Promoting Water security

Water scarcity is coming soon to India. We cannot avert it. How are we going to save our selves?
We have to produce more food with less water. That is the biggest challenge in India today.Global Water Partnership will be meeting this week in New Delhi, to promote a water secure world. In future, we must have water if we want to live, it is a fundamental need.In cities, the demand for water is so great that water for rural India will be diverted for maintaining civic amenities here. Rural people will have to produce more for the urban population, while having lesser water, than ever before. We have water scarcity because climate change causes floods and droughts at the same time. Short outbursts of rain causes rainwater to run-off without being soaked by the ground.Before climate change had come we had long monsoons when water stagnated enough to be soaked by ground and recharge the water table levels. But now it runs off as floods before being soaked by land. Water is a limited resource now, Himalayan glaciers are melting away much faster than ever before.
We are helped by the World Bank and UNDP and SIDA. The aim is to implement Integrated Water Resources Management(IWRM) We must not compromise on sustainability of environment and its ecosystems while maximising economic development and progress. We need a water policy for South Asia and national networks, all countries are rapidly urbanising while we have big needs in terms of food security.
The Ministry of Water Resources has come up with the Draft National Water Policy of 2012 to meet the demands of water in India. State governments are also working together for this draft. The need for water framework law is felt in development of inter-state rivers and river valleys.There is need for amending irrigation Acts which are outdated(enacted in 1882).The natural flow of the river must be maintained while using part of it. In view of new climatic changes, new ways of using the river must be devised.Volume of water should be monitored, a regulatory board should be made.Local bodies like and state governments should work together. Grants should be made to the state governments so that they can design practises, to plan usage and manage water resources more efficiently and effectively.

The "should be" part sounds good. But what is the reality?Are states cooperating in sharing water resources? Southern states without good water resources need some water from others who have good supplies. They are denied, and supreme Court has to intervene to settle disputes. People protest so that water is not given to water starved states. Where will the water deficient states do? We have got to cooperate with each other and share river water otherwise we may become DESERT INDIA.