POOR WATER MANAGEMENT UNDER NREGS

Edition-2

Implementing water management works under NREGA, on the scale envisaged, has posed major challenges. Corruption in the implementation is rampant. Till March

2001, some 1,138 complaints related to irregularities in implementation of NREGA activities were received, with maximum reported cases from the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Field evidences suggested that spending on some of the water management works has not only been inadequate, but also unwise. For instance, ponds have been dug in areas with scanty rainfall, without conceptualization of factors such as catchments area & sources of recharging (NCAER-PIF, 2009). As matter of fact, residual catchments are hard to find in naturally water scarce regions, where already a large number of small and large water impounding structures exists, including those which are traditional and modern. The flows generated from the natural catchments are already committed for the small & large reservoirs downstream (Kumar et al., 2008).

AS TELL IN The Great Indian Dream