operation for decades, but there is certainly a lack of will power at the highest level of power ranks to promote decentralised water harvesting and management structures as against the large dam and centralised systems of water management.

Recognise the traditional knowledge and practices

The first policy action we need to take is to recognise and restore the traditional water harvesting systems that have a vast potential to store the rainwater, recharge groundwater and meet many of our water needs. The large dam centric water planning for the last several decades has done all that’s possible to destroy these sustainable systems. Over-dependence on concrete, top-down imposed structures of water management have also alienated the local people from decision making. The people, who once managed their own water, have started to lose faith in their own traditional wisdom. This, I say, from my experience working with communities in reviving their water harvesting practices.
What we now need is to go back to some of these traditions, for which Odisha can be a model state. If we are seriously interested in tackling our water crisis, we need to learn from the good and bad that has happened to these traditional resource management systems. For example, the western region of Odisha has been a resource-rich region with a long history of sustainable practices to manage these resources. One of the prime reasons for increasing frequency of drought, is the neglect of western Odisha’s traditional water-harvesting structures. For example, just a few decades ago, the drought-prone Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) districts, counted as one of the most backward zones in India, combated droughts successfully with a network of about 20,000 traditional tanks built with community participation. Given the undulating topography of the region, these tanks stored water that was later used during the dry months. So, a shortfall in rainfall never caused drought. Of course, it might have been the cause of some scarcity of water. We can go back to that with some modern innovations, funding support and a strong emphasis to revive them through the strengthening of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Recently, as part of our organisation’s campaign, we visited some of the wonderful traditional water harvesting structures that have been kept alive by local communities for long – some even for hundreds of years. Take for example the Bijepur Kata (large surface water harvesting structure), in the Bargarh district of Odisha, that has been standing strong for more than two hundred and fifty years now due to continuous nurturing by the local people. It has faced encroachments and other challenges but the people, especially women of the village (now a Notified Area Council), have taken up the task of revival upon themselves with help of the government.

Drops of water wisdom

107-year-old Chandrakanti Pujhari, who heard the story of this water structure’s history from her father-in-law told me that in early 1800s (some say 1818), the then local Zamindar (landlord) decided to dig up a huge Kata (large surface water harvesting body) of about two hundred and fifty acres by inviting special pond diggers from other areas. The Zamindar, Damodar Gadtia, decided to end water woes of the villagers as there was no water storage facility in the village Jaring where all of them were staying. The Zamindar talked to all of them and sought their help in digging the kata so that they could settle alongside water and practice farming. There were only four-five families who were settled at the area where the kata (we can also call it a tank) was to be dug. The Zamindar motivated them to shift so that the work for the tank could be started.
This water structure has been socio-culturally, ecologically and economically significant for Bijepur as well as nearby areas. In fact, this is the lifeline of the people here ever since it was dug. It supports irrigation, is used for bathing and other domestic purposes and also holds many local festivals. When some locals started disrespecting this sacred and useful water structure and encroached upon some parts of the water body as well as catchment area, and it thus started getting polluted, a group of women from the village started a movement to protect it. They started to petition the government from 2009 and took to other methods of agitation and finally succeeded in receiving the attention of the authorities which resulted in a planned revival of the water body with financial support from the government. This is just one lesson coming from a non-descript area of the country on how water wisdom from our communities – preserved with them for centuries – can actually help us build resilience against impacts of climate change. The new water policy should bank on all these structures and systems from across the nation to create a specific strategy for time bound revival of all ailing water harvesting structures including those in the urban areas. This strategy should involve local people and communities for reviving and nurturing these structures in a way that enriches the local ecosystems.