Need for remedial measures to save water resources

Pune: A review of the National Water Policy 2002 is now mandatory. This was the view expressed by hydrological expert C.D. Thatte, who led the discussions on climate change and the impact on water resources at a two-day national seminar on ‘Adapting to Climate Change’, jointly organised by the National Water Academy (NWA) and the Dam Safety Organisation at Pune on December 5-6. “A review is necessary with the objective of implementing apt measures to counter the impact of climate change on the country’s water resources,” he said. Thatte, a former secretary to the union ministry for water resources, further stated that the focus of such a review ought to be on identifying responses that were based on a scientific assessment of the possible impacts. “For example, we have to consider how the present run off proportion of prime river basins, Indus and Ganga, were likely to be impacted due to the Himalayan snowmelt,” he said. Considering that such a ‘scientific assessment’ has not happened so far, Thatte stressed upon an urgent need to adapt a “reasoned approach” towards understanding climate change not just in context of India but also the world. Elaborating on the possible impacts that may take place, Thatte said that the country’s water resources management strategy might get affected by changes in the precipitation patterns owing to factors like active gap phases in the monsoon, extreme rain events and variability in drought, desertification and floods. He, therefore, called for focus on the run offs and storages along river basins for increasing human dependability on the same to at least 50%. The event was held to take a dedicated view of climate change and its impact on water resources in the wake of projections about intense changes in the hydrological cycle, which is expected to reflect in the availability of water, precipitation, extreme rainfall events in concentrated areas, frequency as well as intensity of floods, droughts and other natural catastrophes. Moving on to discuss the kind of remedial measures that can be taken, Thatte suggested building additional carry-over storages as well as hydro-power stations, converting hydro-power units into pump turbines and developing systems for interconnection of river basins. “Measures like interconnectivity through the river-link plan were inevitable to ensure inter-basin water transfer from surplus to deficit basis. Also, this has to be taken on immediately because such connectivity projects will only get costlier by each day,” he stated. According to NWA chief Chetan Pandit, the climate change debate across the world was focused on issues concerning emissions and on the melting of mountainous glaciers, which actually constitute a relatively smaller part of the water resources. “This perception needs to be rectified,” he concluded.

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