Slow and unsteady

Slow and unsteady

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources expressed its annoyance over the various schemes of the Union ministry of water resources (mowr) in its fourth report tabled in Parliament on December 7, 2005. On the Planning Commission reducing the plan allocation of Rs 946.21 crore by Rs 25.21 crore, the report observes, "It is difficult to understand the rationale behind the reduction in allocations, which was at variance with the commitment of the government to give top priority to equitable and effective water management in the country."

NPRRRWA
The National Programme for Repair, Renovation and Restoration of Waterbodies linked to Agriculture: The 'dream' programme announced by the Union finance minister P Chidambaram in July 2004 in upa's maiden budget and launched later in April 2005 by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Kabir Dham district in Chhattisgarh. It is still struggling to take off. The guidelines had declared: "The pilot scheme, once completed and validated, will form the basis for the National Water Resources Development Project".

nprrwa was originally designed as a pilot project in five districts in as many regions in the country. According to L A V Nathan, senior joint commissioner in the Union ministry of water resources, 1,084 waterbodies spread over 23 districts in 13 states have been selected for funding. Will this dilute the focus of the scheme? A Sekhar, advisor (water resources) in the Planning Commission believes it will not. It is learned that the remaining states, including the worst groundwater miners like Punjab and Haryana, have not expressed their interest in the scheme. Northeastern states also do not figure in the list of approved projects.

Out of Rs 300 crore earmarked, Rs 263 crore has already been approved for creating an additional potential of 139,000 hectare (ha). "Remaining funds are just enough for one or two more states. As very little time's left for project completion, the government might even close the scheme," says an official.

Feedback from the states indicate that the work has either not started or is in the preliminary stages. N Kailasapathy, deputy chief engineer with the Water Resources Organisation (wro) of Tamil Nadu, says, "Though Union government funds were released in September 2005, work has not started yet due to heavy rains." Nathan says, "Work is going on in about 200-300 waterbodies. Tenders have been floated for the others." Though the guideline sets a two-year deadline for project completion, states are planning to wrap it up by March 2007.

There is more to it. Under Bharat Nirman, a time-bound programme for rural infrastructure by the Union government, out of 10 million ha of additional land to be irrigated, it was planned that nprrrwa would cover one million ha. But there are hardly any funds left -- only Rs 37 crore.

skewed funding: nprrrwa funds are still with the finance ministry. The ministry of water resources (mowr) is just a proposal clearinghouse. The finance ministry releases funds to the state finance department, which then allocates the funds to the nodal department, from where they reach the District Level Implementation Committee (dlic). Officials acknowledge that a lot of time is wasted in this process. Until January 2006, Rs 67 crore has been released to states as first instalment. Only Rs 3 crore has been released to six districts as second instalment. mowr says first releases, which began in March 2005, lasted till December 2005. L K Aggarwal, Rajasthan's additional chief engineer, says, "Of the approved cost of Rs 4 crore, no money has been received so far."

Another issue is the regional variation in the number of waterbodies taken up in a district. Numbers vary from 224 tanks in Mehboob Nagar in Andhra Pradesh to one in Pali in Rajasthan. On an average, 21 per cent of the waterbodies in a district have been selected -- ranging from 1 per cent in Shivagangai district in Tamil Nadu to 88 per cent in Bangalore rural.

More than half the funds are earmarked for three southern states: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which have done a large number of restoration programmes. A Vaidyanathan, eminent water economist, asks, "What's the need for pilot projects in these states where full-fledged external funded tank restoration programmes have already been undertaken?"

The command area of the tanks selected cannot be less than 40 ha, say the guideline. As per the approved projects, the average command area for each of the 1,084 projects is about 260 ha. This varies from 45 ha in Pathanamthita district in Kerala to 1,431 ha in Pali. In most states, tanks with a command area greater than 40 ha are the responsibility of government departments and those with command areas smaller than 40 ha is with Panchayati Raj institutions.

Distribution of funds also is skewed. Cost norms, as per the guidelines, depend on either the command area of the tank (Rs 30,000/per ha) or additional irrigation potential to be restored (Rs 80,000/per ha). While mowr officials say it is the states' prerogative to fix the cost based on the extent of renovation, the variation in approved unit cost is difficult to understand. As against a national average of Rs 9,168, the cost per ha of command area ranges from Rs 2,478 in Bangalore rural to Rs 30,000 in South 24 Paraganas in West Bengal. Similarly, the approved cost per ha of additional potential created varies from Rs 12,755 per ha in Mandi in Himachal to Rs 80,448 per ha in Ajmer in Rajasthan. The national average is Rs 18,884 per ha.

implementation strategy: All the states Down To Earth spoke to informed that the dlic, headed by the district collector, is in place for monitoring the implementation. As per the guidelines, the vice chairperson of dlic is to be an ngo nominated by the mowr along with the executive engineer of the nodal state department. Experts worry that such a bureaucratic set-up will exclude communities. Devendra Deo, director of the ngo Paaniwale and the vice chairperson of the Ajmer dlic, says, "Red-tapism is certainly a cause of concern and it makes decision making very slow."

mowr says formation of dlic is mandatory for fund releases. Feedback from states depicts a different picture. The Shivpuri dlic in Madhya Pradesh, for example, was formed in January 5, 2006, much after the fund was released.

The supposed role of communities is to maintain the restored tanks. They don't have to contribute towards the project cost. "Unless this is done there will be no sense of ownership and hence no sustainability," says C R Shanmugham of the ngo Dhan Foundation in Madurai.

The extent to which a state government involves communities varies. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka claim communities are involved right from the planning phase. But Madhya Pradesh keeps the community out of planning and implementation. The decision to involve private contractors rests with the dlic. S N Thanvi, Rajasthan's irrigation secretary, says his state has already invited tenders for the works planned.

works unclear: The nprrrwa guidelines are silent on the critical issue of catchment area treatment. As per the guidelines, states can decide whether the catchment has to be treated or not. "In Tamil Nadu", says Kailasapathy, "Rs 1,500 per ha (or 5 per cent of the project cost) is put into catchment treatment." V D Ratmale, sub-divisional water resources officer in Tikamgarh, says, "I have no idea of catchment treatment."

maintenance and sustainability: mowr washes off its responsibility. The guidelines says "the resource requirement for operation and maintenance (o&m) will be worked out by the states concerned during implementation." Viveka Priya of the Villupuram-based ngo Shree Sharada Ashram, who is the vice chairperson of the local dlic, says they are considering the creation of a corpus for o&m out of the estimated cost.

And how will government know whether the schemes are effective? Impact monitoring is to be the job of the Central Water Commission and the Central Ground Water Board, and will start after the project's completion. But it is also clear that the government is in no mood for long-term impact monitoring. The guidelines brush monitoring aside.

as one door closes...: It seems the Union government isn't interested in nprrrwa any longer. Now, word has it that Chidambaram has a new deal to offer without waiting for the old one to complete. The National Water Resources Development Project (nwrdp), aimed at reviving 20,000 tanks, might make a debut in two months. A World Bank loan will cover 75 per cent of the cost.

Four states -- Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh -- have already been chosen for its first phase. Tamil Nadu officials say a Rs 4000-crore project will revive 10,540 tanks during 2007-2012. So the state will get more than half the money.

This is where the Rs 300-crore pilot project, launched last year but a complete dud till now, could have been invaluable. "In the southern states, integrated tank-based watershed approach has proven to be the way to do tank renovation," says Shanmugham. " nprrrwa could have formed the platform to test and identify its strength and weakness, and refine it for large-scale application." Why the rush for the new scheme? Is the government shying away from the hard realities of nprrwa? Or is the government acting in anticipation of the forthcoming elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly?

AIBP
Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme: Despite huge investments, aibp still hasn't addressed the issue of spillover costs and gestation periods in unfinished major and medium irrigation projects. In 1996, aibp was launched to accelerate the completion of 430 incomplete irrigation/multi-purpose projects spread over 24 states. More than Rs 41,000 crore has been invested in these by the end of the eight plan. According to mowr sources, 46 of 187 projects in 21 states funded under aibp have been completed by January 2006 (see table: At snail's pace).

A review by the Comptroller and Auditor General (cag ) of India in 2003-04 had showed that despite spending Rs 13,823 crore in 24 States during 1996-2003, the objective of accelerating benefits remained largely unachieved. The report observed, "28 per cent of the envisaged irrigation potential was created, of which merely 11 per cent could be utilised." Even then things didn't change. According to the mid-term appraisal of the tenth plan by the Planing Commission, only 2.66 million hectares (mha) additional irrigation potential was created till March 2004 out of the planned 9 mha. This figure now stands at 3.25 mha, leaving aside a small matter of 6.7 mha.

"Instead of emphasising only the completion of projects, attention must also be paid to maximising potential creation at given costs. The balance potential and balance cost should also be kept in mind while selecting projects," the commission suggests. cag has criticised the relaxation in aibp guidelines from time to time: "Successive modifications diluting the investment focus resulted in injudicious project selection". The guidelines were relaxed yet again in 2005.

mowr's monitoring mechanism is also under the scanner. cag has pulled up several states for wrongful utilisation of aibp funds. Monitoring by the Central Water Commission's field offices were either inadequate or not followed up. In 2005-06, most states did not come up for the second instalment as they hadn't utilised the 70 per cent of the first instalment, as mandated. The Parliamentary Standing Committee also came down heavily on mowr for projects lying incomplete. It has directed the ministry to evolve realistic and effective time schedules for utilisation of grants.

Of the additional irrigation potential created, nobody knows how much is utilised. " aibp is for potential creation only. The states do not report utilisation," says an official. Kirit Parikh, Planning Commission member in charge of water, says, "We are planning to change the structure of the scheme."

"As the investment is not yielding results, we need to understand what went wrong and where. Has anybody studied the state of completion, prioritisation of projects, and the cost-benefit aspects?" asks Vaidyanathan.

Nationwide water harvesting scheme
In order to help farmers of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Chidambaram had announced this Rs 100-crore scheme to "cover 100,000 irrigation units at an average cost of Rs 20,000 per unit". According to the Planning Commission, the project is not successful because poor farmers can't afford to contribute the 50 per cent cost that is mandatory. Poor farmers are also unwilling to commit a part of their land for digging farm ponds to capture rainwater. The bureaucracy has already scaled down the funds by half to Rs 50 crore. "This year the target is Rs 10-15 crore as compared to a total release of Rs 60-70 lakh last year," says Sekhar. But, if the problem is farmers' contribution and commitment of land, how has a similar scheme in Gujarat, Sujalam Sufalam, caught the imagination of farmers. Perhaps the problem is community mobilisation and not affordability. 12jav.net12jav.net