LOCAL LEVEL ACTION Drought in Gujarat: Need ABOUT THIS ISSUE for Adaptation Measures ndia is reeling under an tates of India such as Gujarat Dwarka district. In these villages, I intense drought situation which has Sare increasingly facing the state authority is providing affected close to 330 million people droughts. What is needed is large water through tankers and from 10 states. Bad monsoons and weak scale adaptation measures. subsidized fodder for the cattle. policies around water security have However, the state's unfolding further compounded the problem and Gujarat is reeling under an acute response in tackling the scarcity precipitated a crisis. Rising drought and shortage of drinking has already created a huge temperatures and acute water shortages water in areas like Saurashtra, shortage of drinking water in are adversely affecting human health Kutch and some northern parts of rural areas where no other sources as well as the economy which is the state. Last two monsoons have are available. primarily reliant on agriculture. been below normal, causing a shortage of drinking water and As an emergency measure, the This issue of Southasiadisasters.net is adversely hitting the agriculture, government of Gujarat has titled 'Towards Drought Free India'. which is the main source of declared that water stored in any Droughts are complex, slow on set livelihood for more than 80 % reservoir or any dam will be disasters which have great implications population in the state. Due to reserved only for drinking for society and the economy. With close uneven and erratic rainfall last purpose, hitting the farmers who to 60% of the population involved in year, the state's reservoirs and would not get any water for agriculture and allied activities, dams, which supply water for irrigation. This measure may lead droughts in India can be particularly drinking and also irrigation, to loss of crop. debilitating. They disrupt rural remained half filled and at livelihoods and lead to an increase in present, they are nearly empty Recently, farmers in Banaskantha distress migration. holding less than 20 % storage. district had blocked highways demanding release of water for Besides agriculture and drinking irrigation as their standing crop A combination of strong policy water shortage, the drought has was wilting. Similarly, farmers of measures and robust grassroots also affected cattle breeding and Bhavnagar district were on initiatives are needed to alleviate the animal husbandry throughout the protest for last few days distress caused by the droughts. This state. demanding irrigation water from issue of Southasiadisasters.net takes stock Shetrunji dam because the of such measures. It highlights the The Gujarat government has irrigation department stopped prevailing drought situation from 7 recently declared total 1150 supply on the grounds that the Indian states, viz. Maharashtra, Bihar, villages as "scarcity hit" in Rajkot, water is reserved for drinking Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Amreli, Kutch, Jamnagar and purposes. Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. Short and long term measures to combat the adverse impacts of such droughts have SC Directs Centre, States to Tackle also been elaborated. In a predominantly agrarian country like Drought India, livelihood security during a drought is perhaps the most effective n a scathing 53-page verdict on the "lack of will" shown by the preparedness measure. This issue also ICentre and States in combating drought and saving lives, the highlights how the Mahatma Gandhi Supreme Court on Wednesday pronounced the Centre guilty of National Rural Employment "washing its hands of" a national disaster that consumed one-fourth Generation Scheme (MNERGS) can be of the country. It also pulled up Gujarat, Bihar and Haryana for leveraged to provide succor to drought adopting an "ostrich-like attitude" towards declaring drought and affected rural communities. driving their own people to suicide, starvation and mass migration. – Kshitij Gupta, AIDMI Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/declaration-of- drought-define-time-limit-supreme-court-tells-centre/article8584340.ece 2 southasiadisasters.net June 2016 According to one estimate of civil districts where drought occurs once On its part, the Gujarat government society groups, more than 5000 in every three year. has spent over Rs 20000 crore in villages in Saurashtra and Kutch will Narmada canal and pipeline network be severely hit with water and In Ahmedabad district, there are six to create a water grid to supply fodder crisis in summer and the state blocks of 4,429 sq km which were water in parched districts and far administration is not gearing up to covered under DPAP, while in flung areas in north Gujarat, address the crisis and create support Vadodara there are five blocks of Saurashtra and Kutch. systems to deal with the emerging 3,244 sq km area. In Saurashatra situation. Over 50 towns and region of Amreli 11 blocks with an However, coastal districts like Saurashtra and Kutch don't get water area of 7,393 sq km were covered Junagadh, Amreli and Dwarka are supply on day-to-day basis. under DPAP, followed by not covered under the Narmada Bhavnagar, 4,896 sq km, Junagadh, project and are therefore adversely As per the union agriculture 3162 sq km and Porbandar 1,729 sq affected by the poor monsoon in ministry's drought management km. Out of the total cultivable land terms of water availability for division, in Gujarat, an area of 43,938 of 9.7 million hectares in the state, drinking and agricultural purposes. sq km in 14 districts has been about a third is irrigated area, while The inordinate dependence of these declared as drought prone. a large part of the land is rain fed, districts (expect Jamnagar) on According to the survey of Drought thereby leaving farmers exposed to agriculture has further exacerbated Prone Area Programme (DPAP) the vagaries of monsoon. the drought situation. there are 67 blocks in these 14 – Mihir R. Bhatt MAHARASHTRA Drought to Jalyukta Maharashtra he Maharashtra government has water harvesting activities like in 5 districts from Pune division in Tdeclared drought in 14,708 sludge extraction in Latur district and the year 2012-13. Under this, an villages of the state. However, well refilling in Nanded district have action plan was prepared for water according to the recent data been successfully conducted. To harvesting and increasing published by South Asia Network permanently overcome the drought groundwater level by implementing on Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP) situation, Jalyukta Gaav (waterful various schemes collectively through based on a comparative analysis of village) campaign was implemented coordination of all departments. the water situation in 1972 and 2015 in Maharashtra, the drought has been cited as the result of inadequate and corrupt water management and not poor rainfall as rationalized by the state authorities. Keeping in mind the drought situation, the government has also declared that the fees of school and college for students in these villages will be waived off. Other than this, the electricity bill of agricultural pumps too be will be waived off. The government also announced that it will establish special centers to purchase agricultural products. Since the past two years, the Government officials and citizens gathered at the Latur railway station to welcome Mahatma Phule water and land the water train. (Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/rf/image_size_640x362/HT/ conservation campaign has been p2/2016/04/12/Pictures/distributed-destination-distribution-marathwada-maharashtra- implemented in the state. Similarly, administration-purification_476a4460-0076-11e6-859d-3d3bb55f49d3.jpg) June 2016 southasiadisasters.net 3 To be fair, the government has been Aligning NREGA with programs of Such water based projects can also pro-actively dealing with the agriculture and allied sectors are be used in climate change adaptation drought situation, but a lot more can leading to enhanced yields. With the through community involvement be done. Till now, the main drought scope of works under NREGA and as a livelihood option. preparedness measures consist of expanded to include lands of small Conservation technologies — stress- just giving money or packages to the and marginal farmers, it is now tolerant, climate-resilient varieties of affected people. Also, they have possible to significantly enhance the seeds, drip irrigation, zero-tillage, cattle shades, school programs but irrigation potential in rain fed areas raised-bed planting, laser-levelling, which are mostly initiated by CSR and drought-proof small-holder Systems of Rice Intensification (SRI), or stakeholders other than the agriculture, leading to sustainable can build adaptive capacities to cope government. They do provide water and higher yields. with increasing water stress, by tankers, as this year they are providing "more crop per drop". using train water supply, but serious The main objective of the NREGA questions about the feasibility of scheme is to provide Similarly, strengthening land such measures prevail. complementing employment development practices such as land chances with the secondary objective levelling, conservation bench We can use many new water of eco-restoration & regeneration of terracing, contour and graded harvesting technologies so as to save the natural resource base for bunding, and pasture development water during the monsoons. For sustainable rural livelihood. This in prevent soil erosion and loss of instance, the cash- crops which turn will help in transparency and organic matter. Reclamation of requires lots of water should be accountability to permeate in rural wastelands and degraded lands cultivated depending upon the water governance leading to a together with afforestation, availability. Also use of green or solidification of grassroots level horticulture plantation and agro- natural pesticides, and the use of democracy. The following water forestry have the potential to local seeds should be given based projects come under the sequester carbon both above and preference over western purview of the NREGA scheme for below ground, thereby contributing technologies. drought preparedness.