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26/06/24 05:56 AM IST

Parts of Maharashtra experience different water stress levels

In News
  • After the deficient monsoon last year, the Maharashtra government declared many parts of the state to be drought-hit earlier this year. 
Rain-Shadow Effect
  • Marathwada lies in the rain-shadow region of the Western Ghats.
  • When moist winds from the Arabian Sea encounter these mountains, they rise and cool, causing heavy rainfall (2,000-4,000 mm) on the western side.
  • But by the time these winds cross the Ghats and descend into Western Maharashtra and Marathwada, they lose most of their moisture, leaving Marathwada relatively much drier (600-800 mm).
  • A 2016 study by IIT Gandhinagar researchers indicated that climate change is worsening the situation in central Maharashtra.
  • The region has experienced an increasing trend in drought severity and frequency of late.
  • As a result, Marathwada and North Karnataka have emerged as the second driest regions in India after the country’s northwest region.
Demand of water for crops
  • The agricultural practices of Marathwada are not well suited to its low-rainfall regime.
  • A major contributor to the region’s water crisis is sugarcane cultivation.
  • Sugarcane requires about 1,500-2,500 mm of water in its growing season — outstripping what natural rainfall in the region can provide.
  • While pulses and millets require four or five irrigations across the crop life, sugarcane needs to be irrigated almost every day.
  • Indeed, the traditional crops of this area — including cotton, pulses, and millets — require relatively less water.
  • But the area under sugarcane along with the number of sugarcane mills increased steadily between the 1950s and the 2000s.
  • The extent of sugarcane cultivation plateaued in the past decade due to the limits of water availability.
  • Still, the crop currently occupies 4% of the total cropped area in the region but consumes 61% of the irrigation water.
  • As a result, the average river outflow in the upper Bhima basin has almost halved.
  • Long-standing government support for sugarcane pricing and sales has expanded water-intensive sugarcane irrigation, which has restricted the irrigation of more nutritious crops.
  • For every one acre of sugarcane, for example, four acres of traditional crops are deprived of water.
  • Since December 2023, the Indian government has been promoting sugarcane-juice-based ethanol production, which may not be a wise decision for this water-starved area.
  • The country needs its sugar but 82% of the sugar grown in Maharashtra comes from low-rainfall areas.
  • The State has also been incentivising sugarcane production in the region for decades.
  • The interests are deeply entrenched now as many sugar mills are owned by leading politicians.
  • The Maharashtra Water and Irrigation Commission in 1999 recommended that sugarcane should be banned in areas that receive less than 1,000 mm of rainfall per year, but production has only increased.
Soil Composition
  •  The region has predominantly clayey black soil, locally called “regur”.
  • This soil is fertile and retains moisture well.
  • However, it has a low infiltration rate, meaning that when it does rain, the water is either logged or runs off rather, but doesn’t percolate down to recharge groundwater.
  • To capture this high runoff, Maharashtra has been building many dams — such that it is today the State with the most large dams in the country (1,845), more than double the next State on the list.
  • The clayey black soils have low hydraulic conductivity and hold on to the water for a long time after rains.
  • The clay particles are so small (<2 micrometres) that they have a high affinity to water particles, even holding on to them against gravity.
Effects of Topographic variations
  • The area has parallel tributaries of the Godavari and the Krishna flowing southeast.
  • Each tributary flows in the valley and is separated by a gently sloping hill.
  • The valleys have perennial groundwater while the uplands have seasonal groundwater.
  • This is because groundwater slowly moves underground from upland areas to the valleys.
  • The wells in upland areas often dry up a few months after the monsoons — and this is where the water scarcity is most acute.
  • The photographs of drinking water scarcity and dry wells that emerge from Marathwada are often from upland areas.
  • They are at a natural disadvantage and must be given special support.
  • To ensure source sustainability of the drinking water sources in the region, for example, the State government should consider pumping the water uphill and improving surface water storage for drinking.
  • This may be expensive but will improve the resilience of these disadvantaged areas.
Solutions
  • Supply-side solutions ultimately don’t create new water.
  • They only help capture some of the rain more effectively.
  • In a low-rainfall region, we must still manage water demand, including by practising water-efficient irrigation, cultivating drought-resistant crops, and diversifying livelihoods.
  • Ultimately, we must control sugarcane production, if not reduce it.
  • Marathwada must shift to other high-value, low-water-using horticultural crops, while sugarcane production — both for food and for ethanol — must move to wetter states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal, which receive more rainfall.
  • Marathwada’s water crisis is a stark reminder of a delicate balance between agricultural practices and environmental sustainability.
  • By adopting more sustainable policies and agricultural practices, drought-prone regions in peninsular India can mitigate their water crisis and build a more resilient future in the face of climate change.
Source- The Hindu

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