The real significance of Kerala’s – and India’s – first water budget

The Kerala government plans to take this scheme to every panchayat. It has also launched a plan to use satellites to map the water resources of nine of the state’s 14 districts adjoining the Western Ghats. At least 44 rivers originate from these districts and flow through the state. Four of them flow eastwards into other states and the rest into the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats (Sahyadri or Sahya mountain range in the local dialect) mark the state’s eastern boundary, separating it from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

While Kerala’s lush greenery indicates abundance of water practically throughout the year (Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, while launching the water budget, said the state’s water availability is three times the national average), the reality is that the state Some parts of the U.S. are experiencing water shortages during the summer. The storied River Nila, also known as Bharathappuzha, is little more than a broken river during the peak summer months.

This prompted the government to launch a scheme called Haritha Keralam (Green Kerala) in 2016 to revive water bodies, reopen blocked water channels and conserve water. A major part of this plan is a campaign called ‘Ini Nhan Ozhukte’ (Let me flow now), which has so far revived 7,290 km of irrigation channels using voluntary labor and workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Kerala has decentralized governance, with clearly defined administrative, technical and financial powers, responsibilities and resources vested in local bodies. It has 87 municipal bodies with elected mayors and council chairpersons. Areas outside municipal areas in all 14 districts are governed by district panchayats. The state has 941 gram panchayats, which is huge compared to the rest of India’s 650,000 panchayats. Between the District Panchayat and the Gram Panchayat, there are 152 Block Panchayats.

The block is a construct of the planning process devised by Nehru, in which each district is carved into a number of development blocks, each with its own planning goals, each divided into the goals of the individual panchayats constituting the block. The government proposes to use this machinery to prepare water budgets for each panchayat and higher level units.

While this is a commendable step, the panchayat level approach may not be the most appropriate for managing water resources. Water management requires comprehensive planning at the river basin level and the potential interconnections between river basins. This requires top-down planning as well as implementation with popular participation.

Drainage is important in a state like Kerala, which has become more vulnerable to cloudbursts and flash floods due to climate change. It stands to reason that the state’s water experts should take this into account and draw on the technical expertise of the Center for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM). The state water resources department should integrate panchayat level efforts with comprehensive plans prepared on the basis of river basins.

In addition to a culture of public activism, Kerala probably has more than its fair share of limnologists (experts on non-ocean aquatic resources), hydrologists, geologists, engineers and voluntary organizations. Therefore, government initiatives to manage water, which require public participation and cooperation to be successful, can work well. If this happens, it will serve as an exemplary model for other states.

Water management is likely to emerge as one of the challenges brought about by climate change. Per capita availability of renewable internal freshwater resources in India was less than a fifth of the global average of 5,555 cubic meters in 2019, according to World Bank data. The low availability of water is linked to erratic rainfall, floods and droughts. Heatwaves and wildfires are also symptoms of climate change, and combating these requires water.

Harvesting rainwater, storing and using it sparingly, and recycling it when possible – all require a clear audit of water resources. Kerala’s water budget is important because it serves as an example of how to conduct this kind of audit, which is essential for building resilience against climate change.