10 years on, Maharashtra government finally breathes life into state water council

To introduce much-needed discipline in the distribution of water to various geographical regions and interest groups, the government will finally activate the state water council a decade after it was supposed to be made functional.

First council meeting today
The first meeting of the council, which has chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as the president and comprises ministers and bureaucrats from stakeholder departments like finance, water resources, agriculture, water supply, industries and urban development as members, is scheduled to happen on Saturday, said a senior official. The council had not met in 10 years despite a provision in this regard in the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act, 2005.

How will the council help?
"The council will monitor the irrigation sector and approve the integrated state water plan," said a senior bureaucrat. The official said that this would do away with clashes between various sub-regions in the state, for example, between Ahmednagar and Marathwada, over the release of water from dams in the former district for the Jaikwadi project.
"This will also ensure that competing claims by various end users like drinking water, agriculture and industry are balanced and taken care of. This will bring about much needed de-polticisation of these decisions," the official said, pointing out how farmers object to water from irrigation projects being given to industries. Water sector experts have also red-flagged the increasing cultivation of water guzzling sugarcane in parched regions like Marathwada, where people even find it difficult to procure drinking water.

State's irrigation sources and coverage
Maharashtra has five river basin systems, namely, Tapi, Krishna, Godavari, Narmada, which account for 55% of the dependable water yield, while the remaining 45% water flow is from the westward flowing rivers which originate in the Western Ghats. These are monsoon specific and drain into the Arabian Sea. The state's irrigation coverage is much less than the national average of about 45 per cent despite having the highest number of dams in India. The state has around 589 irrigation projects under construction with a balance cost of around Rs 72,000 crore.

The state water board under the chief secretary, which comprises senior bureaucrats from related departments, and is supposed to prepare a draft integrated state water plan on the basis of basin and sub-basin water plans prepared by the river basin agencies, has met only twice in 2013 and 2014.

Striking a balance in water demands
"This will also ensure river basin-wise water management," the official said, pointing out that the plan and the oversight exerted by the council and board will also help strike a balance between demands of various stakeholders like urban areas (for drinking water), agriculture and industries. The plan will take into account the demands of these stakeholders, availability and type of use of water, and hydrology.
Presently, the various irrigation development corporations only handle the construction of dams.

Graft in irrigation department
In 2012, the state's economic survey said that irrigation had risen by just 0.1% to 17.9% from 2001 to 2010 despite Rs 70,000 crore being spent on the sector. This had led then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to assure a white paper on the issue, which led to confrontation with the NCP and then deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. However, the white paper pegged the irrigation coverage at a higher level.
After allegations of corruption in irrigation projects surfaced, Pawar had resigned in September 2012 only to be sworn in again two months later. Pawar was the irrigation minister from 1999 to 2010.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has repeatedly pointed to maladministration in the state's irrigation projects.

Big budget, little change
*Geographical area: 308 lakh hectare
*Cultivable area: 225 lakh hectare
*40% is drought-prone
*7% is flood-prone
*Rainfall pattern: Highly variable
*Rise in irrigation from 2001 to 2010: 0.1% to 17.9% despite a Rs70,000 cr outlay
(according to Economic Survey)