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TITLE: Indian Foundation Joins Forces with International Research Institute To Find Practical Solutions to India's Water Crisis |
AUTHOR: |
ORG: International Research Institute |
DATE: January 2, 2000 |
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The Indian Sir Ratan Tata's Trust has approved a grant of US $ 1 million over five years to launch a water researchat aims to help this country find viable solutions to its water crisis. The program, led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), will tap into the talent and existing work of Indian research institutes and non-governmental organizations to drive a policy dialogue that will encourage a change in thinking about water issues. India is in the throes of a major water crisis; one that it is not well prepared to face. The situation is summarized in several pieces of research recently completed by IWMI: much of western and peninsular India will suffer from acute water scarcity in the coming 25 years; conflicts around water will intensify at the local, meso and regional level; agriculture will progressively lose its share of irrigation water to industry and municipal uses; 25% of India's harvest will be at risk from groundwater depletion. And water scarcity will soon emerge as a binding constraint on India's progress. The IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program aims to bring Indian and global scientific and resource management institutions into a water sector research and policy discussion. This effort will support India's efforts to avert its impending water crisis. Both partners agree that India has a large research establishment that delivers vast, high quality research in specialized fields such as hydrology and hydrogeology. Rather than duplicating what exists, the IWMI-Tata India Water Policy Program will aim to mainstream this scientific work into a practical agenda of policy and action, and communicate the results effectively to policy makers, NGOs and the public to catalyze action. Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Trust, emphasizes that the IWMI-Tata Program will focus on problem solving research by identifying and promoting sustainable water management practices that are based on good science. The Tata grant will be used to support some 100 Indian research institutions and grass-roots NGOs doing action and policy research. IWMI will add to this by using its core funds to support the research. The program will focus on five key themes : [a] integrated land and water resource management for agriculture; [b] smallholder land and water management ; [c] sustainable groundwater management; [d] water institutions and policies; and [e] water, health and environment. Initially, the IWMI-Tata Program will put a particular focus on groundwater depletion and contamination, a problem that is reaching crisis proportions in western and peninsular India. India has some 20 million private tubewells; and this number is increasing by some 1 million every year. Some 35-40% of India's electricity and fossil fuel consumption is devoted to pumping groundwater mostly for irrigation. IWMI believes that reform of the groundwater sector is critical to India's environment as well as agrarian economy. The IWMI-Tata Program will, to start with, focus much of its energy on achieving sustainability in the country's groundwater use. IWMI's recent work in India has a strong policy focus. In Eastern India, the Institute has worked with International Development Enterprises, an international NGO, to study the mass promotion and marketing of low-cost treadle pump technology for manual irrigation - which promises to improve smallholder household incomes by $1 billion US dollars annually, when its full potential is realized. In Western India, IWMI has been working with NGOs, like PRADAN and Tarun Bharat Sangh, and people's organizations to assess the role that indigenous water harvesting and groundwater recharge activities can play in fighting water scarcity. More recently, senior IWMI staff worked with UNICEF and the Gujarat-based Institute of Rural Management at Anand to develop a White Paper for the Government of Gujarat in semi-arid western India that outlines practical strategies for fighting recurrent drought. Editors - for further information or to interview an IMWI scientist on this topic, please contact Kshalini Nonis tel 94 1 867 404 Fax 94 1 866854. END |