Suram C. Sharma
Geographically, the state of Jammu &Kashmir can be divided in four zones: first the semi-mountainous plains commonly known as Kandi Belt, secondly the Shivalik Hills, third the mountainous Kashmir valley including Pir- Panchal range and the fourth is the Tibetan stretch of Ladhakh. Three major river systems throughout the state place it at a very high position in terms of availability of water resources especially for generation of hydro-electricity. These river systems are Indus and its tributaries passing through mountains of Ladhakh, Jhelum and Kishanganga system passing through Kashmir valley and Chenab and its tributaries across Jammu region. The irrigation potential of the state is although in abundance but restricted to a limited portion, the reason being mountainous and tough terrain of the state coupled with the existence of Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan over water sharing.
Out of the too little total irrigation facilities in the state, about 91% is done primarily through irrigation canals. This irrigation facility is restricted to narrow plains along the rivers and Kashmir valley only.
Nearly 80% of the total population of the state depends on agriculture despite the fact that 90% of the total agriculture land is rain-fed and the agriculture always suffers due to continuous dry spells. The average annual rainfall in the entire state ranges between 500-1000 mm and the concentration of rainfall is in the months of June, July and August every year when nearly more than three-fourth of the annual rainfall is received. Only one-fourth of the total rainfall is received in rest of the 9 months. This nearly 800mm of rainfall received in 3 months of monsoon goes wasted as run-off which causes heavy losses to the life and property due to flash floods and inundation leading to law and order problems. A heavy chunk of cultivable land gets eroded by torrential rains across Jammu region during monsoon season. Moreover in the absence of adequate groundwater recharging infrastructures, the water table is continuously declining thus causing threats to the drinking water availability. Before the water crisis further deepens, there is a dire need to harvest the rainwater being wasted as runoff so as to recharge the existing water sources.
Water is considered as one of the most important elements in this universe to support life and no creature can survive without it. We, despite being having high regard for water, could not save and conserve water and its sources probably because of its availability in abundance. Now a situation has arrived when a single drop of water matters and we have to realize the seriousness of this issue and initiate the efforts to conserve rain water through various means. The water source gets naturally recharged through percolation. But due to the indiscriminate development and rapid urbanization, the exposed surface area of the soil has been reduced drastically with resultant reduction in percolation of the rain water thereby depleting the groundwater resources. The rainwater harvesting is the process of augmenting the natural filtration of the rainwater into underground formations by some artificial methods. It is the conscious collection and storage of rainwater to cater the demands of water for drinking, irrigation and other domestic purposes.
A view of a rainwater harvesting structure
A proper rainwater harvesting is vital to arrest the groundwater decline, conserve surface water run-off during monsoon, and reduce soil erosion and to inculcate the culture of water conservation. This conserved rainwater during the monsoon period can be put to agriculture and other domestic uses during the stress period which can provide supplementary and life saving irrigation. The storage tanks can also serve the purpose of percolation and recharging of ground water and the problem of portable water can also be redressed.
The term rainwater harvesting is being regularly talked these days; however the concept of rainwater harvesting is not new to India. Rainwater harvesting techniques had been evolved and developed centuries ago. Many rulers in Southern India used to construct huge tanks/ponds to store rainwater for using the same for agriculture and other purposes in stress period. The need of the hour is to revive all the existing water harvesting structures and propose new structures at suitable sites where maximum storage capacity can be created with minimum financial involvement. Revival process should necessarily be backed by the people’s initiatives. The harvesting of surface run-off can serve the twin objectives of irrigation and ground water recharging by constructing small water-harvesting structures fulfilling the agricultural needs of small farmers in a particular micro-watershed. Moreover small structures for conservation of roof top rainwater can also be constructed to meet the daily domestic needs to ease pressure on the portable water supply in water scarce areas.
(The writer is a KAS officer)
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