Watershed management: People matter " The Hindu Article" A leading news paper of INDIA
Dushyant Badal
to talk about and to support environmental causes. But not so in the
rural areas where farmers are trying desperately to make both ends
meet. Environmental problems in urban areas have received much
attention and action while the rural areas, home to 70 per cent of the
National population continue to deteriorate. Victims of the whimsical
monsoons and fickle market prices, these poor farmers have very little
control over their destiny. Furthermore, due to increasing pressure of
population, there is demand for more land for agricultural and non-
agricultural use. Unhealthy practices on available land have resulted
in creation of vast stretches of wastelands due to soil salinity,
water logging, desertification and soil erosion.
In fact, according to the Ninth Five Year Plan Document, soil erosion
is contributing to degradation in about 45 per cent of the cultivable
area of the country. The estimates of wastelands range from 76 million
hectares to 175 million hectares. In a densely populated country like
India, one cannot afford to let so much land remain idle. To make this
land cultivable, the productive approach is through watershed
development.
A watershed (or catchment) is a geographical area that drains to a
common point, which makes it an ideal planning unit for conservation
of soil and water. The idea is really quite simple and is perhaps as
old as the history of farming. But, the benefits are manifold. It
changes the entire landscape of an arid area making the land fertile,
making growth of trees possible and checking soil erosion and water
logging.
Therefore, the government is giving high priority to holistic and
sustainable development of rain-fed areas based on the watershed
approach. A large number of projects for productivity enhancement are
being implemented based on the watershed approach. This is being done
through centrally sponsored schemes of the Government, externally
aided projects and private initiatives of local communities and NGOs.
The watershed programmes are implemented by the Zilla Panchayat
through watershed associations. A Project Implementing Agency (PIA),
which may be a Government Department or an NGO, is assigned about 10
micro watersheds, each micro watershed covering about 500 hectares.
The PIA forms a watershed development team that interacts with the
watershed associations and provides technical assistance to the
watershed association in the planning and implementation of the
watershed programme. The residents of the area covered by the
watersheds are also organised into self-help groups and user groups.
In fact, these user groups are the beginning point as well as the end
point for Watershed Development programmes. Their initiative is
crucial to the success of the programme and they are the ultimate
beneficiaries.
Evaluation reports have shown that watershed projects cannot succeed
without full participation of project beneficiaries and careful
attention to issues of social organisation. This is because their
success depends on consensus among a large number of users. Moreover,
collective capability and action is required for management of
existing as well as new structures created during the project.
Otherwise, the costs and benefits of watershed interventions are
location-specific and unevenly distributed among the people affected.
The unfortunate truth today is that most projects have failed to
generate sustainability because of the failure of government agencies
to involve the people. Up to the end of the eighth plan period, 16.5
million hectares of rain fed/degraded land have been developed under
different schemes. However, this does not get reflected in the data
for Net Sown Area, which has remained almost stagnant at around 142
million hectares for the last 30 years. This indicates that there was
no sustainability of efforts made.
This lack of sustainability can be attributed to a number of practices
followed by the Government in the implementation of the watershed
development programmes. Strict orientation to achieve physical and
financial targets discourages the project authorities to promote
people's participation. There is considerable pressure to spend
substantial resources by a fixed deadline leaving no room for pursuing
participatory approaches. It is imperative for the successful
implementation of the watershed projects that people participate in
the planning and execution of the project from the beginning. This
would inculcate a sense of ownership among the people. Fostering a
sense of ownership will undoubtedly go a long way in ensuring the
success of watershed programmes.
Although encouraging people's participation is the key to sustainable
watershed development programmes, these programmes face some other
bottlenecks as well:
* There is no arrangement for handing over of structures and
maintenance of plantation after a project is completed.
* In the present form, schemes are planned and executed by district
level officers who have very limited capacity to do so. So, there is a
need to train both the government officials and functionaries of
agencies, which take up watershed projects.
* Little evaluation of the programme is done after it has run for a
couple of years as it is taken for granted that once money has been
spent, physical progress automatically results. But, this is far from
the truth.
* Programmes are run departmentally with little vertical
compartmentalisation. Horizontal linkages between various agencies are
very weak. Thus, although watershed development may require
integration of soil conservation techniques with plantation, there is
little likelihood of effective coordination between the District Soil
Conservation Officer and the District Forest Officer.
* Forest lands, non-forest pastures, wastelands and crop lands must be
looked at in an integrated manner. As this is usually not done,
treatment upstream to reduce soil movement does not benefit large
farmers who are downstream. They see no advantage and are indifferent
or opposed to this strategy. They would prefer to conserve and harvest
water in the drainage line to be used for irrigation or to replenish
groundwater. However, lands in the upper catchment areas must always
be rehabilitated first.
Despite problems, there are many success stories. Successful and
sustainable projects include Ralegoan Siddhi, revival of johad in
Alwar, Sadguru Foundation's activities in Gujarat, Watershed
Development in Jhabhua and Sagar districts of Madhya Pradesh and
externally aided projects like KAWAD, SDC, DANIDA in Karnataka, World
Bank Project in Andhra Pradesh and DANIDA project in Tamil Nadu.
All of these successful projects have some characteristics in common —
emphasis on social issues, social mobilisation, clear direction to the
Government to accept principles of participatory management,
transparent project monitoring and a strong sense of ownership by the
local community.
In fact, Ralegaon Siddhi has become a role model for people across the
country to learn how people's involvement is instrumental to the
success of watershed activities. It stands testimony to the fact that
the key to rural economy is the development of watersheds and the key
to development of watersheds is participation of local farming
communities.