Irrigation

This paper deals with basin water use accounting and is a contribution to the synthesis work of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food's (CPWF) Basin Focal Projects. It provides a means to assess the interactions between water, food, poverty, and the environment and helps develop sound information about water availability in a basin, where it goes and how it is used.

This paper by the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC) examines the extent of groundwater dependency and quality status in four South Indian cities viz., Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum and Kolar cities. Widespread water shortage problems have resulted in increased dependency on groundwater with tapping the resources to unsustainable levels. In Karnataka, out of 208 urban local bodies that come under Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board, 41 depend on groundwater.

This is a translation from the Nepali of an article that first appeared in Nepal magazine on 11 July 2010. Dipak Gyawali is member of the panel of experts reviewing the Mekong River Commission’s Basin Development Plan and vice-chair of the technical committee of the UN’s World Water Assessment Programme. He was Nepal’s Minister for Water Resources during 2002-03.

Many Nepalis would be shocked to hear that Bhutan will face load- shedding from the coming winter. The citizens of Nepal have, after all, been told for decades that Bhutan has done a great job of developing hydroelectricity, that it has earned significant money by exporting electricity to India, and thus it has been able to achieve the highest per capita income in Southasia. Conversely, Nepal has been ridiculed for wallowing in ‘empty nationalism’ and stirring ‘needless’ controversies over the Mahakali Treaty of 1996 (for water sharing on the Mahakali River) as well as hydropower projects such as the West Seti, both of which involve export of electricity to India.

WIO Urges the Government of Orissa to come out with a While Paper on state and availability status of water resources in the state. The demand comes in the wake of the government's consistent claim that the state is water surplus even though water scarcity hits us all every day.

Sambalpur, 5th August 2010 -  As the industrial overdrive of Orissa continues with signing of MoU after MoU with water guzzling industries, there is no clarity on the exact water available in the state.  The government has been propagating that Orissa is a water surplus state. However, statistics used by the various reports of the government are dated to 2001, from when the real industrialization boom has taken off in the state.  It is time that the government comes out with a transparent position paper on the exact water availability in the state or else water conflicts will aggravate.

The study analyses the changes in farming system and socio-economic impacts at the household level through “before-and-after” (longitudinal) comparison of adopters an

The Carewater INREM Found

This project report by WWF-ICRISAT begins by highlighting the importance of rice as a major source of calories for half the world’s population and also as the single largest source of employment and income for the rural population. 

It makes connections between rice production and its impact on the environment and argues for need to adopt techniques such as System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to improve produce and reduce the damage to the environment. 

For example, current practices at genetic uniformity can make crops more vulnerable to pests and diseases. They are also wasteful of increasingly scarce and costly resources such as water and fossil fuels. Heavily fertilised, continuously flooded rice fields produce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, and misuse of inorganic fertilisers and agrochemicals results in soil and water pollution. Evidence indicates that there has been a gradual slowdown in the yield gains of rice in many countries.

This paper by Centre for Studies in Social Sciences and Jadavpur University, aims at explaining the factors that determine private investment in groundwater irrigation in West Bengal. It also addresses the issues pertaining to institutional arrangements, particularly provision of facilities by the government. The study, largely empirical in nature, is based on data collected from surveys conducted in close to one thousand moujas (villages) spread across the major agro-climatic zones in West Bengal. It begins with a descriptive account of the changes in the agricultural scenario in West Bengal over the last thirty years. The research questions are discussed and the econometric methodology presented.

The Vaidyanathan Committee was set up by the Planning Commission, to review the existing water rate structure and the extent of subsidy in Government and Public Sector irrigation projects. It suggested the norms for fixing water rates, cost escalation on the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) component of economic water rates, conversion of volumetric supply of water rates from crop-wise and area-wise water rates for different agro-climatic zones. Based on these, it suggested organizational measures including a mechanism for efficient recovery ofeconomic water rates and operating controls for ensuring levy of appropriate irrigation water rates by the States. 

This manual by the Uttar Pradesh Water Sector Restructuring Project - UP Department of Irrigation, written for Water User's Associations (WUAs), provides guidelines for restoring under-performing minors (irrigation channels which carries water to the fields) in the state, to their original design characteristics before the maintenance and management of minors is transferred to the WUAs. This is a prerequisite for making the use of irrigation water economical and efficient, and for introduction of volumetric system of water flow.