Water and Environment

While dealing with the climate change and its effects on water resources we have to take into consideration not only due to the effects of climate change but also due to the effects of developmental activities occurring in the basin.

The studies have revealed that most of the river basins are warming up, for example, in India about 0.44 degrees Celsius rise was observed.

Down scaling of General Circulation Models (CGM) has to be carried out to accommodate and to verify the local climate changes either due to anthropogenic reasons or due to natural reasons.

The Himalayan glaciers are different due to their height and the CGM’s can not be applied in this case.

Improved observational data is necessary before anything to say about high mountainous regions. Even in the plain areas also while predicting the climate, scales and locations are matters.

Decrease of aerosol concentration is particularly observed in peninsular India more particularly in inland areas due to which decrease of rainfall is observed in these areas.

Central and northern India especially at foot of Himalayas may get more rainfall due to climate change.

Due to decrease in temperature contrast between Indian land mass and surrounding seas all India rainfall for July and August together shows a significant decreasing trend of 0.99 mm/yr. similarly it is found that there is a decreasing number of depressions and cyclonic storms and increasing number of break days during monsoon over India.

In order to cope with the vagaries of the weather more particularly in the context of climate change, weather modification techniques to enhance rainfall in the rain shadow region of India, to suppress the hailstorms during the premonsoon showers and to dissipate the fog during the winter season may be experimented and operationalised wherever it is possible.

Due to climate change any increase in sea level may cause inundation of coastal areas along with the aquifers. To protect the coastal land it is better to have coastal canal like that of the Buckingham canal in east coast India which will create ground water ridge to stop salt water intrusion.

Aquifers are to be recharged as far as possible particularly with the available flood water. Recovery of these recharged water may beneficially used during the lean period.

In many basins particularly in developing world like India and china, runoff from the catchments has been decreasing in view of the upstream developments in the catchment, such as tapping more surface and ground water and leaving little or no water down stream leading to closure of the basin and affecting downstream aquatic ecosystems on one hand and leading to sea water intrusion on the other hand.

In the above circumstances water storages are to be built to store the heavy rainfall water at small scale to large scale. Stored water can be regulated during the lean period so as to maintain the environmental flows in the rivers.

Watershed is the meeting point or the interface between climatology and water resources. If the climate is going to be erratic unpredictable in near future, we have to create a “shock - absorbing” watershed through aforestation and soil and water conservation techniques. A well managed watershed would yield sustainable resources even under a harsh climatic pattern to meet MDGs related to food security, poverty mitigation and water supply and sanitation.

Mitigation of population towards cities and urban centres leading to huge generation of waste water that must be necessarily be treated and should be supplied to various uses.

It is necessary for every region to prepare an environmental performance index involving climate change, availability of water with proper quality, air pollution, deforestation land use changes, biodiversity and sustainability of agriculture and fisheries.

It is observed that 90% of the sewerage is treated in the developed countries while it is 2% in the case of developing countries. Total sewerage treatment must be made an integral part of the budgets of the municipalities.

In line with watershed programmes of India which are mainly concentrated on resource poor lands and community, a similar concept can be extended to develop urban watersheds particularly to develop the slum areas, to avert urban flooding, sewerage treatment, rainwater harvesting and to arrest falling ground water levels and it’s quality.

Food Security

Climate change would affect agriculture and food security in developing countries through change in Length of Growing Period (LGP) for crops due to increased frequency of droughts and heavy rainstorms. There is need to develop adoption strategies such as short duration varieties that escape terminal drought and high yielding disease resistant varieties. (for example in Chickpea ICCV 96029, ICCV2, KAK2)

To achieve food security it is necessary to develop community based rain water harvesting system & efficient management of water and other natural resources through enhanced water use efficiency and climatic change resistant crops with drought and heat tolerance.

Rainfed agriculture is most important for achieving food security. Rainfall distribution is the cause of worry with long intermittent dry spells and requires supplemental irrigation.

To provide supplemental immigrations particularly for arid and semi arid areas, covered dugout pond is suggested to store the runoff water from the field at least for two wettings with sprinkler/ Drip systems when severe drought set in the middle of the monsoon.

Increase in temperature may increase the vulnerability of crops due to pests and diseases. It is projected that two degree centigrade rise in temperature will decrease the yield of rice crop by 0.75 tones per hectare similarly 0.5 degrees rise in temperature will reduce the wheat production by 0.4 tones per hectare

Climate change projection says over 5 to 9% crop yields get reduced in a long run between 2010 to 2039 and it may touch upto 25% by 2100 if we do not adopt to climate change

Adoption to climate change can be achieved through suitable changes in germoplasm of the seeds

Soil moisture retention techniques are the crucial for dry land agriculture. All those retention techniques has to be given highest priority.

Sulphur, Boron and Zinc are the most deficient nutrients which have to be supplied to the crops whenever they are necessary and not the indiscriminant supply of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium).

Nutrients discharged from the cities should reach the farmers by practicing suitable agriculture with the suitable waste water.

Capacity Building

Education at the school level about conservation of water, arresting the wastage of food and protecting the environment is more important in making the well to do citizens like water sensitive society.

Importance given to the water, food and environmental security in the news and print media is very less compared to other similar sectors. Therefore print and electronic media is requested to publish and cover as many articles as possible and telecast as many interviews as possible to create public awareness in conservation of water, food and environment. To fund the media, corporate sector should come forward to bear the cost as part of their corporate social responsibility.

Web enabled decision support system is the need of the hour as this will help decision makers at different geographical locations to use the same database and arrive at optimal solutions.

At present only 8% of the farmers are getting the services of the extension system of the government agriculture department. This has to be enhanced very largely.

Crop insurance is another cropping mechanism for sustainable agriculture.

There is a need to develop village knowledge centres with latest information related to agriculture, water use efficiency lively hood professions and many others and local youth should be given preference under the guidance of knowledgable elders and scientists.

Capacity building at all levels to cope with climate change is highly essential. For this purpose, governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations and voluntary organizations have to educate the public and policy makers.

Proper support price for the farmers must be ensured by the government to encourage the food production.

Virtual water trading, carbon credits may be part of the trade and bilateral agreements between the countries and the regions.

Water auditing must be an integral part of the water allocation for various purposes and regions.