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Saturday, August 27, 2011

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

Monday, August 8, 2011

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.