Policies and Laws - Rainwater Harvesting

Faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth – An approach to the twelfth five year plan – Draft report by Planning Commission

This draft report by the Planning Commission, which presents an approach to the twelfth five year plan among other things outlines some of the challenges related to agriculture, natural resources management and water resources management. The concerns related to water resources management discussed at length in the report have been summarized below -

Rainwater harvesting in urban areas of Karnataka (Government of Karnataka) - Draft policy (2006)

The Rainwater Harvesting Policy (2006) for Karnataka state has evolved out of the need for conserving rainwater and providing facilities for rainwater harvesting, in the context of the growing rate of urbanisation in the state and the rapid depletion of groundwater resources, leading to a water crisis.

The objective of the urban rainwater harvesting policy is to ensure that the available water is put to best possible use in the state by encouraging involvement of  multiple level of stakeholders such  as government and private institutions as well as  citizens, in the appropriate management of rainwater. Read More

Guidelines for extending green revolution to eastern India - Document prepared by Department for Agriculture and Cooperation (2011)

There is an ongoing programme to extend the benefits of the green revolution to the eastern parts of the country. The states of Assam, Bihar, eastern U.P, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa were allocated extra funds in the last year for this purpose. This year (2011-12) too, the Union Budget has allocated additional Rs.400 crore for the same purpose. The money will be utilised according to a plan created by these states. The plan is to address the main constraints impeding the growth of agriculture. The short and medium term plan focuses on water management, efficient power and other input utilisation. Also the creation and maintenance of agricultural assets like wells is also looked into.

The planning was done so that non-National Food Security Mission (NFSM)  districts are mostly chosen. These constitute 54 % of the total districts (97 out of 183). Also,  clusters of villages comprising of 1000 hectares land were made in most cases. Such clusters would expedite execution, monitoring and create visible impacts.

Deep wells and prudence - Towards pragmatic action for addressing groundwater overexploitation in India - A World Bank document (2010)

India is the largest user of groundwater resources in the world. It is estimated that approximately 230 cubic kilometers per year is used annually, this is more than a quarter of the total world consumption from this resource.

It is in this context that this World Bank report looks at the reasons for this quantum of groundwater usage.

The report delves into socio-economic and political reasons and looks at policies which inadvertently promote so much extraction. The report also analyses various attempts to manage this resource. These attempts range from government and international agency efforts directed to grassroots mobilisations. Finally the report comes out with suggestions to deal with this crisis.

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