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Sustainable Development Through Integrated Watershed Management
 T.I. Eldho, Department of Civil Engineering


Of Watersheds and Water harvesting

Essentially, a watershed is a topographically delineated area that is drained by a stream system, i.e. the total land area that is drained to some point on a lake, stream or river. The terms watershed, catchment area or drainage basin are used synonymously. Naturally, the watershed size may vary from a few square meters to thousands of square kilometres. Generally, watershed management implies the wise use of soil, water and vegetation of a watershed to get optimum production with minimum hazards to the natural resources of the concerned area. Hence watershed management is a continuous process, which should be revised from time to time with new elements, so as to counter both man-made (roads, mining, logging, farming etc.) and natural events (floods, landslides, wildfire, etc.)

Water harvesting is the process of collecting, conveying and storing water from an area that has been treated to increase the runoff of rainfall or snowmelt. The simplest method of water harvesting is to collect and store natural flow from a watershed. The storage can be in tanks, reservoirs; or one can allow the collected water to percolate to soil so that it can be used later as groundwater. Essentially, any watershed management programs include appropriate water harvesting measures suitable to the watershed.

In the last few decades, a large number of water resources development and watershed management projects were initiated in many third world countries like India, for poverty alleviation and social development of the people. But only a few of them could achieve the targeted goals. The failure of such development projects to bring the promised financial return, have often contributed to the indebtedness of those countries, raising economic pressures and jeopardising the countries future development efforts. In India, the traditional local water harvesting systems for agricultural production and water supply – which once used to be the sustainable base for rural livelihood – have suffered severe neglect over the years. In this article we present more effective alternative strategies for water resources development that may result in sustainable project impact in terms of geo-physical, environmental and socio-economical aspects of issue.

What is Integrated Watershed Management Approach?
Integrated watershed management approach (IWMA) is “the process of utilisation, development and conservation of land, water, forest and other resources for continually improving livelihoods for communities in a hydrologically independent region”. It includes everything in a watershed required for a the holistic human development and natural resource management. Fig. 1 shows a schematic chart of the typical elements of IWMA. An IWMA has the following major objectives:

  • Promote sustainable economic development through
    (i) optimum use of land, water and vegetation
    (ii) provide employment (and local capacity building)

  • Restore ecological balance through sustainable development of natural resources and community participation; encouragement of available low cost technologies for easy acceptance.

  • Improve living conditions of the poorer through more equitable resources distribution (water rights) and greater access to income generating activities.

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