DROUGHT

From 1967 Bihar drought emergency, throgh 1968 drought of Madhya Pradesh, 1973 drought of Maharashtra, 1980 drought of south Bihar (Jharkhand)  and several short and long water episodes in between, we are back with Maharashtra drought again. Over and above, the matter has now reached up to the level of Supreme Court as well.   But we may ask why? Why the PIL when our overall outlook is blocked within the perception that our water needs are to be met with all the visible water that can be accessed with little or no efforts. This thought is confined  within the understanding that the system of water resources has not lost its cyclic dynamics of emptying the storage and its eventual monsoon replenishment. This relationship had rather struck a balance through centuries of practices. hundreds of years may have gone to understand the nature of monsoon and the type of food that can be grown on the land of his. And thre is uniqueness here, pertaining to ones village or territory or a kind of geographical facet one identifies with. Here, one has to recognise the plurality and due to this diversity practices of water use is different in different locations. A more simplistic view is that the rivers and the springs and all the lakes hold unlimited water and the human habitats have the rights to empty them. The wells and the reservoirs,  are though manmade, they too can be emptied till the end and wth utmost certinty will be replenished during the next monsoon. Unfortunately, we have the devices in the name of technology, though they are only the tools, being used indiscremintely to exploit water consuming legally or illegally excess of power to draw water, mostly in excess to what is needed.

With this mindset,  we have gone all the way to provide water to arid Jaiselmmer/Barmer and create irrigation facilities in Gujarat and Rajasthan, grow sugarcane in drought prone Maharashtra and several countless miracles using borrowed water from the  water saturated or water abundant areas. But the reality is absolutely different.

So, are we not talking about a the delayed justice of a persisting abuse caused by the users of water by overdraft from all sources  or should we probe why all these state governments jointly with the union government has been instrumental in pursuing a number of unrealistic policies on water resources. explain this  long, sustained abuse and neglect towards nature's water. Since this is not a legal issue by merit, and the abuse is long and sustained one, it's solution cannot come from the  actions of the disaster management team because drought is not a disaster it is a fall out of a series of systematic errors in the form of negative actions initiated in the name of providing water to people who needs it.  But who decides, justifies or qualifies the need, and for that matter who does not need water?

The initiatives or campaigns for Water conservatìon was operational in full swing when Bihar drought intrrupted. It was the impact of these (unfruitful) actions that two parallel  actions began, simultaneously. Firstly the Non-governmental actions gained momentum to extend and expand their innovative approaches. The focus area was the village community. The concerns at social arena was à bit vocal that was also a desirable happening to moderate the technology  dilute the  against