Section – 5
SOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL
PERFORMANCE
This
section
presents
information regarding social and
environmental
aspects
of
water
resources development activities. It
includes data on degraded land and
their distribution according to various
problems, financial and physical
achievements of irrigation development
in tribal areas, flood damages, financial
expenditure on flood protection works
and physical benefit there from,
performance of flood forecasting net
work, financial and physical progress of
drinking water supply schemes in rural
and urban areas, ground water
potential of Tribal and Drought Prone
districts and districts covered under
Desert Development Programme and
its exploitation,
water quality
parameters of peninsular rivers at
Central
Water
Commission(CWC)
sites.
Land Resources and its Degradation
As per the data available from
the Ministry of Agriculture, a total of
146.82 M.Ha. of land was estimated to
be degraded in the country. Out of this,
Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh
together accounted for 26.21 M.Ha.
while Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal
together accounted for 15.32 M.Ha of
degraded land.
The extent of
degraded land in Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat
was 14.99 M.Ha. ,13.06 M.Ha., 11.37
M.Ha. and 8.13 M.Ha respectively.
These eight States together accounted
for about 61% of the total degraded
land in the country. Cause-wise, water
erosion accounted for the major part
(63.8%) of the total degraded land in
the country, followed by soil acidity
(10.9%) and water logging (9.7%).
Thus, at all-India level the Water
Erosion is the predominant cause for
land degradation in the country. At
State level also, except for Haryana,
Kerala , Rajasthan and a few northeastern states, water erosion is the
predominant
cause
for
land
degradation. Wind erosion is the main
cause behind land degradation in
Haryana and Rajasthan whereas water
logging is the predominant factor in
Goa and Kerala . Soil acidity is the
main cause for land degradation in
Mizoram,
Manipur,
Tripura
and
Meghalaya.
(Table 5.1 )
Land
degradation
affects
availability of land for agricultural use
and fertility of soil and has ultimate
bearing
on
productivity
and
consequently on production.
Land
affected by special problems, erosion
and other problems, therefore, needs
immediate treatment in the light of
rapid population growth and increasing
demand for food grain production
which is important for food security. In
view of importance and gravity of the
problem, the Ministries of Agriculture
and Rural Development have taken up
a number of programmes for treatment
of degraded lands through various
Watershed Development Programmes.
A total of 187.73 lakh ha. of land is
reported to have been treated up to
March 2007 in the country involving an
expenditure of Rs.9680.49 crores
through the schemes under M/o
Agriculture while 320.56 lakh ha. of
area in the country is reported to have
been treated up to March 2007 with an
investment of Rs 9523.20Crore through
the schemes under Ministry of Rural
Development.
(Table 5.2)
Drought Prone Area Programme
As per the data available from
the Ministry of Rural Development the
list of districts covered under Drought
Prone Area Programme along with the
no of blocks and their area is presented
statewise. It is observed that the
maximum drought prone area falls
under the state of Maharashtra
followed by Andhra Pradesh and
Madhya Pradesh.
(Table 5.3)
Irrigation Development Under Tribal
Sub-Plan
The Tribal
Sub-Plan (TSP)
came into operation during V Plan. As
per the latest available data, a total of
684 (161 major, 481 medium and 42
ERM) irrigation projects are lying under
TSP. New projects of X Plan are
confined to the States of Andhra
Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal
and Chattisgarh. The total ultimate
potential from these 684 TSP projects
since inception is 17.5 M.ha., out of
which 1.89 M.ha. is in Tribal areas. A
total of 155 irrigation projects benefiting
TSP area were completed before the
start of Tribal Sub-Plan. The ultimate
irrigation potential of these projects
was
about
2392
Thousand
Hectares(Th.ha.) of which only 29
Th.ha. was under the Tribal areas. A
total of 49 projects were completed
during IXth Plan. The ultimate potential
from these projects is 1594 Th. ha. of
which about 290 Th.ha. was under the
Tribal areas. There are 230 ongoing
projects under TSP having ultimate
irrigation potential of 10.16 M.. ha. out
of which 1.19 M.ha. is under Tribal
area. During Xth Plan there were 51
new projects with an outlay of Rs. 1367
crore for 2002-07.These new projects
having Ultimate Irrigation Potential of
981 Th Ha. are spread over 8 states
namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam,
Chattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West
Bengal.
Among the States, Maharashtra
has the maximum number of on-going
projects (68) under Major, Medium and
ERM irrigation projects benefiting TSP
followed by Gujarat (27) and Jharkhand
(22). The ultimate potential is highest
for the State of Gujarat followed by
Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. It is
lowest in case of Manipur. Amongst the
available figures, the Irrigation potential
in TSP area is highest in Orissa. The
estimated cost of on-going projects is
maximum for the State of Gujarat
followed by Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh.
(Tables 5.4 to 5.10)
Flood
Flood is one of the most
devastating natural calamities, which
has been causing extensive damage to
life and property besides perpetrating
tremendous sufferings. Since flood is a
natural phenomenon, it is usually
difficult to predict a definite trend
especially with regard to the time and
place of its occurrence. As such, the
effort usually is to take appropriate
advance flood protection measures.
The area affected by floods was 2.29
m.ha. in 1953 and 3.38 m.ha. in 2005
with a peak of 17.5 m.ha. during 1978.
At current prices, the damage to crops
was in the wide range of Rs. 5.87 crore
in 1965 and Rs. 4246.2 crore in 2000.
The floods also caused extensive
damage to crops worth Rs 958 crore in
2005. In addition, there was a great
loss of human lives and livestock often
affecting the poor strata of the
population. Taking into consideration
the other factors such as serious
disruption
and
massive
health
rehabilitation measures needed, the
loss could indeed be tremendous. The
total damage caused by floods is
estimated to the tune of Rs.2822 crore
during 2005. Karnataka and Kerala are
worst effected in terms of the total
damage to crops, houses and public
utilities,
as per the information
available for the States for 2007 (upto
31.10.07).
There
has
been a
considerable
increase
in
the
governmental expenditure on flood
management programme over the past
years. It has gone up from Rs.13 crore
during Ist Plan to Rs.5966 crore during
X Plan and the approved outlay for XI
plan is Rs. 10188 crore. The central
assistance in flood control work has
risen sharply from Rs. 462.5 crore in
the IX plan to Rs. 1403 crore in the X
Plan.
Among the states the maximum
anticipated expenditure for flood
management during X Plan is for Uttar
Pradesh followed by West Bengal and
Bihar. As far as the area benefited upto
2006 due to flood management
programme is concerned Punjab, ranks
first followed by Bihar and West
Bengal.
(Table 5.11 to 5.17 and Chart 33)
Flood forecasting is one of the
most important non-structural methods
of flood control in which there has been
significant contribution by CWC.
Network performance for the period
15/05/2005 to 31/10/2005 (5423
accurate forecasts out of 5618 issued)
has been quite satisfactory. 96.6 % of
forecasts were correct within +/-15 cms
or +/- 20% cumecs. Over the years,
the percentage of forecasts accuracy
has been maintained at around 96%
and
above
apparently due to
improvement in methodology and
acquisition of latest technology.
(Tables 5.18 to 5.20)
Water Requirement
The requirement of fresh water
both for irrigation and other uses is
growing continuously. The requirement
of water for various sectors has been
assessed by the National Comission on
Integrated
Water
Resources
Development(NCIWRD) in the year
2000.This requirement is based on the
assumption that irrigation efficiency will
increase to 60 % from the present level
of 35 -40 %. The Standing Committee
of MOWR also assesses it periodically.
The total water demand for all the uses
is likely to be 1180 BCM by 2050 as
per NCIWRD. Though major share of
this would be consumed for irrigation
purposes, this in no way undermines
importance of
providing potable
drinking water. In fact, it may be
presumed that drinking water provision
would have to be given an added
thrust since the lack of such facility is
likely to entail serious social, economic
and health impact.
(Tables 5.21)
Different
schemes
and
programmes are being implemented
with the objective of providing access
to safe drinking water in rural areas
whole country. Table 5.24 shows the
status of coverage of rural habitations
under the Rural Water Supply scheme
as on April 2007.
Accelerated
Expenditure
Rural Water
under
Supply
Programme for supply of drinking water
to rural areas during X Plan was
Rs.12110 crore out of which the
maximum
expenditure
was
by
Rajasthan (Rs.1655 crore). The next
highest was Maharashtra where the
expenditure incurred was to the tune of
Rs.1180 crore.
Rajasthan alongwith
Maharashtra accounted for about 23%
of total expenditure incurred by the
country
under
this
programme.
Breakup of yearwise expenditure
during the Xth Plan is also provided in
the Table.
(Table 5.23 & 5.24)
Under Urban Water Supply
Programme, 92 % of the urban
population of the country was covered
upto March, 2004.However, entire
urban populaion of Delhi, Himachal
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Uttaranchal and UT of Chandigarh
have been covered under this
programme whereas Gujarat, Jammu &
Kashmir, Maharashtra, Meghalaya,
Tamil Nadu,Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and
UTs of Andaman & Nicobar and
Pondicherry have more than 90 % of
their urban population covered under
this scheme till March 2004.
(Table 5.25)
Water Quality Parameters
The publication gives range of
Variation of various water quality
parameters at CWC sites for the river
basins
of
Godavari,
Cauvery,
Narmada, Krishna, Mahanadi, East
Flowing Rivers and West Flowing
Rivers. The parameters covered
include pH value, specific conductance,
sodium absorption ratio, total dissolved
solid and maximum values of chloride,
sulphate, nitrate, iron, magnesium,
sodium percentage, residual sodium
carbonate and total hardness.
(Tables 5.26 to 5.33)