 Hello everyone. Welcome to rural water resource management. This is NPTEL course week eight, lecture one. We have been looking at what are the methods in which rural water resources can be managed and in particular rural water resource management in India. In week seven, what we looked at is the hydrological water balance. We define the unit of analysis which is the watershed and how to determine the area. If we remember, we had the water balance equations. However, the equations have to be placed within a boundary and that boundary is known as the watershed boundary, which is our unit for analysis. We looked at what are the methods in which we could determine the watershed area and what are the key points in setting up a watershed area or a boundary. Then we looked at how we could quickly assess the watershed area or quantify the watershed area. In particular, we looked at how GIS can help in watershed area delineation and calculation. Even though watershed area using GIS is the best one of the best methods, due to the focus of the course, we did not get into GIS methods because that itself is a course on its own, GIS and how to use mapping tools, etc. With that understanding, we are moving into week eight where we look at rural water management issues. In order to manage rural water, it is very important to sensitize ourselves on what are the issues. If we claim that there are no issues, then there is a problem. That is what we need to avoid in this course and look at how we build narrative on rural water management. We start with water is important, what are the water issues and the specific issues for rural water management and then we build on what are the methods for rural water resource management. Specifics on how to improve water management will be discussed this week. Issues on capacity building and why is it present in some regions and absent in other regions will be discussed. We will define what is capacity building. When I said the previous point, specifics on how to improve water management, there are management plans but they are not efficient enough or they are not holistic enough, which means bringing all the components of water together. We will look at how we could adjust that. Infrastructure related issues, we would look into some major infrastructure related issues that either are absent or not taken into account of and we would then get into maintenance and ownership issues. How do you maintain these units is a question and then how do you take ownership for each and every aspect is a question. We would discuss all these in detail and most important is the data issues. In order to manage a water resource, we need to monitor it and then the monitoring is based on the data that is collected. If we don't have monitoring, you cannot manage it well. That is a very strong philosophy that I believe in. How do you manage something? How do you quantify something if you're not measuring it? So once you monitor, you measure and then from measuring, you become more efficient in management. All this is from a field hydrologist perspective, which means I am a field hydrologist. I work on the field, I collect data from the field. So maybe some can call me, I'm biased to data. But the understanding is you need to know how much water it is. Just thinking, looking at rainfall and assuming groundwater level is not going to work. In those days, maybe the demand on water was so less. So monitoring and data collection was not needed. But right now and in the future scenarios, water is one of the most, if not the most important resource of the planet. Remember that people are going to outside solar, within the solar system, they're going to outside planets in search of water because that is the determinant that drives life form. So my course would be from a field hydrologist perspective, which means how do you measure on the field? Why is measurement needed? And from the field, how do you convert it into a desktop database and from the database into a model and then from model to management plans or advisories? A small recap of the last figure that we saw in figure seven. In figure seven, what we looked at is what are the water balance components and in which months or seasons do the soil moisture, which means your plants are consuming more water, you need to give some other additional resources for plant growth. And where are the months, for example, where soil moisture accumulation is happening and groundwater recharge is happening. This is when the rainfall is more than the plant can take. So the excess water will go in. So other than the hydrology itself, which is captured well in this graph of rainfall and plant water dynamics or plant water requirement, what are the other major issues that can affect water management? Because in the rural setting, we say that rural water management is important, agriculture crop is important, storing groundwater is important and recharge is important. However, if we don't quantify the other aspects driving these changes, which are not readily graphable like this, then we are losing on key information that can change the story of water management. So that is what we'll be looking into in this week. Rural water management for water security is important. So water is not only domestic use which we drink, water is not only your crops and agricultural activity. There are much more things that need to be taken into account and once you have enough accountability and water available for every key priority, then it becomes a fully water-secured system. So how do you manage water for water security is the key for rural water management. So this is the UN's diagrammatic representation of how water security can be achieved. What are the key players for achieving water security? What we have is the capacity of population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality of water. Here we are not looking at water quality because water quality concerns are big and without data it is very difficult to even debate on water quality. So right now we just look at quantity and what this UN water body, which is a vertical in the United Nations system just for water. So how they manage water? What is water? How do they promote water security? So all these aspects are discussed in the UN water vertical and according to them water security is the capacity of population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate. So it's about how people can access water safely and guaranteed access. So they say that it is for all these four key sectors and it starts with your drinking water is safe and equitable water available for all. Is it affordable? Safe means is the water clean with quality and is it equitable water available? Not like one portion of the population gets more water than the others because it's all of us are human beings. We all need X amount of water per day. So saying that only one population gets more water is not correct. So that is where this equitable water comes. The separation could be within the village, within a street, within the nation. So how water is being separated is a big question. So is safe and equitable water available for all? That defines drinking water security. So you can put a tick mark saying yes, water is secure in these region and is it affordable? So you might have water and a very clean water but if you're going to build them really, really expensively, then it is not going to be sustainable and that doesn't count into water security. For example, your bottled waters. Not all people can bring bottled waters. Nowadays, you see bottled waters are much cheaper than initial days because the players are more. In those days, only two, three companies were there. Now, multiple companies are there. Just go to the train station. You will see different bottles of water and price very lower compared to the previous years. But still it's not affordable. You cannot drink six, seven meters a day just buying water from these players. So think about that and is it affordable? It's a big question. Economy. Is adequate water available to sustain livelihoods of rural people? So economic activities also go around water. For example, your agricultural, your clothing industry, dyeing industry, your other industries like car, even cars use a lot of water, paper industry, etc. Are there enough water for food, energy production? It could be hydropower or even your cold plants where water is needed as a coolant. Industry is transport, tourism, etc. So all these economic activities which are needing the water, is there enough water as a question? And that defines water security. If you say that only some sectors are gaining water and some sectors are losing miserably, then that is not water security. Ecosystems. We have already defined ecosystem. I will define it or refresh it again. So ecosystem consists of the entire area or a location where you have good interactions between the biotic which is your biological activity and a biotic together is called an ecosystem. So ecosystem is kind of a system, an area as I defined it. So they'll ask what is the ecosystem of this area? So I would say that there's rocks and within the rocks there is rabbits, worms and then trees grow and then there's a river running around which all contribute to the ecosystem. It is not just how the biological activities interact, which is the earthworm, the water, the trees, plants, no. It also includes the abiotic, which is the rock, soil, etc. So all this taken into one system is called ecosystem and is adequate water available for both biotic and biotic systems in the region and does it aid for sustaining nature? Because when you see nature, your rock is also nature, your living thing is also nature. So this is how ecosystem work derives. You cannot just say, no, my nature is just a rabbit. The rabbit needs a burrow, the rabbit needs a hole to go in and sleep and have where the food they get, all these things. So you cannot disconnect just the biological or living life form in a system and say that is the ecosystem. It is a combination of all. So is there enough water available for all? I'll give you an example. Your water goes through the soil. If the soil is not getting enough water, it's very, very dry, like a clay soil. At one point, it will repel the water. So you might have enough water, but your soil is not taking the water and because of that, your plants are not getting water and because of that, your birds, insects, worms, snakes, animals, perhaps nothing is growing. So that is where the ecosystem services come. That is where the ecosystem plays a vital role. Is there enough water for sustaining ecosystems? The last one is resilience, which is very, very important in this era because of climate change. So climate change is happening and the extremes. Let me talk only about the extremes. The extremes means very high temperature and very dry weather, no rainfall, or very high temperature and flood, or it will be the very cold temperature and no rainfall or cold temperature and high rainfall and floods. So if you just take the water aspect, it is either there's a big, big floods or big, big droughts. Is water enough during climate change to adapt or resilient means to manage during the crisis? Let's think about the COVID situation also. So there are a lot of people who got really affected by COVID. They closed their shops, they could not sustain their livelihood, whereas others flourished. So there is an imbalance and that is not okay for the whole security of this nation. So in water also, it's the same thing. During the drought, some people might have access to groundwater and they will be happy, they'll take the water prepared for agricultural use, whereas some farmers will not have water. Same thing on the opposite. During the floods, some farmers are okay. They won't even farm the land and they'll say, okay, next year I will take the profit out. But is that available, luxury available for all the farmers? Because most of the farmers may not have that luxury. So resilience is very, very important to climate change. How you combat it, how you are resilient to water related hazards and pollution. Pollution is also picking up during climate change is very important. So all this defines water security. In short, do you have enough drinking water for all? Do you have water to sustain economic activity, including agriculture, industries, etc? Do you have water for the ecosystem services, which is running water between your rocks, your groundwater, your base flow, etc. And for the birds, animals, etc. And is water enough for your resilience to climate change? For example, dams store a lot of water. Groundwater stores a lot of water under the ground, the aquifers, I'm saying. So the groundwater aquifers store a lot of water under the ground, which can be used during both the floods and droughts. So these are resilience to climate change. Is there enough water in that is the question. So of this, I also mentioned capacity building. Capacity building is building up of people's skills that can address to a particular problem. I cannot have people alone without the skills and call it capacity. So capacity means I should have enough number of people for a particular work. And those people should be trained in that particular work to help me out. And that is capacity building. So rural water management requires a holistic point view. Holistic means bringing all these four or five players, which I discussed in the previous slide. It is not only for agriculture, not only for domestic or not only for forest, etc. It has to bring everything into the picture. And bringing everything means I need capacity in sub regions. For example, forest, water requirement, agricultural water requirement, economy, water requirement. All this has to be tied together. However, our agencies are in isolation. And this is not only in India. I'm just giving an example here. But if you look at around the globe, for some reason, water is being divided into sub agencies. And those agencies don't talk to each other. They don't manage it together. They manage it differently. These people manage it differently. And at the end, the public are the ones which are getting affected. For example, let's say the Ministry of Water Resources there. There's a Ministry of Jalshakti, only looking at drinking water supply, pipe water supply. And then there's a Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, which looks at only agriculture water, and then forest and climate change, which looks at the ecosystem of water. And then there is water for fishers, animal husbandry and dairy. So you see that how one water, which comes from the precipitation, is being divided into sections. And for example, if the Ministry of Agriculture says, no, I want to put large, large check dams, large irrigation dams to store the water, then there will be not enough water for climate change and environment and forest. Because below the dam, all the forests are going to lose water and also above the dam because the water gets in and out. So all these agencies have to talk together. And that requires also capacity. Therefore, there's a need to build the capacity across agencies, not only within agencies. So that is also good and is needed. I need a lot of people to work on pipe water supply for Jalshakti. But they should also know what is groundwater. They should also know what is the water related to agriculture and farmers, so that they manage it properly. So just giving one source might deplete another major, major source for another Ministry. And that should not happen. So all this can be taken care of if the water balance approach is used initially in the study. And all of them actually look at this in a single holistic picture. And that is what the government is doing now, at least in the Mandrega. So the MG NREGS, which is also well known for the 100 days scheme for farmers, so that a minimum wage is given to farmers for 100 days so that they don't leave the farmers land or they don't migrate. So it is just initially started with migrations. How do you stop migration? Just pay them 100 days labour in the village and they will stay for the whole year. But slowly the money is now being also used. So when they're there for 100 days, they can also be used to work on water conservation projects. And that is where natural resource management NRM works have started. And that takes a big chunk out of the MG NREGS budget. So every year the government gives a budget for MG NREGA. The names differ, it says N NREGA, MG NREGA, MGR, NREGS. All these are the same name would come for indifferent sources. For example, NREGA is there and then you have Mandrega, MG NREGS. So it's all the same. So for just now we'll say that it is the scheme that the government has started for keeping people in the villages, preventing them from migrating and for that 100 days labour cost is given. Every year it increases. So if you look at the budget that they give every year it increases and almost 60 to 75% of that budget is now allocated for people to work on water conservation or natural resource management. And off the natural resource management, water is very, very key. For example, they'll say, okay, I'm giving you this money, please work on deciliting a tank, making the bund stronger for percolation ponds or recharge pits. And if you look at the budget, it is in 2014-15 it was 18,000 crores, which is around 60 to 75% of the Mandrega budget. And it has been raising very, very steady and in the recent data it is around 59,000 crores per year. And that is spread across India. So in those days when the scheme was announced, they would just take the money and then stay in the village but not much work was done. Because at that time there's no work, like the agriculture activity is not there. But now the government has realized that you can use it for natural resource management and they put a lot of money for creating these water structures for the village. The Mission Water Conservation under the NRM Compound of Mandrega has also been promoted so that they work more on water conservation works under the NRM. As I said, natural resource management can also include your forest, your deepening of rivers, streams, etc. But most importantly, now they're looking at full water conservation works, groundwater, surface water, etc. So that there is a need for cross cutting theme capacities. It is not just water, it is water for agriculture. It is also rural water for ecosystem and livelihoods, numbers to use in sanitation. Sanitation is a very important part for rural water management because there's one scheme where there is building toilets for rural villages. But if there's no water in the toilet, how will they use it? If there's no connection of pipe supply. So that is how you should build water across the teams. Very directly saying that water is very key for livelihoods, your food and also saying clean sanitation, etc. So it is very important to have all these sub sectors understood and capacity built for it. For example, if I say I'm going to rural water management and I only care about agriculture, I don't care about climate change. Then what happens? When a big drought happens, your agriculture fails. Same thing, if I don't care about your ecosystem, forest, everything, I just take all the forest off and convert it to agriculture water. Then what happens? When there's a landslide, all the land is gone, all the soil is gone. So all these different capacities have to be acknowledged first. And there's a cross cutting of themes. It is not only agriculture, it should be agriculture and climate change. How do you have crops that are resilient to climate change? Which means that, for example, I have a rice variety, which can grow in floods or a rice variety, which requires 30% less water. So that will be helpful during a drought. So this is how you merge different sectors, agriculture and climate change across water. And this cross cutting is very necessary for moving on with rural water resource management. Not only for rural water resource management, but also to attain the sustainable development goals. A nation is called developed. If they attain all these goals and most importantly, they have to attain it in a very sustainable fashion. And the sustainability is defined with these 17 goals. So number one is no poverty. It's not like your GDP is high, but still people are begging on the streets. Is that considered sustainable development? No, it's a section of the society which is developed. The other section is not. So how do you define sustainable development is no poverty should exist. Let's take a village and half the village is very rich, half the village is poor, doesn't make, even though the average salary is high, it's cute. Statistically, it is cute because part of the society is having five tolerance income. So that doesn't equate to a sustainable development. That's what this goal sets. Zero hunger. No hunger. No one should die of hunger. No one should have no food during any part of the three times meal. And then your health, your gender equity, clean water sanitation, all these other 17 goals. What you find clearly is water is tied across all these sustainable goals one way or the other. For example, if a farmer doesn't get water, they end up in poverty. So water is very important for a farmer. So gender equity, but very directly, it is related to number six, clean water and sanitation, and then life of aquatic water, life under the water, and then your life on land and water, all these things. So to attain all this, it is very important to have a collaborative cross-cutting capacity to understand how much water is needed for agriculture, how much water is needed for economic activity, sanitation, and then build a system for everything. Let's take a tank, for example, for rural water management. If I build a tank and I say that the tank only supplies water for agriculture, then what happens to the dairy water? There's no water. How will they survive? If there is no water for sanitation, how are they going to be cleaned? So every single part should be acknowledged. And if it cannot be done, for example, I can only have water for agricultural fields, not for chicken farm, then some kind of alternative should be suggested for that, like no chicken farms, but you can do this kind of farming. So some promotions, some subsidies may be given to take the water out. Same thing with dams. In a dam, you're stopping the water and then storing the water for hydropower, for example. But you are stopping the water from going down, which people and animals and birds might need it. So there should be some balance saying that, okay, even though I store the water, I'm going to release some water there, or I'm going to build a smaller tank there for you to have water during the non-monsoon season. So those kind of things should be well thought of and acknowledged when you make these sustainable development plans. More importantly, the agency should talk together because water is a cross-cutting team and all should work together for the water resource management. With this, I will conclude today's lecture. I will see you in the next lecture. Thank you.