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Watershed Development: Issues and Prospects
Research Team: K. J. Joy, Suhas Paranjape, A.K. Kiran Kumar, Rohini Lele and Raju Adagale
This review examined the watershed development experience in Maharashtra and Karnataka with the aim of isolating key conceptual, policy, and research issues with regard to livelihoods, equity, sustainability, and participation. The review developed a rigorous and comprehensive normative framework based on the concepts of livelihood enhancement, sustainability, equity, and participation. The study then used data from existing reviews, assessments, project reports, and some field visits to assess the impact, in terms of the above mentioned normative framework, of a whole range of ongoing and completed watershed development projects in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The review found that there has been a beneficial impact of watershed development on watershed ecosystems: soil erosion has been checked; land cover has improved, and groundwater recharge has increased. However, there have been many negative impacts viz. absence of measures to socially regulate water use, bringing non-cropped area into cultivation, and a shift towards input-intensive cash crops in cropped areas. In terms of aggregate productivity gains, the overall response from farmers is that watershed development has a significant impact in the better (rainfall) years, but not otherwise. Externalities of watershed development are showing up at the basin-scale in the form of decreased flows into downstream tanks and reservoirs. Simultaneously, inter-sectoral externalities are also created. Inequitable impacts even within the watershed are another major concern.
In terms of local participation, the emphasis on self-help groups has helped women and marginalised communities in some ways, but it has not led to their becoming an integral part of the watershed development activity. More often participation is seen as an instrument to obtain co-operation as a result more community based organizations (CBOs) are being formed. Though the funds are being channeled through CBOs, much of the decision making still remains in the hands of the development agencies.The review came up with a series of recommendations for policy-makers, implementing agencies, and researchers. At the outset, it calls for giving centrality to the goals of livelihood enhancement, sustainability, equity, and participation by all these actors. Practitioners then need to adopt pro-active measures to deal with sustainability and equity issues. The lack of adequate data and systematic research on many aspects calls for a well coordinated research. A related recommendation is to release the massive amount of data with the scientific and government establishment into the public domain and make it readily available at affordable prices. At the policy level, the review strongly recommends enabling legislation for collective regulation of groundwater use and eventually moving towards integrated water resource management (IWRM) from below.
Published as: Technical report, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development, Bangalore (Executive Summary)
Contact: cised@isec.ac.in
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