Public Health News Analysis

India’s First Water body Census: A milestone in Environmental Conservation

Image Credits: Dr. Thamizhmaran

Author : Dr Aiswarya K Venugopal

Updated on :

June 26, 2023

Water bodies, encroachment, water conservation, Census, Sustainable development

India's first Water Body Census marks a significant milestone in the nation's journey towards environmental conservation through understanding the status of water bodies, and threats and formulating effective conservation strategies. The objective was to create a national database of water bodies by gathering data on all relevant factors such as size, condition, encroachment status, use, storage capacity, and status of filling up of storage. All related works were done under the supervision of the Census Commissioner. Maharashtra tops for water conservation scheme.

Need of Water body census:

The peculiar feature of water is being recyclable, but the problem of finite availability and the supply-demand gap widens with time. Because of the enormous population and urbanization, a water-rich country like India is slowly progressing to water scarcity.
Even though the Department of Water Resources (DoWR) under the Ministry of Jal Shakthi had an exclusive database of those water bodies which are centrally assisted in the rehabilitation and restoration of water bodies, a standing committee signalled for making separate water body directory for an objective assessment of water bodies and their condition.
There is no information about smaller bodies in India's Water Resources Information System (WRIS) which is a single window solution for all water resources data in a standardized national GIS framework. (2)
National Water Policy 2012 also mandates the integration of all water-related information. (3)

Benefits of Water Body Census:

Data gained from the Census will be very helpful in the implementation of different schemes like Atal Bhujal Yojana.
Provide farm-level water trade information, and implement various intersectoral coordinated programmes.
Have a critical part in the protection and restoration of water resources for healthy and sustainable development.
Policy Formulation: findings will provide a scientific basis for policy formulation in water resource management.

Definition of Water Body in the census:

All natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for irrigation or other purposes (industrial, pisciculture, domestic/drinking, recreation, religious, groundwater recharge etc.) are treated as water bodies in this Census.
A structure where water from ice melt, streams, springs, rain or drainage of water from residential or other areas is accumulated or water is stored by diversion from a stream, or river is also treated as a water body. (1)

Objective:-

To create a national database of water bodies by gathering data on all relevant factors such as size, condition, encroachment status, use, storage capacity, and status of filling up of storage. (1)

Methodology:

For the data collection, paper-based schedules were canvassed. There were three schedules- Village schedule, Urban schedule and Water Body schedule.
A list of all water bodies in rural and urban areas was created irrespective of their uses by enumerators using questionnaires.
Sample check was done by immediate and senior level officers physically.
For keeping data quality, training and workshops were conducted.
Data entry software and a mobile application for detecting latitude, longitude and photograph of the water bodies were created by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
All related works were done under the supervision of the Census Commissioner.
They excluded oceans, lagoons, rivers, streams, springs, waterfalls, canals which are free flowing with no bounded storage, swimming pools, covered water tank made for specific purposes by individual families for their own consumption, water tanks constructed by factory owners for the usage of water as raw material, temporary water bodies dug for mining, brick kilns, and construction activities, pucca open water tank created only for drinking for cattle. (1)

Highlights:

The country has 24,24,540 water bodies, among that 97.1% (23,55,055) are in rural areas and just 2.9% (69,485) are in urban areas.
Ponds make up 59.5% (14,42,993) of all water bodies, followed by tanks (15.7%, or 3,81,805), reservoirs (12.1%, 2,92,280), lakes (0.9%, 22,361), percolation tanks or check dams (9.3%), and the rest is by others (2.5%).
Most of the ponds and ponds & reservoirs are in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have the highest number of tanks and lakes respectively. Maharashtra tops for water conservation scheme.
The majority of water bodies (83.7%) are used for pisciculture, irrigation, groundwater recharge and domestic drinking purpose but the remaining are not used because of salinity, construction, siltation, destruction beyond repair, and drying up.

Fig 1: Water body across the country (1)

9.6% are in tribal areas, 8.8% in flood-prone areas, and 7.2% in the areas under the “Drought Prone Areas Programme”.(1)
78% of listed water bodies are of manmade origin, while the remaining 22% are of natural origin.
90.1% of those in use serve the needs of up to 100 people, while only 1.7% of water serves the needs of over 50,000 people.
Data on water body encroachment is gathered for the first time. 1.6% of water bodies are found to have encroached and of which 62.8% have < 25% encroachment area, while 11.8% have > 75% area under encroachment.

Strengths:

Helps administrators to make evidence-based informed decision-making about water resource management.
Helps to implement conservation measures and assists in planning sustainable development projects.

Weakness:

No data on abandoned water bodies and water quality status.
No clarity in definition – in the annexure, a tank is defined as a shallow water unit usually larger than a pond.

Conclusion:

India's first Water Body Census marks a significant milestone in the nation's journey towards environmental conservation through understanding the status of water bodies, and threats and formulating effective conservation strategies.
Identifying issues through the census is only the first step, effective enforcement of regulations and follow-up actions are crucial.
Addressing encroachments may lead to social disruptions.
A lack of strong political support may weaken the implementation of measures based on census findings.
Without active community participation, the success of conservation and restoration initiatives may be limited. Since we are marching towards a warmer climate water is the only resource that can sustain our life on the planet.

Fig 2: Highlights of Water Body Census(1)