Watershed development

Though I came across this term for the first time just about a month ago, it has been making rounds through out the month so that knowing it became one priority. So what is watershed development? why is it so important?

No doubt it was conceived by one sagacious person. An absolutely brilliant idea that the development of a region requires not conservation of its surroundings but its maintenance. Though the two words sound similar, they are vastly different. Environment, by itself is continuing. It moves on, and along with its ecosystem, keeps changing. When we use the word conserve, we mean to stop the changes on its track. Lets take the case of a river and a dam. A river is supposed to flow, give water to the lower riparian, cause erosion, bring in fertile soil to the surrounding and thus change the geological and pedological(related to soil) aspects of the regions thru which it flows. We construct a dam across the river to stop its flow and help people in the lower riparian from flood, so we think. If its true, then the dam across the Brisbane river should have given the people in that city the greatest sense of comfort at a time when Australia is seeing heaviest rainfall in over a century. Instead, the very same dam is now the biggest concern because the dam not only reached 190% of its holding capacity, the water level is only 60 cm below being declared uncontrollable by the dam authorities. No one can imagine the dire consequence of the dam failing at this juncture. This only shows that such structural, conservative solutions for environmental issues are only short term. This is where the idea of watershed development with innate principle of maintaing the surrounding gains significance.

In watershed development, the environmental issues are not taken up as isolated entities. instead it is looked at as a part of an interdependent ecology. Therefore it does not propose solutions for the issue, instead, takes into account various factors upstream and downstream which are the reasons and consequences of the given issue. It then proposes various suggestions by which the reasons can be avoided and the consequences can be managed. The idea is that if a region has a large river and have heavy rainfall, that region will always be flood prone. So instead of trying to stop the flood, manage the activities in such a way that the floods have least impact on human life. It calls for lifestyle and soil usage in accordance with the condition of a region. This implies that humans and human activity are an integral part of this concept. It not only looks at how environment should be managed but also how the indigenous community can make optimum use of the environment. Thus in watershed development, conservation is not considered as an end in itself.

Though the concept sounds romantic and inspiring, how much it can be practical is the real question. To implement watershed concept, it is required to play down the commercial aspect in development and give more importance to ecological and social aspects and in bringing up of local community. Watershed development, therefore, can be put into practice only thru the local community as the government mechanism is highly inefficient and the private sector cannot be expected to be philanthropic. This is at the same time the biggest advantage and flaw in the concept. When the local community is empowered with their own upliftment, we will surely see the revival of villages and agriculture and traditional practises growing in stature. But how much will it help in India continue being self sufficient in food security? With plans to decrease agricultural land from 140 mill hectares to 90 million hectares, with less private sector funds pouring in (due to lack of profit in watershed mechanism) and with plans like evergreen revolution conceptualising labour intensive cultivation instead of mechanised ones, will it help in producing enough food for all? Only time will tell......