PRESS
RELEASE OF 11th MARCH 1997
Smt.
Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of
Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, will
today release DYING WISDOM:
Rise, Fall and Potential of
India's Traditional Water
Harvesting Systems" the
Fourth Citizens' Report published
by the Centre for Science and
Environment on the State of
India's Environment, in Delhi at
Jawahar Bhawan at 4 pm. The
report divides the country into
fifteen agro-climatic zones and
looks at the varied systems of
traditional water harvesting
systems that the communities had
evolved over millennia, in
different parts of the country.
The decline of these unique
systems began during the British
rule. The government
systematically undermined the
institutions that had evolved and
managed these systems. The post
independence bureaucracy has only
hastened the process. The report
argues that until and unless the
policy makers grasp basic tenet--
that water must be harvested
where it falls-- is made the
focus of our water policy and
practices our water problems will
only mount without end. It was
such systems that made areas like
Burdwan in West Bengal and
districts on East Bihar some of
the most prosperous regions in
the sub-continent. Today, in the
fiftieth year of independence,
these areas are known only of the
poverty and export of unskilled
laborers. This in-depth report in
which CSE and a number of partner
individuals and organisations
have contributed over the last
six years is fourth in the CSE's
series on State of India's
Environment that started in
1982-83 with its first report.
The second and the third reports
came in 1984-85 and 1990
respectively.
Detailed
Report: The 400-page report
describes how the communities in
different regions responded to
the local geo-climatic situations
and threw up systems of water
harvesting like kuhls in
Jammu, kuls in Himachal
Pradesh, guls in
Uttarakhand, pats in
Maharashtra, zings in
Ladakh, zabo in Nagaland, eris
in Tamil Nadu, keres in
Karnataka, surangams in
Kerala tanksa, kundis, bawdis
and jhalaras in Rajasthan
and virdas in Gujarat. It
was due to the community
management of the systems that
the systems were ecologically
sound and at most places socially
equitable. It was due to such
systems that in the areas of
Jaisalmer, which is least
rainfall area in India, the
villages that had such systems
did not face water scarcity even
in 1987, the worst drought of the
century. Different systems took
care of Cherapunji, the wettest
spot on earth. Today, both
Jaisalmer and Cherapunji figure
in no-source areas in govt.
records, as the local water
harvesting systems have been
destroyed over the years.
The strength of
these systems lie in the fact
that the systems were evolved by
the people, managed by the people
for their own needs and everyone,
including the state only
encouraged creation of more such
systems. In Bihar, in 1941, in
Chhotanagpur and Santhal
parganas, 12.5% land was under
irrigation, which became 4.5 % in
1981. In the meantime, some 104
major & medium projects were
taken in the area and over Rs.
900 crore were spent on them.
This shows the impact of
destruction of traditional
systems and the futility of the
dams-and canal approach.
Even today,
revival of such systems, where
ever they have been tried, have
shown that they can deliver the
needs of the people. For example,
Tarun Bharat Sangh have been
successful in constructing some
1200 johads in Alwar district in
Rajasthan, leading to not only
solution of local water needs,
but also made of at least two of
the local rivers perennial that
earlier used to dry up
immediately after monsoon.
What needs
to be done: The report
concludes that the only way to
tackle the country’s
spiraling water crisis is to give
the communities the right to
manage the water resources. And
they should be given fiscal
incentives to manage the water
sustainably. The bureaucrats must
be completely excluded from this
management process. Making water
a nationally-managed resource has
clearly aggravated the problem.
Now let the local people- who
actually use the water and thrive
on it- take over.
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