Water Crisis and the Monsoon Factor in India, Discuss the necessary measures.
"Prevention is always better than cure" is an often quoted line but highly downplayed too otherwise our country would not have been facing so many water crisis which mainly includes floods and droughts in spite of a growing technical base. The recent flood in Kashmir further plunged the heavenly state into despair when the locals were still trying to recover from the devastating wrath of Jhelum overflow but the main bone of contention is the total failure of authorities specially the state functionary to even provide basic rescue and support to those affected . Here we should feel honored to have a dedicated army and air force who left no stone unturned to help the needy and saved the state from further crisis. This should open our eyes and make us take efficient steps to strengthen the response level and helplessness of authorities and our volunteer base in face of any future crisis.
Crisis due to act of God like tsunami, cyclones like hud-hud, heavy downpour , water scarcity are almost beyond our control but with today's high-tech capabilities and cross national cooperation we could go a long way to mitigate it through measures like the much proposed interlinking of river project which could transfer excess flow in flood prone conditions to places of water scarcity and it also gives us an opportunity to resolve the interstate river disputes, on top of it we need better early warning system(EWS), disaster management training for volunteers, National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) with proper training and rescue equipment . Here cooperation of neighbors could be a huge boon like the ongoing hydro project in Nepal, Bhutan could check the potential water crises and at the same time address our energy deficit issues. The proposed SAARC satellite by our PM seems to be a compelling means to monitor the future crisis and help forces to better resolve and rescue. But we also need to monitor the river treaty like Indus treaty with Pakistan and Bangladesh treaty to have a good sense of understanding and cooperation on water sharing and crisis management.
Another major issue is of irregular monsoon which many scholars believe is mainly due to global warming and related causes. This uncertainty in monsoon adversely affects a country like ours which is largely agrarian with over 64 % of population engaged in agriculture and allied activities a large share of whom are still dependent on monsoon for irrigation. Lack of modern irrigation facilities and disconnection with regular climate updates leads to crop failure forcing many farmers to even succumb to suicide. In order to stop this appalling state of farmers many steps need to be taken first of which is rural financial institutions with low interest rates on loans then comes the regular moderation of Minimum Support Price(MSP) to support farmers and discourage them from distress selling and in crisis situations even debt waivers as a last measure. In this modern age we should take steps to integrate our farmers with the current undercurrent of ICT by SMS facilities on latest news and issues, Kisan Call Centre facility and soil cards to make them competitive in this globalized world.
Lastly, the government should act like a true captain to create a winning team specially of our farmers with game changer initiatives like joint research initiatives for study and information sharing with neighboring countries for climate monitoring specifically of potentially challenging phenomena's like El Nino, La Nina which have already devastated many crops and lives around the world. Some other contemporary successful steps like barrage in flood areas could go a long way to address the crisis situation much like it helped in the case of regular flooding from Kosi in Bihar which even gave it a name of the 'Sorrow of Bihar'. Hence, through the constant efforts and initiatives we could realize the famous lines of our late PM Lal Bahadur Shastri – "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" which really give us an idea how important both our armed forces and farmers are for our true emergence.
-Harsh Bhardwaj
