Expolring water security through nexus in rural settlements : A case of Kurukshetra

Abstract

Increasing water demands around the globe, and skewed water availability have rendered many areas water stressed over the past few decades due to increasing population, socio-economic dynamics and mismanagement of water resources. Of all the water-consuming sectors, agriculture is the most water intensive, accounting for more than 80% of the total water consumed in India. Kurukshetra being an agriculturally rich district, despite stringent measures to check water depletion, continues over-abstraction of groundwater leading to a decline of more than 1 meter annually in the water table. With the provision of heavily subsidized power, farmers continue the ubiquitous practice of cultivating rice, wheat and sugarcane crops, consuming enormous resources not only in the form of water but also 76% of all the power supplied, incurring heavy burden on distribution companies and the state. Water being the core of all the development processes, it becomes imperative that a nexus approach for water security be adopted with water-food-energy and climate change as components, to secure resources and ensure equitable development within natural resource limits. The research focuses on the Shahbad block of the district, reviewing the existing policies and schemes at the central and state level, working in ‘silos’, while also highlighting the critical inter-relationships between the various sectors. Further, the research adopts a quantitative approach, with a primary survey of a sample size of 57 households and a 90% confidence level, highlighting the issues and concerns in the region. The study then incorporates secondary data available from various stakeholders in the form of agriculture, water, and electricity departments to quantify the water availability in the region. The water needs by various sectors have been analyzed through a water budgeting approach, the analysis takes into account surface runoff computed through ArcSWAT, along with irrigation requirements of various crops through CROPWAT 8.0. The increasing water requirements due to changing climate patterns have been computed through Man-Kendal analysis of climatic patterns while also taking into consideration other socio-economic factors, focus being on the rural areas of the block The study finds a decreasing trend in annual precipitation, implying an increase in crop water requirements in the coming decades. The summer months from June to September mark for more than 50% of yearly electricity consumption, owing to rice cultivation, while domestic supplies suffer outages. Moving on, the study looks into scenarios for the years 2031, basing the assumptions on increasing population, changing socio-economic patterns, and increasing water demand. Scenario A assumes the present trend of cropping pattern to continue over the next decade. Scenario B assumes a change in cropping pattern as visioned by the newly introduced scheme “Mera Pani Meri Virasat”. Scenario C additionally assumes water augmentation through artificial recharge and simultaneous adoption of System of Rice Intensification by the farmers in the region. The last scenario provides for the optimally balanced hydrological cycle and the most suited for the region. The study culminates into proposed strategies for, incentivizing water conservation in the agriculture sector, not only through crop diversification but also through community initiatives of water harvesting. A revision of policies accounting for the interlinkages between the water, agriculture, and power sector is proposed, while measures are provided for climate change adaptation.