Integrated water resource management can address the problems related to water in India. Discuss.

July 10, 2023 February 21, 2024

IWRM refers to managing water and land resources in an integrated manner, taking the river sub-basin as the basic unit. National water policy 2012, brought in the concept of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM).
Features of IWRM:

  • River basin as the base unit.
  • Watershed management.
  • Water and land are taken as an integrated aspect.
  • Focus on saving water and increasing water use efficiency.
  • Take measures to prevent pollution of water bodies from both point and non-point sources.
  • Focus on sustainable water development, participation of the community, and a cluster-based approach.

Issues with the current system of water management:

  • Focus on water and water bodies as an exclusive, disjoint aspect of ecology, suffers from a holistic approach. Instead, land, water, and related resources need to be developed in a coordinated manner.
  • Too much focus on irrigation, and building large dams, obstruct the natural flow of water bodies, thus creating several social and ecological problems.
  • Flood management is seen as a problem that can be solved by structural measures.
  • Policy planning suffers from the non-participation of the local community and traditional knowledge is often neglected.

How IWRM can help?

  • Inter-basin transfer from surplus to deficit regions.
  • Focus on maintaining a minimum water flow in a river to meet ecological needs.
  • Development of groundwater resources by reducing exploitation and taking measures to restore the water table.
  • Making safe drinking water accessible by maintaining the minimum quality of potable water.
  • Flood management via focus on non-structural measures like forecasting, warning, zoning, etc.

Recently Ministry of Jal Shakti has constituted a committee to draft a new water policy. The aim to establish a National Bureau of Water Use Efficiency is the right step.

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