Case2-May-2012

Combating Desertification by Reviving small water bodies

An overview of Desertification and Climate Change implications:

Desertification is a global environmental problem. To put simply, it is the process that turns fertile land into land that is too dry to support life. Many factors like climate change, depletion of natural resources and other human activities contribute to desertification. Many definitions exists for desertification of which most accepted one is of that the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification which defines it as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. 1 As per the European Commission note on desertification, drought and deforestation are the two major causes of desertification.

In India around 81 Million hectares of land in India is in the process of desertification, as per the 'desertification status map' created by the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO). The study which used satellite imagery from an Indian Remote sensing satellite, Resourcesat, also reveals that a third of country's area (around 105 Million hectare) is already degraded. The desertification is happening through various processes. Among them water erosion has the prominent role which affects 10.21 percent of the total geographical area. About 15.8 percent area of country's geographical area is arid, 37.6 percent semi-arid, and 16.5 percent falls in dry sub-humid region. Together, about 69 percent of the country constitutes 'dry land'. The study gives many reasons for land degradation. The important among them are changes in rainfall pattern and over exploitation of natural resources.

In the new millennium, on our Earth planet, humanity needs more water across the globe to produce food to the demands of billions of people. More over better quality water is required to defuse the health/sanitary bombs created by human negligence and to preserve and upkeep the biodiversity of ecosystems for future systems, fresh water resources across the globe to be protected.

Climate, the average weather experienced over a long period changes with increase in temperature, which in turn alter the wind and rainfall pattern. During twentieth century, the earth temperature rose by 0.74 degree C of which, 0.4 degree C rise occurred between the mid 1970's and new millennium.

Rainfall over land has increased by 5-10 % in the northern hemisphere, in parts of Asia as well as Africa, the frequency and intensity of drought has been on the rise.

Increased trend of very short but intense spells of rainfall is the contribution of climate change in Indian subcontinent. About 14.5% percent increase in the number of incidents of extreme rainfall during every decade in the past 50 years. Droughts and floods could pose serious threat to food security, livelihoods and shelter.

Desertification in the context of southern coastal Districts of Tamilnadu

The southern coastal districts of Tamilnadu viz. Pudhukottai, Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin are drought prone and agriculture there is highly dependent on rainfall. These districts are characterized by thin film of fresh subsurface water due its close proximity to sea. The factors that are responsible for the desertification in these districts are discussed below.

• 1. Drought: Many times the disaster which brings loss the human life are getting attention of the media, general public and the government. But slow onset disasters like drought which brings huge damage to the economy of the nation as well as to the livelihoods of the individual farmers are not getting due attention. The southern coastal districts, which falls into the second category do not have any perennial water source for agriculture. Hence the agriculture depends only on rainfall. As the rainfall become highly erratic due to changing climatic conditions, harvesting a successful crops becomes herculean task for the farmers in these area. As the water is the lifeline for agriculture, drought becomes one of the major contributor for desertification in this semi-arid region.
• 2. Poor Maintenance of Kanmois(Irrigation tanks): Irrigation tanks are small earthen bunded reservoir which are constructed across slope to capture the run off water from rainfall and distributes water during the rest of the crop season. These districts are served by more than 1000 such water bodies. These structures has embankment for storing water, sluice for regulating water for agriculture and weir safe disposal of excess water during heavy rainfall. These tanks some time will be fed by the feeder canal from rainfed river or irrigation tanks situated in the upstream. Improper maintenance of these structure leads to reduced effectiveness. For example, weak embankments allows people to store less water than its original capacity, silting up of tank bed leads to reduction in storage of water which in turn leads to reduced command area and leave the land as fallow. In the same way, the entire command area becomes fallow and infested with full of Prosopis Julifera ( A thorny shrub which is a symbol of desertification in these districts) when the complete tank becomes dysfunctional.
• 3. Poor maintenance of Ooranies (Village Ponds): These districts have an exclusive structure called Ooranies for the domestic purposes such as drinking, bathing and other household activities and for livestock. These are dugout area having water holding capacity of 2000 cubic meter to 15000 cubic meter which holds water during rainfall and people use the water stored in these village ponds till next monsoon. As these Ooranies are not desilted every year, the water holding capacity is reduced. Some times the Ooranies are not getting filled due to dysfunction of feeder canal and mixing of sewage water in the catchment area of these structures. This makes the people to migrate as the people do not have one of the life supporting resource i.e. water in their village.
• 4. Erosion of top soil : Top soil which is rich in nutrients are getting eroded and are getting collected in the tank during high rainfall. Earlier, there is a mechanism called 'Kudimaramathu' which means the removal of silts deposited in the tank bed and applying to the field by contributing free labour. Now this practice is extinct as the farmers are separated from maintaining the common property due to centralized maintenance. The loss of nutrients were managed by applying silt. Due to absence of this practice, the lands are getting degraded, which leads to reduction in the yield or high cost in applying organic manure to maintain the soil nutrients.
• 5. Absence of creation of new water harvesting structures: The "water commons" that is present now are created centuries back and are designed based on the needs of population at that point of time. Due to increased population, new water harvesting structures are not created. This again leads to migration to places where there is water and abandoning of agriculture from the place where people are migrating.
• 6. Gender insensitiveness: Even if new water structures are created, it is not created in a place which can be easily accessed by women. Hence water structures created are not being used and does not arrest migration.
• 7. Local needs are unheard: Just by creating a small infrastructure worth of a lakh rupees, livelihood of more than 250 families can be saved. Since the people who are deciding the fund flow are not resident/do not have any stake in it, it is not becoming the priority. For example, a backwater extends between Vedharanyam and Nagapattinam. During high tides, the water from these canals enters into the fresh water canal and makes the canal base saline. When the fresh water comes, the water becomes salty due to salt deposits and crop growth is getting affected as the crop is irrigated with saline water during tender age. This leads to reduction in the yield and their voices are not heard. Continuous avoidance will lead the farmers in the area to abandon agriculture
• 8. Local wisdoms are unheard: Many times the local community knows what they need and how to do it effectively. When local community are involved/ provided a space in designing and execution, they give better long lasting solution for the existing problem. The work out put also will be more than 100% as the works are felt needs of the community.
• 9. Mismatch in availability of funds: As the fund flow into the village is based on departments fund availability, sometimes money will be spent on relaying roads which is not lifeline resource when compared renovation of water bodies.
• 10.Vulnerability of poor: The predominant section of people who are doing agriculture is very poor who do not have any assured income. Due to erratic rainfall, poor are now hesitating to go for agriculture and left the land as fallow. These uncultivated lands now infested with prosopis julifera. The lands which are infested with Prosopis Julifera is a sign of desertification. The infestation of this thorny bush make the land also less fertile.
• 11.Agriculture is becoming unsustainable livelihood: As the income from the agriculture is dwindled due to many reasons such as increased input cost, high labor cost, people are abandoning agriculture. In many villages elders are only practicing agriculture and young one are migrating to near by town/cities/abroad in search of livelihood. In such condition, if rainfall fails, then it the situation becomes still worse.
• 12.Conversion of Agricultural land for other activities: The agricultural land in coastal districts are converted into salt pans and shrimp farms. The salt pan in addition to affecting the area where it is located, also affects the land in the proximity due to seepage. The problems become severe when the run off from this enter another tank and affects the area commanded by that tank. The shrimp farms that created in one of the block viz. Thirupullani in Ramanathapuram district are abandoned more than 5 years back. But the ill effect of are not even subsided now. The Ooranies which are located downstream of it can not be used even now. This makes the people to abandon their village and shift to near by town.
• 13.When the tank fails: The irrigation tanks act like flood moderator and drought mitigator. When even these structures fails, farmers do not have/aware of alternatives to have successful crop or mechanism to mitigate the risk.
• 14.Availability of Financial Resources: The irrigations which are more than 100 command area are under the control of Public work department and are getting renovated. But the tanks which are having less than 100 acre command area are coming under panchayat which does not have any funds for renovation.
• 15.Many times the centralized water supply schemes fail, as entire districts to be supported by bringing water from another basin. People are not able to get water even once in two days. This brings uncertainty over the much needed resource for the day to day activity and force the people to migrate and there by abandoning the agriculture.

Combating desertification - DHAN's Experience:

DHAN Foundation in partnership with European Union implemented a project in the Costal districts of Tamilnadu. Through this project nearly 85 irrigation tanks and 40 Village ponds have been renovated and 1080 farm ponds have been newly created to address the issues of Desertification.

• Through this project water storage capacity of 1.2 billion liters (1.2 Million Cubic Meter) of water has been created to store rain fall run off. Through this project, the embankments of all the 85 tanks has been strengthened which leads to the storage of water to its full capacity and farmers were able to take successful crop due to renovation. In few of the tanks, farmers were able to go for second crop due to surplus water available.
• Many farmers have reclaimed their land by taking silt from the tank and depositing in their field. The soil below one foot is used for strengthening embankments.
• Community ownership has been created by creating the space for the community to design and execute the works. This leads to the good quality work and effectiveness of tanks improved. This leads to decreased desertification.
• New village ponds have been established in addition to renovation of existing ponds. These village ponds are serving even the villages which are nearer to the renovated ponds. Otherwise these people have to go to other villages even for bathing. This ensures water for their domestic purpose and prevents the migration. The water availability in these ponds has been extended by more than 4 to six months by the increased storage of water.
• Local needs are heard: For example, In Mathalapuram village in Tuticorin district, the need reconstruction of wall in one side of the well has been requested. The project can meet out only 40% of the cost. But the community mobilized remaining 60% of the cost and ensured quality construction. Once space is created for the poor, they perform.
• Local wisdom are heard: For example, In Pudhur block of Tuticorin district, while renovating the village pond, the people used the dugout soil to create an embankment in such a way that the run of water is getting stored in the embankment in addition to the dugout area. Once the water in the dugout area recedes, the water collected in the embankment fills the ponds continuously. This water will be enough for them till next season.
• The tanks act as flood moderator and drought mitigator. Sometime even the tanks were unable to support to have successful crop when the rainfall is scanty. In such situation the farm ponds created have come to the rescue of farmers to irrigate the crop during critical stage and to have successful crop. During last north east monsoon, the rain fall is low in Saveria pattinam village. They did not get rainfall after December 10, 2011. But they were able to harvest good crop with the support of Farm ponds. Nearly 200 farmers in the Mudhukulathur block of Ramanathapuram got benefited due to this. Now the farm pond gives the confidence for the farmers to go for agriculture even under rainfed condition. They have seen that they can harvest good crop even the rainfall fails during critical stage with the support of farm ponds and it acts as good tool combat desertification.
• With the limited resource, the works were done to the highest quality without wasting a single rupee due to the involvement of the farmers in execution. Many times they have ploughed back the income which they have got through this execution and exceed the required quantity of the work to be done. Community ownership created through this project will have positive impact in maintaining the tank for the future as they have got the confidence of carrying out such a big work on their own.
• Weather based insurance programme has been introduced in three blocks of Ramanathapuram to mitigate the risk faced by farmers in the event of failure of rainfall. This is part of ongoing programmes of DHAN in the development of small and marginal farmers.

Recommendations:

Tanks are Life lines of underprivileged poor and rural community

• Capital Investment in Tank Infrastructure development by the Government with Bilateral assistance of World Bank/ADB credit should focus Community driven, tank cascade development at sub basin level. In addition the centrally sponsored programme Repair, Renovate and Rehabilitation (RRR) of water bodies by the Ministry of Water Resources must give priority to chain of non-system rainfed tanks which are highly susceptible to breaches induced by climate change implications.
• The Ministry of Rural Development should complement rural drinking water supply programmes by allocating adequate resources to scientifically develop surface water based drinking water ponds in alluvial coastal plains and/or in water scarce, ground water exploited regions of the country.
• Roles for CBOs, NGOs and Government should be well defined with partnership principle
• Convergence of schemes - Single Window Approach should be given priority
• Adequate Resource Allocation for carrying out Action Research on Tank Irrigation Systems by professionally qualified research institutions, grassroots agencies should be given importance
• Small scale irrigation sources based agriculture will require increased support and an approach to farming built on indigenous and native crop species to boost biodiversity is essential. Marginal and small tank farmers require adequate schematic support from government through policy changes and research that addresses their problem of livelihoods.
• New Product development comprehensively to tackle risks through Mutual Insurance should be complemented.