6. Water Management

As I type this, there are floods in Assam, and there's a drought in some other parts of India.

And this seems to happen every year.

India has seasonal rains, 60% of the population is dependent on Agriculture, and that largely depends on the Monsoons.

We have already seen serious intra-state disputes between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over Kaveri water. With growing population, water will become a more precious commodity in near future, and this would only grow and potentially constitute a serious threat to national security if we continue to neglect it.

Now, I am not necessarily talking about grand man-made rivers or canals running all the way from Assam and North Bihar to Rajasthan and Gujrat. (These could also be considered, but after careful ecological impact studies).

At least we could address the issue of the same place facing water shortages and then floods within a span of a few months? (E.g. Mumbai, till late Jun 2009 was facing water shortages, and got flooded after the monsoons arrived)

Why cannot we invest a small amount in local storage solutions to at least deal with that?

(Added Aug 2009) - Now, we simultaneously have both floods in North Bihar, and Draught in the south parts of the same state!

Bihar's plain is divided into two unequal halves by the river Ganga that flows through the middle from the west to the east into the Bay of Bengal. The topography of the state slopes from north to the south and the monsoon rains flood all the eight rivers of the north Bihar that flows down from Nepal to meet the Ganges in the south. As a result 15 districts in north and central Bihar remains water logged. The floods affect about 56.5 per cent people of the state every year. If North Bihar remains under the grip of floods, south and central Bihar falls under the rain shadow area. There are 10-12 districts that face draught like situation due to inadequate rains. The draught and rain creates water management challenges and needs to be addressed for agricultural development of the state.

Clearly, there has to be a solution to this annual ritual? If our capable engineers can build a large storage for the excess water in the north of the state, and then a canal to pump it to the south, and maybe to other nearby states such as MP, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh