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c)
Sharing of water on national and international water bodies.
d)
Social and Environmental consideration.
e)
Legal framework.
Agriculture Sector :
Agriculture sector consumes greater part of water demand for agriculture
production and poverty alleviation. Effect of irrigation in alleviating poverty
and improving the quality of life is apparent in Indian sub-continent. The
north-western part of Punjab and Haryana where irrigation system is well
developed have better standard of living than rest of India. Strangely, India has
got the largest network of irrigation, but very poorly managed. Problems of over
irrigation near the headwork causing water logging and salination and
non-availability of water in the tail ends continue to cause anxiety to the
planners. Managing the created water resources in the major/medium irrigation
projects is a state subject which perennially suffer from lack of maintenance
fund. The result is silting up of the existing canal system and reservoirs.
Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) is, thus, a necessary.
Deficient water management is a widespread problem and it is estimated more
than 10 million ha. of irrigated land are performing below potential. Water
management practices in such vast areas can substantially increase the
agricultural productivity. Coupled with proper agricultural practices, water
management in the farmers' field can maximize production. In 1970s
Government of India established CommandArea Development Authority (CADA).
There are 53 CADAs covering 131 command areas representing a total
command of 18.5 million ha. for constructing micro network of irrigation field
channels in the farmers' field. It also coordinates with the Agriculture
Department for management of irrigation water depending upon the crops.
Operation and maintenance of this huge network requires enormous fund.
Moreover, irrigation engineers are not always good managers of irrigated
agriculture. Awareness amongst farmers and their participation in the irrigation
management (PIM) proves meaningful. Transfer of irrigation management is
also a concept and introduced successfully by Government of West Bengal,
India for tubewell irrigation.
