POOR WATER MANAGEMENT UNDER NREGS

Edition-1

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

Works related to water & soil conservation afforestation & land development are given top priority under the NREGS. The water management (WM) works specifically includes: a) Water conservation & Water harvesting, b) Drought proofing, c) Irrigation canals, d) Provision of irrigation facility to land owned by households belonging to SC/ST or to land of the beneficiaries of land reforms/Indira Awas Yojana/BPL families, e) Renovation of traditional water bodies, f) land development, & g) Flood-Control & protection works (Government of India, 2008). During the three-year time period (2006-07 to 2008-09) more than 31.44 lac water management related works have been completed with a total expenditure of 35.9 thousand crore (Sharma 2009). Of this maximum number of works was undertaken on water conservation & water harvesting.

                            The type of water management (WM) activities for which work can be funded (e.g. Water conservation, land development, afforestation, provision of irrigation systems or flood control) are prone to being taken over by wealthier sections of society.