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Watershed Management & It’s Importance

Watershed: It is an area of land that feeds all the water running under it and draining off it into a body of water.

Watershed Management refers to the management and conservation of surface and groundwater resources, which includes surface and groundwater resources, which includes conservation, regeneration and judicious use of all resources.

Introduction

In many cities across the world, rapid urbanization and the population’s growth have led to scarcity and rising cost of water. Scientists predict that water demand will exceed supply by 40% by 2030, due to combined climate change and population growth. Achieving universal access to improved water supply and sanitation facilities by 2030 in one of Sustainable Development Goals SG (SDGs)

Watershed Management is an adaptive, comprehensive, integrated multi-resource management planning process that seeks to balance healthy, ecological, economic and cultural/social conditions, within a watershed. It serves to integrate the planning of land and water.

Importance

• It recharges the groundwater table.
• Restores soil fertility and helps in soil conservation
• Restores water for drinking and other human purposes.
• It helps to fight climate change and promotes sustainable agriculture.
• Protects biodiversity of a region, if managed properly can restore biodiversity.

The Central or State government will recognize the regions for the need for watershed management under, “Pradhan Mantri Kristi Sinchai Yojana”, which will be work under the Ministry of Rural Development.

Pradhan Mantri Kristi Sinchai Yojana

It is a central scheme, aims at providing irrigation facilities at every village, in a country by converging on-going irrigation schemes.

The visions of extending the converge of irrigation facilities at every village, in a country by converge irrigation “ Har khet Ko Paani ” and improving water use of efficiency, “More Crop Per Drop” in a focused manner.

It will concentrate on 2 important things.

1. It should quickly put to use 20-40 million of unutilized irrigation potential created in a major, medium & minor irrigation projects.
2. It should provide better quality power rations to farmers during the time of peak irrigation demands.

Example: “Neeranchal National Watershed Project” is one of the irrigation schemes for the watershed compared of the “Pradhan Mantri Kristi Sinchai Yojana “(PMKSY)

 Way Forward

•  Managing water resources is key to create a water-secure future.
• Encouraging community involvement in improving water management.
• Training Farmers on water conservation practices.
• The budgetary allocation should be commensurate to the requirement of the project sanctioned.
• Better coordinating with the states and rollback to the old folding model of 90:10 can help.
• Expending the selection of a third party will expedite the implementation.