Environmental Management

Instructor: Kulbhushan Balooni

Water a Scarce Resource

Local, regional & trans-boundary
water issues

The Indus Valley Civilization

By Michel Danino
The mythic river
Tectonic movement
Climate change moist & greener
environment to aridity (Harappan
urbanism emerged on the face of a
prolonged trend towards declining
rainfall.)

Main sites of the Indus civilization

Course of Saraswati river shown in a segmented/red line

The status of Rivers today?

Yamuna A river or a drain

Water scarcity Quantity

Water scarcity Quality

Case of depleting groundwater levels

Dramatic increase in groundwater exploitation in post-independent India
Emergence of tube well technology
70% of Indias irrigation need; 80% of domestic water supplies
Why overdependence on groundwater?
Low water storage capacity
India can barely store about 30 days of rainfall compared to as much as
900 days in the major river basins abroad (USA, Australia)

Piped supply to households from municipal water utility

Groundwater levels sunk by more than half in many parts

Gurgaon: Case of depleting groundwater levels

Groundwater table level is depleting at a rate of 1 metre/year
Groundwater table has fallen below 33 metres
About 30,000 groundwater extracting units drawing 70230 million
litres/day
Only about 1,000 rain-water harvesting units that recharge water for just
20 to 25 days/year
Current policy approaches have done little to arrest this trend
High Court order in 2012
Prohibited extraction of groundwater by setting up borewells for
construction/residential purposes, allowing only civic agencies to withdraw
water

However, illegal groundwater extraction is known to be rampant

What favoured the growth of

Vijayanagar Empire?
Around 1500, Vijaynagara had about 500,000
inhabitants (supporting 0.1% of the global
population during 14401540), making it the
second largest city in the world after Beijing &
almost three times the size of Paris.
Virtue & prosperity will increase only when tanks and
irrigation canals are constructed and favour shown to
poor cultivators in the matter of taxation and services
Emperor Krishnadevaraya of Vijanagaram
Similar efforts by Chola-, Pandya- & Kakatiya-Kingdoms

Decline Traditional Water Management Systems

Hampi Ancient Water for Our Future Richard Yelland GE FOCUS FORWARD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBKwHHTUNE8
Tank irrigation in Tamil Nadu

Water Tanks in Kerala

Depleting groundwater levels

Policy failures: Artificially under-pricing of key agri-inputs like power

Shift in irrigation pattern
Private use (tube-wells ground-water) over collective use (tanks,
ponds, etc. surface-water)
Water Tank in Tamil Nadu

Groundwater based new drinking water schemes in Kerala (a policy failure)

 Do we have efficient institutions to

monitor & regulate groundwater
extraction?
Why not establish water markets for
efficient allocation of water resources?
Are there well defined property rights
in water resources?

A rural scenario
Natwargadh village in Gujarat

Equity implications
An urban Scenario
A parched Delhi slum

Water scarcity: Implications

Water scarcity Equity implications

Rural vs. Urban - Water diverted from rural to urban areas
e.g.,Delhi's Might, Renuka's Plight
Renuka Dam on Giri River in Himachal Pradesh
A solution for Delhis water scarcity
Site of Renuka Dam

People in Delhi need to realize that dams are short-term solutions. This is
not a problem of supply, but of wastage and poor management." An NGO activist

Water scarcity:
(Regional & National) Political implications

River water sharing

Cauvery River: Karnataka & Tamilnadu
Bhakra-Nangal Dam: Punjab, Haryana & Rajasthan

Water sharing Bilateral level

Indus Water Treaty 1960 India (the land
beyond the Indus) & Pakistan
Under supervision of World Bank
Rights of lower riparian states

Ravi, Beas, Sutlej: India

Eastern flowing rivers

Indus, Jhelum, Chenab: Pakistan

Western flowing rivers
Limited general storage, power Storage & flood
storagecapacity given to India
Average rainfall less than 240 mm
India provides hydrological data
Only one-quarter of the land is cultivated

The most effective treaty

Permanent Indus Commission (> 100 meetings)

An illustration of cooperation between two
hostile nations

90% of fresh water used for irrigation &

agriculture
Worlds largest contiguous irrigation
system

Water sharing Bilateral level

The onset of water war
Construction of dams upstream by India
India accused of stealing water
Indus has about 10 times more water than Colorado River in US
& 3 times more water than Nile in Egypt
Need for megadams Punjab province or Sindh province
Wastage of Indus water in sea by Pakistan
Intensive irrigation & poor drainage practices
Water supplies around cities are unaccounted forleaked or stolen

Global warming: Reduced snowfall & receding glaciers in Western Himalayas

Water sharing Bilateral level

China begins building dam on its side of the Brahmaputra

China has more than half of 50,000 dams in the world, Only 22 dams in 1949
Planning a mammoth $635 Bill. investment in water infrastructure over next decade
Ignoring social costs Affecting natural ecosystem, Displacement of poor villagers
Increasingly damming transnational rivers such as Mekong, Salween,
Brahmaputra, Irtysh, Illy & Amur

Water sustainability
initiatives
Small & decentralized water
harvesting initiatives

Water sustainability initiatives at IIM Kozhikode

Onset of Monsoon

After two weeks

How Kunnamangalam panchayat benefited from

this water conservation endeavour?

After monsoon

Water catchment area

Water channel
around pond

Water sustainability initiatives at IIM Kozhikode

Successful intervention for water conservation

Gujarat governments multifold water conservation measures

1999 Election, A drought year:

Pehle paani, phir Advani
Construction of 10,700 checkdams up to 2000
Construction of > 2 lakh checkdams since 2000
NGOs play an important role

Successful intervention for water conservation

Economic impact
Groundwater recharge
Recharging dry rivers
Boosted agricultural growth in Saurashtra & Kutch
region (70% of area in Gujarat is semi-arid & arid)
Agriculture growth rate in Gujarat around 11% vs.
around 3% in India
Water conservation & management dams one of the
contributing factor

Benefits of check-dams vis--vis big dams

7 wells in surrounding are recharged by each check-dam

10 hectare of land is benefited by each check-dam
Require less operation & maintenance vis--vis big dams
No question of Acquisition of Land
Do we require National River Linking Project?

Successful intervention for water conservation

e.g., National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)

Successful intervention for Water Conservation

A farm pond in a village in Dharwad district, Karnataka

A farm pond
constructed in
Hadmatiya village,
Jamnagar district,
Gujarat, ensures
water for irrigation

Hiware Bazar A village with 54 Millionaires

Located in Nagar Taluka of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra

Watershed Development Program

Miracle of Water Transformation of a drought-prone village
For details See Hiware Bazar at http://hiware-bazar.epanchayat.in/
See From Rags to Riches Hiware Bazaar Village on YouTube

Water scarcity industry vs. locals

Coca-cola vs. Locals in Plachimada in Palghat
District, Kerala
Commissioned bottling plant in 2000
Plant in 34 acres, drawing water from 6 bore wells & 2 open
wells
Extracted around 6.35 lakh liters/day
By 2002 local water supply depleted and polluted
Agitation by local people Brand erosion CocaCola closed
the plant in 2004
Govt. of Kerala asking for a compensation of around Rs.
216.26 Crores for the effected local people
Compensation for: Agricultural loss; Health damages; Cost
of providing water; Wage loss & opportunity cost; Cost of
pollution of water resources

Employing Market-mechanism to Pay for Environmental Loss

What companies are doing..?

Coco-cola: Rain water harvesting structures, construction of checkdams, restoration of ponds & traditional water bodies
Positive water balance in 2010
Over 6 billion litres of water being conserved through 700 structures in 300
communities

PepsiCo: Well recharge, check dam building & drip irrigation in

Aurangabad, Neelamangala, Panipat & Sangareddy
Positive water balance in 2009
Recharged 2 billion litres of water and benefitted 41,000 community members

Hindustan Unilever: Check-dam building, building bunds on

agricultural lands etc.
Saved 50 billion litres of water in 180 villages across 17 districts
2015 target: Water conservation activities across 1,000 villages

Criticism: Recycling of waste-water missing???

Bags Prestigious Golden Peacock Award for CSR, 3rd year in a Row
The award's citation recognized Coca-Cola's
contribution as "Coca-Cola India has supported
community programmes with a focus on education,
health and water conservation. The Company has
commissioned 400 rainwater harvesting systems,
provided clean drinking water to more than 100
schools, supported school projects and driven reform in
sustainable packaging, disaster relief and rehabilitation
http://www.coca-colaindia.com/presscenter/awards_CSR_Sustainability.html

Can we call these initiatives as Corporate Social Responsibility?

Objectives of the Course

The specific objectives of this course are to acquaint
the students with various environmental issues using
an interdisciplinary approach, and to enable the
students, who are on the threshold of becoming
active participants in society as citizens, decisionmakers and leaders, to develop a framework to
analyze the environmental issues and to find out
appropriate policy measures.

Course outline

Module A (Sessions 1 & 3)

Introduction to Environmental Management
Sustainable Development
Local, regional & trans-boundary water issues
A critique of sustainable development (vs. equity)

Module B (Sessions 4 to 10)

Scope of market mechanism in environmental management;

Collective action & property rights for sustainable development
Scope of market mechanism in environmental management
Complete property rights
Institutions and transaction costs

Collective action & property rights for sustainable

development

Various types of property regimes private, state, common & open

Collective action and social capital
Elinor Ostroms work on commons
Common property, local livelihoods & land acquisition

Module B (Sessions 4 to 10)

Scope of market mechanism in environmental management;

Collective action & property rights for sustainable development
Market failures and environmental problems, and
internalization of environmental externalities
Reasons for market failures
Public goods, externalities

Correcting market failures

Command and control
Market-based instruments
Climate change: Kyoto Protocol
Role of judiciary

A case study of coffee sector in the context of relationship between

international trade & environment

Module C (Sessions 11 to 16)

Environmental issues and policy measures

Session 11: Case study on local environmental
governance
Institutions, Property Rights, Policy failures, Sustainable
Development vs. Equity, Social Capital, Challenges in implementing
grass roots interventions

Sessions 1216: Presentation & discussion of term

papers

Evaluation
Class Participation 10%
Mid-term 20%
Final Examination 40%
Answer No more than the suggested page limit in the question paper

Term Paper 30%

Term paper presentation

A group of five/ six students
Analyze local / regional / national / international
environmental issues (remedial policies/interventions)
& opportunities (i.e., new business opportunities)
Evaluation on the basis of application of theoretical
concepts/ analytical frameworks discussed in Session 1
to Session 10

Evaluation of term paper

Presentation and discussion
35 minutes for each group
15 to 20 minutes for presentation
15 minutes for discussion

Presentation by all students in a group

(Post mid-term, March 9th onwards)

Evaluation of term paper

Presentation 15 marks
Individual effort 10 marks
Overall group presentation 5 marks

Report 15 marks
ORIGINAL PIECE OF WORK
Write the source of literature referred to as footnotes/endnotes
Report size Maximum 2,500 words
Structure the report into sections