RRA Network

RRA Network
Budget 2021: What does it have for the water and agriculture sector
The allocation in the water and agriculture sector is inadequate to deal with the sectoral challenges. Posted on 02 Feb, 2021 08:24 AM

COVID-19 pandemic brought clean water, basic hygiene practices and sanitation to the centre stage with these becoming crucial to deal with the health crisis.

India’s water resources are getting degraded day by day, be it rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, springs or aquifers but the budget’s focus continues to be source management while neglecting the resource. (Image: PixaBay)
Springs that sustain millions
Springs, the greenest source of water, and the strongest bulwark against climate change in the mountains are in dire need of protection. Posted on 16 Nov, 2020 01:07 PM

For a long time, villagers of Thanakasoga in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh knew about the depletion of their drinking water sources and the thirstier future they faced. “We depend on bawdis and natural springs, from where we fetched water. By 2012, our springs were dying and could hardly cater to the local demand.

Springshed management has brought the much-required difference in people's lives, as the discharge of the springs increased (Image: Kedarnathsmritivan; Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0))
Covid-19: Implications for watershed management
Watershed work needs to be stepped up to ensure that the lockdown does not impact the livelihoods of the rural poor. Posted on 16 Apr, 2020 04:47 PM

Over the last four decades, watershed management has emerged as one of the most decentralised, integrated, persisting, innovative and effective programs to enhance natural resources such as water, soil and the vegetative cover as well as to provide means of livelihood to marginalised sections in rural areas.

COVID-19 has adversely affected this year's watershed management work (Image: ILO South Asia-Pacific; Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
What's there for water in the budget kitty?
Budget fails to allocate enough to turn the rhetoric of tap water to each household into reality. Posted on 02 Feb, 2020 01:46 PM

Union Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the decade's first union budget in the parliament on 1st February 2020. While presenting budget for 2020-2021, she started with the country’s vision for the decade in which she emphasised on water management and clean rivers as one of the 10 points of vision for the country.

The budget allocation suggests that the predominant focus of the Ministry of Jal Shakti continues to be on water resources development rather than water resources governance or management (Image: Brian Gratwicke, Flickr Commons, CC BY 2.0)
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