COMMENTARY

Economic & Political Weekly EPW october 12, 2013 vol xlviiI no 41 23

Diagnosing Maharashtra’s Water Crisis

A Narayanamoorthy

The early rains of the 2013 monsoon ended the drought in Maharashtra. But the long-term problem remains. A combination of measures is required to tackle the issue.

Water-related problems are not new to the state but there have been some rapid changes

in recent years. Maharashtra’s water sec-tor has been facing quite a few strange problems for sometime now (Rath 1997; Narayanamoorthy 2007; Deshpande and Narayanamoorthy 2001). With 35% of India’s total number of large dams and the largest live storage capa city, Maharashtra’s coverage of irrigation is still only around 18% of gross cropped area (GCA) as of today, which is one of the lowest among the states in the country. Data released by the Central Water Commission shows that the effi ciency of water utilisation (ratio of water utilised to potential created) under major and medium irrigation (MMI) sector has also been very poor in the state as compared to the national aver-age (Planning Commission 2005).

Core Reasons

Monsoon failures alone cannot account for the periodic crisis. It is the result of several old and new problems. One of the age-old reasons is the undesirable cropping pattern followed in the state for a long time. In spite of water scarcity, the area under sugar cane has been con-sistently increasing in the state because of aggressive campaign by sugar factories which are controlled by powerful politi-cians. For instance, the area under sugar cane has increased almost six times b etween 1971-72 and 2011-12, whereas it i ncreased by only 1.78 times (from 2.84 to 5.09 million hectares) at the national level during the same period. Many reports including the World Bank (2002) study titled “Maharashtra: Reorienting Government to Facilitate Growth and Reduce Poverty” suggest that water u sage has been most ineffi cient for culti-vating sugar cane. Some credible esti-mates suggest that because of ineffi cient cultivation of sugar cane under the

conventional fl ood method of irrigation, the sugar cane crop which accounts for barely 3.5% of the cropped area con-sumes close to 60% of irrigation water in the state.

The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices in its sugar cane report of 2013-14 (CACP 2012) underlined that Uttar Pradesh is 106% more effi cient than Maharashtra in terms of water pro-ductivity. Maharashtra consumes an a dditional 1,000 litres of water over and above the consumption of U ttar Pradesh for producing every kg of sugar (Table 1, p 24). Although the Second Maharashtra W ater and Irrigation Commission (GOM 1999) and the Godbole Committee (GOM 1999a) on sick sugar industries suggested various measures to control sugar cane-induced water scarcity problems, none of the successive state governments made any effective effort to implement their recommendations.

Along with the old problems, the newly originated problem of massive transfer of water from irrigation to non-irrigation purposes (domestic and industrial use) has further compounded the water scar-city problem (Narayanamoorthy and Venkatachalam 2011). Unlike other states, most big cities are located very close to large irrigation dams in Maharashtra, which provide easy access to the muni-cipal corporations and other state agencies to withdraw large quantity of water from the dams originally allo-cated for irrigation. Nearly two decades ago, Pune city was withdrawing about four thousand million cubic (TMC) of water from the Khadakwasala dam, but the withdrawal level reportedly has increased over fi ve times now. A study carried out by the Pune-based research institute Prayas found that as much as 40% to 80% of water from 23 projects had been diverted to industries during the period between 2003 and 2011 (The Times of India, 10 April 2013).

The transfer of water was done with-out consulting the farmers who have been traditionally using this water for cultivating crops, rearing livestock and domestic purposes. Increased diversion of water has many ramifi cations. The d iversion of even one TMC of water will not only cut down 6,000-8,000 hectares

A Narayanamoorthy (na_narayana@hotmail.com) teaches at the Department of Economics and Rural Development, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu.

COMMENTARY

october 12, 2013 vol xlviiI no 41 EPW Economic & Political Weekly24

of irrigated area, it will also reduce the recharging of irrigation wells and drink-ing water facility for villages and live-stock. Therefore, diversion of water from irrigation to other sectors has to be done more judiciously with proper compensation to the farmers as has been followed in the US.

Averting Water Crisis

With increased urbanisation and in-dustrial activity, the competition for w ater will only intensify even in normal m onsoon years. As per the projection of the Second Maharashtra Water and Irrigation Commission (1999), there will be a huge supply-demand gap, parti-cularly in three major basins: Godavari, Tapi and Krishna by 2030. Measures need to be introduced both for improv-ing the existing water use effi ciency and augmenting the water supply to avert water crisis in the future.

Many research studies suggest that the extensive cultivation of sugar cane under the conventional fl ood method of irrigation (FMI) is one of the major v illains as far as the crisis is concerned. With the assured market and other in-centives given to sugar cane, farmers prefer to cultivate it. A new irrigation method such as drip irrigation has proved to be a viable method of cultivat-ing sugar cane with substantial saving of water (Narayanamoorthy 2004). Farm-level research studies carried out in Pune and Ahmednagar districts under the initiatives of the M inistry of Agricul-ture, Government of I ndia emphatically proved that the drip method of irriga-tion can save about 40% of water over

the method of conventional irrigation, besides improving productivity and saving electricity. The state must make all-out efforts to bring all suitable areas under the method of drip irrigation jointly with the support of sugar industries.

While making efforts to improve the water use effi ciency, strategies should also be designed to augment the supply of water wherever feasible. Similar to the tanks located in southern India, there are about 7,000 irrigation tanks (popularly known as malgujari tanks) with the irrigation potential of about 1.25 lakh hectares located in the water- scarce Vidarbha region in Maharashtra. These tanks are in a pathetic condition, and many are defunct as well. The state government has not made any serious effort to revitalise these tanks. Besides increasing the irrigation coverage, re-charging of groundwater and drinking

water facility for villages can be im-proved by revitalising these tanks.

According to the Maharashtra Water and Irrigation Commission (1999), water available from both surface and ground-water can irrigate at the most only about 60% of the cultivated area. The watershed development programme (WDP), a proven rainfed area inter-vention programme, shows that it can regenerate water resources, improve recharging of wells and moisture avail-ability in different places in the state. Therefore, the state government must give increased attention to the WDP. Although the government had report-edly spent Rs 60,000 crore on account of WDP during the last 10 years, it has not made any visible impact in the state except in a few places. If the WDP is not benefi ting the farmers/villages, then what is the purpose of implement-ing it? The government must rethink the implementation strategy of the pro-gramme keeping the panchayat c entre stage as followed in the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme, which is based on community participa-tion and transparency.

Projected estimates indicate a huge demand-supply gap of water in all the major river basins by 2030 (GOM 1999). This gap is also expected to increase in the future due to climate change. Of the total water available for planned use in the state, about 52% is available only from the west-fl owing rivers in

Table 1: Water Requirement for Production of One Kg of Sugar in Major Sugar-Producing States: Maharashtra and Uttar PradeshSl No Parameters Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh

1 Land productivity (quintal/ha) 800.97 595.83

2 Average recovery rate (%) 11.32 9.16

3 Average number of irrigation per ha 25.00 7.60

4 Average in height of water (in cms) per irrigation 7.50 7.50

5 Average water required (in lakh litres) for one irrigation of 1 cm height per ha 1.00 1.00

6 Average water requirement (lakh litres) per ha for entire sugar season [row (3)×row (4)× row (5)] 187.50 57.00

7 Production of sugar (quintal/ha) [row (1)×row(2)/100] 90.67 54.58

8 Water requirement for production of one quintal of sugar (lakh litres) [row (6)/ row (7)] 2.07 1.04

9 Water requirement for production of one kg of sugar (litres) [row (8)×1,00,000/100) 2,068 1,044Source: CACP (2012).

Assistant Editor (Web)

The Economic and Political Weekly is looking for a young (under 30) individual who has a good understanding of internet publishing and has an interest in current affairs and will be in charge of the online edition of EPW.

He/she will be expected to coordinate site maintenance and regular uploads. Knowledge of the content management system, Drupal, and its architecture will be preferable. Ability to work with spreadsheets, Google Fusion Tables, and open data would be a bonus.

He/she should have an interest in current affairs and the social sciences, and also in online publishing. Responsibilities will include commissioning of commentaries, moderating discussions and working towards developing a distinct identity for the online edition.

He/she will work with the EPW editorial team and will have opportunities to grow in the organisation.

The position is in Mumbai. The salary would initially be equivalent to that of an Assistant Editor in EPW. If interested, please write to us at appointments@epw.in before October 15.

COMMENTARY

Economic & Political Weekly EPW october 12, 2013 vol xlviiI no 41 25

the Konkan (WFRK) basin. A large part of water available in this basin is un-utilised due to high costs. Concerted efforts should be made to transfer the surplus water from the WFRK to Godavari and Krishna so that the water-starved-regions of Maharashtra receive relief. The controversies over the statis-tics on transfer of water from agricul-ture to non- agricultural purposes espe-cially in the recent years must be cleared by implementing a systematic water accounting system in all the river basins in the state. There is no substi-tute for water and therefore the state’s policymakers must take swift action

to solve the manmade water crisis before it worsens.

References

CACP (2012): Price Policy for Sugar Cane: The 2013-14 Sugar Season, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi.

Deshpande, R S and A Narayanamoorthy (2001): “Issues before the Second Irrigation Commis-sion of Maharashtra”, Economic & Political Weekly, 36(12), 1034-43.

GoM (1999): Maharashtra Water and Irrigation Commission Report, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai.

– (1999a): Report of the Committee on Cooperative Sugar Factories in Maharashtra, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai.

Narayanamoorthy, A (2004): “Impact Assessment of Drip Irrigation in India: The Case of

Sugar cane”, Development Policy Review, Vol 22, No 4, pp 443-62.

– (2007): “Turnaround in Financial Recovery in M aharashtra’s Irrigation Sector”, Economic & Poli tical Weekly, Vol 42, No 26, 30 June, pp 2679-85.

Narayanamoorthy, A and L Venkatachalam (2011): “Farmers’ Right to Water”, The Hindu Business Line, 7 September, p 15.

Planning Commission (2005): Irrigation, Maha-rashtra State Development Report (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), pp 81-102.

Rath, Nilakantha (1997): A Note on Approach to Irrigation in Maharashtra, paper presented at the Workshop on Economic Problems of Water, organised by the Second Irrigation Commis-sion of Maharashtra and Marathi Economic Association, Sangli, Maharashtra, 14-15 May.

World Bank (2002): INDIA, Maharashtra: Reorient-ing Government to Facilitate Growth and Reduce Poverty, Vols I and II, Report No 25053-IN, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit, South Asia Region, US.