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VIEW: Water management imperatives —Syed Mohammad Ali

What is perhaps most challenging about integrated basin water management is the requirement to not only pay attention to what happens within the water basin itself but to a range of other issues

The declining availability of freshwater is already posing serious threats to food, environmental, social and economic security the world over. In an attempt to tackle this problem, the Global Water Partnership has put forth the principle of integrated basin water management. This approach requires a holistic attitude towards using not only water but related resources like land to help maximise socio-economic benefits, while ensuring sustainability of major water sources like river basins.

This article aims to explain the implications of implementing this process in our own part of the world, which is steadily facing a growing water scarcity problem.

The Indo-Gangetic basin, which drains snowmelt from southern Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges, provides the main source of freshwater for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, livestock, and urban and industrial requirements of about a billion people in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Integrated management of the Indo-Gangetic basin, which is clearly one of the most complex river basin systems in the world, poses a range of challenges.

What is perhaps most challenging about this approach is the requirement to not only pay attention to what happens within the water basin itself but to a range of other issues. For example, dealing with water-logging and salinity in Pakistan and the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana; flood and drainage management problems in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal in India, and in Bangladesh; and massive deforestation in the upper catchments in Pakistan, the Indian Himalayas, and Nepal are all vital elements of such an integrated approach. Even the management of the wetlands, mangroves and coastal ecosystems in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is necessary for the sustainability of the Indo-Gangetic basin.

The basic premise of an integrated basin water management is that water use in one location influences the quantity and quality of water available in all other locations relying on the same water source. Upper catchments do have a strategic importance in sustaining water supplies to the plains. Consider, for instance, the impact of land degradation in the form of deforestation and loss of vegetative cover, which leads to high erosion rates, and in turn has important implications for water and sediment delivery to downstream plains, deltas, and the sea beyond. The need for land management is thus an important component of an integrated basin management approach.

Moreover, an integrated basin water management approach does not simply focus on freshwater coming from rivers, lakes and aquifers alone, but is also concerned with linking its usage with rain-fed and groundwater based activities. The hydrological impacts of multiple dams, and increased infiltration on stream flow and groundwater recharge need to be further investigated, so that the scale of such developments can be managed appropriately.

However, ensuring equitable distribution of water across international boundaries requires a lot of work. The first requirement in this regard is developing a capability to accurately measure and monitor total water availability and its subsequent distribution. Also an ability to analyse long-term impacts of current and future development activities such as damming, and devising planning options based foremost on the priority of equity and sustenance of water resources is needed.

Preliminary research indicates that integrating such diverse aspects of water management can substantially improve cost effectiveness, which provides a financial incentive to begin implementing this sort of comprehensive approach. The management of such an initiative also requires extensive cooperation among different types of actors. As yet, there is too little coordination between relevant institutions in our part of the world to be able to implement integrative approaches to water management within individual countries, what to talk about between all the four countries which share waters of the Indo-Gangetic basin.

All the concerned countries can however initiate individual efforts which will subsequently facilitate regional cooperation as well. Efforts like water participatory watershed management, rainwater harvesting in drought-prone areas and moisture conservation practices are all relevant initiatives which can help create a new paradigm shift of integrated basin water management. Such efforts need to be accompanied by adequate support and incentive measures so that farmers actually adopt these practices. Most of the countries in the Indo-Gangetic basin have now developed water-related policy frameworks, which recognise the need for such initiatives. But there still remain huge variances between policy goals and their implementation on ground.

Effective governance of the water resources is extremely important for efficient use of water. Since equity is another important component of an integrated approach, these mechanisms are required not only for managing water but also for assuring delivery of water services to different levels of society. Past efforts based on participatory approaches to water resource management in various parts of the Indo-Gangetic basin, launched by multilaterals, government and non- government organisations have formed bodies like Water Users Associations, Farmers Organisations, and Watershed Associations. Unfortunately, many of these arrangements are either not active or formalised enough to be able to transfer the operation and management of water resources completely to local communities.

Simultaneously, water markets have grown in many ground-water irrigated areas and canal irrigated areas. Proponents argue that water markets can help improve water allocation and its use and produce substantial gains for the sellers and buyers. The ability to sell does seem to provide an incentive for conserving water and using it more rationally.

At the same time, however, critics are concerned that water markets aggravate equities in rural areas by richer farmers, which results in excessive exploitation and depletion of a scarce resource. Informal water markets thus need to be regulated to ensure sustainability and equity.

There are evidently numerous pending requirements for putting in place an integrated basin water management approach. It is only through smallscale and consistent efforts — the interactions of which can then be studied, improved and scaled up — that this sort of a massive undertaking can realistically be put in place to ensure availability of freshwater for our future generations.

The writer is a researcher. He can be contacted at ali@policy.hu

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