Watershed Management: Why it matters and how it works

A watershed is an area of land that collects and channels water into a specific body of water. Watershed Management involves the careful management and conservation of both surface and groundwater resources within this area, focusing on the conservation, regeneration, and efficient utilization of these resources.

In urban areas worldwide, rapid urbanization and population growth have led to water scarcity and increased costs. Scientists project a 40% gap between water supply and demand by 2030, attributed to climate change and population growth. Achieving universal access to improved water supply and sanitation facilities by 2030 is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

What is Watershed Management?

Watershed management is the process of organizing and guiding land, water, and other natural resources used in a watershed to provide the appropriate goods and services while mitigating the impact on the soil and watershed resources. A watershed is an area of land that drains water to a common point, such as a river, lake, or ocean. Watersheds are important for the ecological, economic, and social well-being of the people and the environment.

Watershed management is based on the concept that the natural resources in a watershed are interrelated and interdependent and that any change in one component can affect the others. Therefore, watershed management adopts a holistic and integrated approach that considers the physical, biological, and socio-economic aspects of the watershed.

Watershed management also recognizes that the watershed is influenced by natural and human factors that operate at different scales, from local to global. Therefore, watershed management involves a participatory and adaptive process that engages multiple stakeholders and adapts to the changing conditions and needs of the watershed.

Importance

Watershed management is important for several reasons:

• It helps to conserve and enhance the quality and quantity of water resources, which are essential for human consumption, agriculture, industry, and recreation.
• It helps to prevent and control soil erosion, land degradation, flooding, drought, and sedimentation, which can affect the productivity and sustainability of land and water resources.
• It helps to protect and restore the biodiversity and ecosystem services of the watershed, such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, and pollination.
• It helps to improve the livelihoods and resilience of the people living in the watershed, especially the people living in poverty and marginalized, by providing them with food, income, employment, and social security.
• It helps to foster cooperation and coordination among different stakeholders, such as landowners, users, managers, and policymakers, who have different interests, needs, and responsibilities in the watershed.

Watershed management in India

India has a diverse and complex geography, with 20 major river basins and numerous minor and local watersheds. India also faces various challenges in managing its water resources, such as increasing demand, declining availability, deteriorating quality, and uneven distribution of water. Moreover, India is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as the variability and unpredictability of rainfall, temperature, and snowmelt, which can affect the hydrological cycle and the water balance of the watersheds.

The Central or State government will identify the regions that need watershed management under the “Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana”. The Ministry of Rural Development will implement it. This is a central scheme that aims to provide irrigation facilities to every village in the country by converging the existing irrigation schemes.

The scheme has the vision of extending the coverage of irrigation to every farm (“Har Khet Ko Paani”) and improving the water use efficiency (“More Crop Per Drop”) in a focused manner. The scheme will focus on two important aspects. First, it will utilize the 20-40 million hectares of irrigation potential that have been created but not used in the major, medium, and minor irrigation projects. Second, it will ensure a better quality power supply to the farmers during the peak irrigation demand.

One of the examples of the irrigation schemes for watershed management under the “Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana” is the “Neeranchal National Watershed Project”. This project aims to support the watershed development activities in nine states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Telangana.

Balancing conservation and development

Watershed management is a balancing act between the conservation and development of the watershed resources. On one hand, watershed management seeks to protect and restore the natural resources and the environment of the watershed, which are the basis for the ecological and hydrological functions and services of the watershed. On the other hand, watershed management seeks to improve and sustain the human resources and the socio-economic development of the watershed, which are the drivers and beneficiaries of watershed management.

To achieve this balance, watershed management requires a trade-off and a synergy among the different objectives, interests, and values of the stakeholders, who have different roles, rights, and responsibilities in the watershed. Watershed management also requires coordination and collaboration among the different sectors, disciplines, and levels of governance, who have different mandates, capacities, and resources for watershed management.

Watershed management is a dynamic and continuous process that strives to achieve the optimal and equitable use of watershed resources for the present and future generations.

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