'Water budget', need of the hour in God's Own Country
Despite 44 rivers, copious lakes, and a good deal of rainfall, Kerala, which receives more water than
any other state in the country, faces an acute water crisis in the near future unless it goes for a proper ''water budget''।
Water experts and hydrologists in the state feel that unless there is a proper ''water budget'' on the availability, allocation and conservation/preservation of water resources, Kerala would face a severe shortage of water in the near future। The State of Environment (SoE) Report, Kerala 2005, released last month, has come out with this startling find.
''Total availability and allocation should be done appropriately। There should be a water budget on availability, needs, economic, social, ecological and environmental aspects,'' says E J James, Director, Centre for Water Resource Development and Management. Stressing the need for scientific management of water resources, he says this should not only focus on conserving resources but also utilising resources in the most scientific manner. Mr James feels there should be a mechanism for recharging water bodies. ''If water was not allowed to be recharged by some sort of harvesting, then over-exploitation will lead to depletion of ground water and the balance between demand and supply would be affected.''
Earlier, Kerala villages had a number of small ponds and lakes, which were the rechargers of ground water। ''Today with encroachment and few ponds and lakes around, recharging sources have been lost.''
Likewise, the rapid increase in population, unprecedented pace of urbanisation, industrialisation and agricultural requirements has led to the demand for water increasing rapidly at a pace that was fast outstripping water supply. Rainwater harvesting, building bunds and tilling land were ways to tap water. Wet lands and paddy fields, which acted as rechargers, were fast being reclaimed, which had added to the problem.
Stating that conservation/preservation of water had not been attended to properly, the hydrologist says there were two complicated webs in maintaining the water level. ''There was a holistic, eco-system approach like preserving natural resources and interaction of all resources like land, water and environment. The
other one was the aspirations of human beings। Only if these two webs are linked together, can a sustainable water balance be maintained.''
Agreeing that about 10 to 15 per cent of the people were facing real problems and more areas were reporting problems, he suggests a scientific approach for developing water resources, taking into view
the geography and ecology of individual areas।
The SoE report said that pollution, floods, salinity, intrusion, wetland modification and over-exploitation of wetlands were the major problems associated with water resources in Kerala। Natural forests, accounting for 32 per cent of total area, were depleting owing to encroachment, illegal harvest and diversion for non-forest purposes. According to a survey conducted by the Central Ground Water Board, ground water level in Kerala was receding every year. Quarrying, wet land reclamation and shift from paddy cultivation were the main reasons that environmentalist Sreedharan cites for fast depleting ground water level.
Prof Sreedharan says quarrying of sand from rivers led to their ''death'' Not only had flow of water in rivers slowed down but also salinity had increased upstream, making the area dry, devoid of ground water। Noting that rain water harvesting was only a temporary relief for tapping water, he says only increasing vegetation in the soil would prevent rain from flowing into the Arabian Sea. Traditional methods of bund construction, paddy cultivation and tilling of land were all needed for arresting water shortage.
Sharing this view, M K Prasad, former Pro-Vice Chancellor, Calicut University and an environmentalist, says ground water was being exploited to a large extent and it was high time people realised the importance of water management. Prof Prasad opines that in ten years Kerala would be devoid of paddy fields and wet lands, which were the rechargers of ground water. The state would become a dry land.
''This is a stage when planners have to be alert on sustainable levels of ground water exploitation,'' the experts says।
Water conservation in the state was lax and 70 per cent of rainfall flowed into the Arabian Sea within 48 hours, without getting retained in the soil, they said, adding, in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, rain water harvesting had been made mandatory.
Kerala is blessed with two predominant rainy seasons thanks to the South West monsoon during June-August and North East Monsoon in September-November. On an average the state received 3,000 mm of
rain. It had been estimated that Kerala needed 5,823 million m3 of water additionally to meet its needs.
