M.Gopalakrishnan speaking on Policy Issues (Photo: Praveena Sridhar)
M. Gopalkrishnan speaks on policy support issues in basin management. He believes, small is beautiful... big is beautiful too! Both have their own relevance. He goes on to compare small scale water harvesting sytems with large dams , citing how each one of them stand as an answer in different situations.
If large scale, long distance water transfer can enhance regional benefits , then how do we re-examine this proposition with better scientific tools? We need to find answers to this !
A section of the audience (Photo: Praveena Sridhar)
To this he answered: Can a city of 16 million, manage its resources with local solutions? The people have to store water for themselves, in cities like New Delhi. If not this, the alternative could be that we have huge dams to store their water. If it is possible to mobilize local managment of water in a whole city then the problem is solved ! But is this really possible?
There are situations that demand intervention at a larger scale, and localized measures may not prove to be practical. Under those conditions we do not have a choice. We need to manage water efficiently and judiciously, as by 2030 the population in cities are expected to double itself!