Abstract
The issues of water access and security are growing in importance by the day. There are many studies on the issues in water availability access, quality and sustainability across sectors and regions. In this context, a book addressing water insecurity issues from the perspective of agriculturally grown states of India makes an important contribution and reading. The book is divided into 10 chapters and covers various levels of the issue starting with global water resource scenario, and development and use of water resource in India to the dynamics of water resources in Punjab in terms of a temporal analysis of agricultural water use, industrial water use and domestic water use besides awareness of water scarcity across users of various types and water governance and policy response, before concluding and suggesting some policy measures.
The book running into around 300 pages is written very consciously and attends to a whole range of issues. The first chapter on global scenario dwells upon the increasing demand for water, especially for agriculture, that too, in the developing world which is met, to a large extent, from groundwater, which is discussed in detail with data from the FAO, the UN and the WHO. It also examines the global response to water scarcity and sector wise water requirement up to 2013 compared with 2000 in terms of irrigation water withdrawals globally overall as well as in terms of sectors and regions. Even country wise comparisons of water extraction by sectors are provided.
The second chapter on development and uses of water resources in India examines the magnitude of water resources based on various government estimates and shares the 11th Five-Year Plan estimates of sector-wise water requirements up to 2050. It also analyses the allocation for irrigation and flood control in various plans since the first plan and finds that the percentage share of irrigation has declined from 23 per cent in the first plan to just 6 per cent in the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plans. Similarly, the number of major and medium projects has declined over the last 60 years. The chapter also has analysed the potential created across the types of water sources and the potential utilised which has come down from more than 90 per cent in the first six plans to about 80 per cent by the 11th Five-Year Plan. The state-wise potential created across various types of projects and surface and groundwater is also analysed in terms of area covered. Finally, it is reported that by 2013, the groundwater development in terms of percentage of the net draft to net availability was 62 per cent and varied from a low of 16 per cent in Assam to 149 per cent in Punjab with Rajasthan and Haryana being close to Punjab’s figures. The chapter has also a section on rainfall and temperature trends over the years since the 1950s, both in terms of pre-monsoon and post-monsoon distribution of rainfall, besides the monsoon season and overall rainfall since 1992–1993.
The third chapter on dynamics of water resource in Punjab examines the water availability in terms of district wise monsoon and non-monsoon recharge from rainfall and other sources and net groundwater availability as of 2013 and finds that most of the districts have over exploited groundwater except Bhatinda, Fazilka, Muktsar, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot and Mohali in terms of gross groundwater draft being more than net groundwater availability on an annual basis. It is also highlighted that most of the groundwater withdrawal (82% to 99%) is due to the use for irrigation with domestic and industrial water accounting for a very small percentage except in a few districts like Mohali and Pathankot. The average rainfall for the last 45 years across districts is analysed and the trends across various zones of the states are also examined. It is found that the water table declined across districts during the pre-monsoon period in the last 20 years. The post-monsoon’s minimum average annual decline in water table varied from 2.4 cm to more than a meter across districts in terms of extent of groundwater exploitation at the block level where there were only 45 per cent of blocks in the dark zone, that is, over exploited in 1984. This proportion increased to 80 per cent by 2011. The chapter concludes that over exploitation of groundwater and the wheat paddy cropping pattern and a declining trend of rainfall have all led to continuous depletion of groundwater table which indicates serious water shortage and water insecurity in the state where the role of canal water irrigation has declined significantly.
The fourth chapter focuses on the irrigation pattern in the post green revolution period based on secondary data starting with changing land use pattern since the 1960s. It analyses shifts in cropping pattern for the major crops and examines the Kharif and Rabi cropping pattern in the pre-independence era to contrast it with the present situation. It also dwells on the increasing irrigation intensity of the agricultural sector from 54 per cent in 1960–1961 to 99 per cent by 2011–2012 with groundwater accounting for 72 per cent of the net sown area. It is surprising that the authors have used net sown area and not the gross cropped area to examine the cropping pattern and have presented the land use data in two tables giving separately absolute figures and then the percentage in a separate table which could have been easily clubbed into one. The chapter also has a section on the most controversial issue of power subsidy to agriculture which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the total power subsidy, over the years, starting with 2002–2003. In fact, there are districts in the state where the area under canal irrigation has declined substantially over the last 15 years, that is, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Mansa. In terms of area per tubewell, it has significantly come down in these districts besides others like Muktsar, Bhatinda and Hoshiarpur during the same period. The other very important social and policy concern examined in the chapter is the excess to various sources of irrigation across classes of farmers where it is pointed out that marginal and small farmers on an average have 0.5 to 1 tube well per holding and the medium and large farmers have 2 and 3 tube wells per holding each.
It is also important to mention as highlighted by the study that marginal and smallholders operate only less than 9 per cent of all agricultural land despite being 33 per cent of all holders but they have 70 per cent of all tube wells. The change from these figures reported above from 1995–1996 to 2010–2011 is that the number of tube wells per holding remained more or less same for small and marginal farmers per holding but increased for the large farmers to 3.6 tube wells per holding. The number of tube wells in the state which increased from 1.92 lakh in 1970–1971 to 14.19 lakh by 2015–2016 was largely driven by expansion of area under paddy and the correlation between the number of tube wells and the area, production and yield of paddy came out to be 0.94; 0.96 to 0.98, respectively, during 1970–1971 to 2014–2015 clearly showing the nexus between paddy crop dominated cropping pattern and extraction of groundwater. Further, comparison of water productivity of rice across rice-producing states reveals that Punjab is much more inefficient compared to the national average and all the paddy growing states in India. Over the years, the percentage of submersible pump sets has increased from 57 per cent in 2009 to 72 per cent in 2017 and in some districts like Jalandhar, Patiala and Sangrur, most of the pumps are of submersible type. Within the last 7 years (2010 to 2017), there was a 10 per cent increase in the number of submersible pump sets in the state. Further, the BHP of the electric motors has been increasing due to the expansion of the submersible pump sets. The only limitation of this chapter is that it ends without a summary.
The sixth chapter examines the water used pattern in the agricultural sector with primary data and carries out a zone wise and farmer size class wise analysis besides the cropping pattern. It finds that the central zone has the highest penetration of electric tube wells where no respondents reported any diesel operated pump sets. The average depth of tube wells was found to be 128 ft. in the central zone and 67 and 74 in the sub-mountain and south west zone. The central zone farmers, like their sub-mountain zone counterparts, operated the tube well for 105 days during the year compared with only 46 days in the south west zone. This was related to the paddy dominated cropping pattern where flooding method of irrigation and puddling led to this kind of intensive use of groundwater. Not surprisingly, only 11 per cent of farmers reported any rainwater harvesting and 22 per cent any effort to save water. More than 93 per cent of them received no advice from the state agricultural department or agricultural university.
The next chapter examines the water use in the industrial sector of the state with a survey of small scale and large scale units and finds that small scale units in textile dyeing and spinning and paper and paper product manufacturing used very high HP motors with the overall average for all surveyed units being 6 HP. These units ran the tube well for 8 to 30 days during the month with most of them running it for 24 to 30 days. On the other hand, the large scale units which also depended on tube wells had average motor power of 18 HP and without any exception ran these tube wells from 25 to 28 days per month. Surprisingly, this chapter does not attend to the issue of the facility for water treatment or wastewater use and management in these units whether large or small.
The seventh chapter examines the domestic water use in sample villages and cities where in villages, other sources like tap water and pump and stand post beside the tube well are also reported. The share of tap water was the highest at 54 per cent followed by tube wells at 22 per cent. Major uses of water were found to be for animals (39%), bathing (20%) and washing clothes (20%). On the other hand, in the urban area, major sources of water were tap water, tube well and hand pump, respectively. In both Amritsar and Sangrur, despite the municipal water supply, 21 per cent and 16 per cent of households had submersible pump sets with motors. Here too, the activities of bathing, washing clothes and use for toilet and cleaning vessels besides cleaning house figured as the major uses. Only 22 per cent of the urban households were willing to pay extra for improved water supply.
The eighth chapter assesses the consumer awareness about water scarcity across sectors and finds that in the agricultural sector where 20 per cent of farmers were found to be illiterate and 11 per cent were not interested in farming activity, only 7 farmers out of 300 were aware of organic farming that too mostly medium and large farmers. 21 per cent to 34 per cent of the farmers were not aware of the declining water table, water problem or future water crisis. Only 30 per cent were aware of the need for crop diversification and 59 per cent about higher water consumption in paddy. On the other hand, the industrial sector respondents were interested in more efficient use of water due to the awareness that it is a scarce resource (70%) and for the cost of inefficient use of water (22%). But, only 24 per cent had attempted any mechanism to save water. Hardly any of them were ever penalised for misuse of water or violating the waste disposal rules. This was slightly different in the case of large and medium scale units where 45 per cent of them had installed water saving devices. Here too, only 3 per cent of them were ever penalised for misuse of water. So far as the domestic sector is concerned, only 9 per cent were aware of water saving techniques and 8 per cent of water harvesting. More than 50 per cent of them favoured rationing of water. As against the rural households, the urban respondents were also no different in their awareness and did not even treat the unsafe water accept the use of RO which was used by more than 45 per cent of the households.
The ninth chapter dwells upon water governance and policy response starting with the constitutional status of water and the various national and state level initiatives. Noteworthy in this context is the enactment of legislation in the state which prevented sowing of paddy nursery and transplanting of paddy before mandated dates in 2009 which has made a substantial difference to the groundwater table. The authors also discuss various water-saving technologies and innovations, and diversification of cropping pattern but fail to mention systems of root intensification (SRI) for the major crops of the state which can help save plenty of water.
The tenth chapter puts together the summary of nine chapters and major recommendations to tackle the groundwater depletion in the state. These include institutional mechanisms like water users associations at the local level and regulatory bodies like water regulatory and development council and water expert authority besides a comprehensive policy focused on crop diversification away from paddy. It also recommends rejuvenation of canal irrigation system and rationalisation of power subsidy for irrigation besides careful allocation of tube well connections. Water policy for the state is also suggested as the promotion of organic farming.
Overall, the book is a comprehensive treatment of the issue on hand and highlights the magnitude of the crisis and its dynamics besides the major policy and practice guidelines to attend to the sustainability issue so far as extraction, use and management of various types of water by various stakeholders in the state are concerned. The book is useful addition to the limited literature and the empirical evidence at the sector level enriches the discussion as it brings in primary survey-based analysis from various water using sectors.