
In Maharashtra, a “Water Cup competition” held annually by Paani Foundation started by film star Aamir Khan and his team is compelling everyone working in the water sector to take serious note of it.
Paani Foundation was set up with the aim of making Maharashtra drought-free through water conservation competition among villages. It has created a storm (Tufaan Aalaya, in the words of its promoters) of sorts by bringing people and different stakeholders together to work towards the common cause of drought eradication. While fully acknowledging and appreciating this initiative for its important contribution, this article critically comments on the misleading framework of drought eradication adopted by this initiative and other important shortcomings of it. While doing so, the article also aims to point out important lessons NGOs and corporate sectors can take from this pioneering approach.
First, let’s discuss some of the positive outcomes of the initiative:
It is not clear which type of drought the Foundation is claiming to eradicate through the competition. As the Water Cup approach primarily focuses on increasing the water harvesting potential by harvesting additional runoff, let’s assume the Foundation is talking about addressing the meteorological and agricultural drought by making more water available for crops in the dry period. Unfortunately, Maharashtra is a good example that such a strategy is not enough to make villages drought proof.
Maharashtra has the highest number of dams in the country (Government of India, 2007; Meena M and Uzramma, 2017) and has a glorious history of implementation of watershed development projects wherein thousands of soil and water conservation measures are taken by government, corporates and NGOs in the state (Wani S et al, 2011; Kerr J et al, 2002). Apart from these, there are many government schemes under which water harvesting structures have been built in villages.
The Jalyukt Shivar Scheme, the flagship programme launched by the state to make it drought free in 2019 has augmented the water harvesting potential of the state during the last few years, according to the government.[iv] Therefore, it is practically difficult to find a village in Maharashtra where a soil conservation treatment or water harvesting structure has not been built. However, observations show that all these efforts have not resulted in making these villages completely free from drought (except a few villages where villagers put self-regulations on water-use and cropping pattern). This is because increasing water availability is not the only criterion to make villages drought-proof. We need to keep in mind that, in most cases, the water generated is used for irrigation by a few farmers in the villages whereas most of the land in drought-prone regions is rain dependent (rainfed) and are not benefited from the water harvested.
Importantly, on the issue of increasing water availability and creating structures, most villagers come forward as they are not losing anything by doing so, whereas when it comes to reducing the water use, most farmers, particularly the economically better off ones, do not cooperate. The Water Cup competition gives very little emphasis on water management aspects, such as water budgeting and soil quality improvement. Mobilising and sensitising villagers for adopting water management practices is more challenging than merely bringing them together for water harvesting.
Drought is found to be the result of socio-economic, environmental and political decisions at different levels where available water is being diverted to non-agricultural purposes and runoff in upper reaches is arrested in irrigation projects (reducing water availability to downstream regions/villages, which creates drought-like conditions). Hence to conclude, the Water Cup competition of 45 days will result in making villages drought-free seems like a utopia where there is little practicality and more emotional appeal. The approach is not based on a comprehensive understanding of drought and its complexity.