The
State of Rajasthan is the second largest state in the country accounting for
more than 10% of the total geographical area of the country. It is one of the
driest states of the country and the total surface water resources in the state
are only about 1% of the total surface water resources of the country. The
state, especially the western parts, suffers from recurrent droughts that cause
acute water scarcity for a major part of the year. The annual per capita
availability of water in the state is only 600 m3 / year (much below 1000 m3/
year, the minimum standards accepted globally) making it a water stress region.
The western
parts of the state have a much lower annual per capita availability than the
state average. Deficient and erratic rainfall (less
than 100mm to 400mm),
extreme temperatures, low humidity and high wind velocity resulting in high
evapo-transpiration rates make the area moisture deficient even in monsoon
periods. The region has scarce, very deep ground water sources (100-300 ft),
more than half of which is considered brackish and saline with high sodicity
levels due to poor surface and subsurface drainage. Apart from low rainfall
large tracts of land is not capable of recharge- Barmer (52%), Bikaner (57%),
Jaisalmer (76%) and Churu (62%)[1]- making the possibility of utilization
of GW resources further bleak.
Sand dunes, both shifting and
permanent, cover almost 30-40% of the land surface contributing to low
productivity of a major portion of land. Most of the soils in the region are of
aeolin origin, generally deep, coarse textured, droughty and calcareous. They
have low fertility, have high infiltration rates with excessive drainage and
are highly susceptible to erosion thus rendering large tracts of land unfit for
sustained cultivation. The marusthali or the ‘region of death’
dotted with sandy deserts and marshes, has been a stalking ground of droughts
and famines.
The following couplet relates
to the omnipresent expanse and presence of drought in the Thar:
“pag pugal dhad kotda
udaraj
bikaner phirto ghirto jodhpur, thavo jaisalmer”
feet in Pugal, neck in Kotda
(Barmer)
stomach in Bikaner ,
a frequent visitor to Jodhpur
and permanently resides in Jaisalmer
Another
couplet explicitly narrates the yearning for rains in this parched region:
“Khem,
kodh, khansi dusi, do hathan kirtar
Maran marag mokla, meh bina mat mar”
TB, leprosy, cough, cold, you may give us with both hands,
We can be killed in many ways, but don’t kill us without rain
Averages for this century
suggest that the drought cycle has increased from one good year in three to one
in only six years, not to mention some pockets in the Thar that are almost
perpetually drought prone. In fact the last years of the 1990s triggered off
drought conditions that have set into motion gripping and widespread scarcity
that lasted well into the 2004.
In
such a fragile ecological context, access to water (especially sweet water) has
always been one of the most crucial defining elements of emergence and
sustenance of human settlements in western Rajasthan. This critical role of
water is well conveyed by the fact that it is fairly common to come across many
settlements with the prefix of sar, tala, paar these words referring to the
existence of a water source. Folklore abounds with references to the
essentiality of availability of water as a prerequisite for human settlement
and also the converse i.e. many settlements are abandoned either temporarily or
permanently because of the drying up of a water source.
These
constraints of the fragile bio-physical context while on the one hand limit the
scope and range of choices available, on the other hand facilitate the
development of highly evolved practices and rules for natural resource use,
risk sharing and regeneration by the communities. One such body of practices
relates to harvesting, storing and utilizing rain water. Found at the level of
popular knowledge are these intricate and developed traditions of rain water
harvesting in structures like johad,
nadi, nada, talab, toba, kund, tala, beri, kui, kuan, each structure having
its own place in terms of its location and the role it plays in conserving the
surface run off of rain water. (Distribution in different ecological niches and
integration with traditional methods of irrigation like khadins, bandas, rapats, etc)
Census
records show a fivefold increase in human population since 1921, and the Thar
has the highest population density of all the world’s deserts. Water shortages have accentuated in
settlements owing to rapid population growth over the last few decades, over
extraction of groundwater and neglect of traditional rainwater harvesting
structures. The intricate and ingenuous water harvesting
structures and traditions that had been developed by the communities in the
Thar have deteriorated over the past few decades. The weakening of the hold of
the socially sanctioned management practices as well as negligible State
support have often been cited as the main causes behind this crisis of water
availability from the traditional structures. Water salinity, the presence of
fluorides, erratic and insufficient power supply to operate wells, pipelines
and the need to dig deeper and deeper make the situation even more desperate.
Even the drinking water supply from the canal, because of badly constructed and
poorly managed pipelines, has made access to drinking water more erratic and
complicated for many villages. 
Since the 1990s there has been a
progressive worsening of ground water resources in the state that account for
more than 90% of the drinking water needs of the state. Due to the loss of natural
water sheds, unscientific stone mining practices, and large scale tubewell
irrigation by agricultural barons operating in the region, the water table
continues to fall at an alarming rate even below it’s current depths in some
areas of 300-500ft.As per the estimates of the Ground
Water Department of the State, out of a total of 237 water zones 63% were
classified as white (safe) in 1990. This number has come down drastically to
only 21% at the end of 2001. Only 6% zones were classified as dark (critical)
and 19% overexploited in 1990. By the end of 2001, the number of dark zones has
gone up to as high as 34% and overexploited as 36%. In some areas of the state water table is going
down at the rate of 3 meter per year. In a recent UN meeting with the state
ministers, the govt. divulged “that 142
of the 237 panchayat samitis in the State had turned into “dark zones”.[2]
Recent times have seen a fast emerging underground water market controlled by
rich in a context of partly non functional public drinking system.
It
is easy to understand that such a critical resource would have been a highly
coveted one with access to it regulated and controlled in a feudal society like
that of western Rajasthan. Water as a
social marker of hierarchies and a perpetuator of discrimination and atrocities
is a fact that is embedded in the settlement pattern and distribution of water
sources in the villages. (Mention
proverbs). In what persists as the feudal ethos a discriminatory social
mileu practices like untouchability have taken on new forms and in many places
access to daily everyday drinking water
With
the tightening of the control over water by the upper castes and elites water
as a source has become more scare for the subaltern classes, a situation that
has not only lead to perpetuating new forms of discrimination and control but
increased everyday drudgery and
humiliation. All this translates into extreme stress of vulnerable communities
(dalits) to ensure household drinking water supply.
The
other aspect of water relates to it being the critical component of the triad
of food, fodder and water security, the basic grid for survival in the Thar. In
that sense it is the availability of water that is the precondition for
securing fodder as well as developing farm based livelihoods. These
interventions are robust examples of the quest for entitlement in subaltern
waterscapes impregnated with tales of discrimination, humiliation and drudgery.
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