Integrated Watershed Management Programme In Kerala

Survival on earth is impossible without water and hence, water is indispensable for one and all. All forms of life depend on water for sustenance. Availability of water is a challenging quotient for the existence of life on our planet. Fiction writers even predict a world war in the distant future just for water! Unless adequate measures are taken to conserve the available water resources, the supply of this may be at a risk and soon may get exhausted. Scientists say that overexploitation of water would impoverish underground water resources and that the world might in the future turn out to be become a desert soon. In India, the stress on the availability of water is increasing day by day primarily due to population explosion and the raise in the standards of living.

In the Indian context.

This book examines the relationship between natural resource management, sustainable development, and governance with case studies from India and other places covering disaster risk reduction, conflict resolution, capacity building, climate change adaptation and resilience, citizen engagement and ecological conservation. Though the studies focus mostly on cases in India, the volume discusses how governance can be employed to help develop and implement sustainable practices globally through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. Readers will learn how to integrate concepts of resource management, sustainable development, and governance to improve human resilience to global environmental change, and to assess the proper development approaches to assist economically stressed and resource-deprived individuals. The book will be of use to graduate students and academics, policy makers, planners, and nonprofits.

Weather related disasters like occurrence of floods, droughts, heat wave and cold waves is not uncommon across the Country. It is true world over. Increase in sea surface temperature and sea level has potential impact on monsoon uncertainties, water resources, shift in coastal population and marine products. Vulnerability to extreme weather events is higher than vulnerability to changing average climatic conditions. The society linked sectors like agriculture, biodiversity, fisheries, forestry, water resources, human and animal health and infrastructure are the worst sufferers in the event of weather uncertainties. As a result it is realized that food security is under threat due to global warming. The book deals with climate change impacts and adaptation strategies in agriculture, horticulture, plantation crops in the humid tropics, livestock, fisheries, forestry, water resources and biodiversity. The invited and research papers, included in the book, provide clues for developing adaptation and mitigation strategies in coping up with the expected climate change in future. Although global foodgrains production is likely to increase in tune with rising population and demand in ensuing decades, it may suffer unless new approaches to adapt crop plants to climate change are adopted. Therefore, “Research and education policy in climate change adaptation and mitigation is the need of the hour to address the climate issues in various sectors as the frequency of occurrence of floods and droughts, cold and heat waves are likely to increase under projected climate change scenarios and a threat to food security.

Based on the work of the WASHCost project run by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC), this book provides an evaluation of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sectors in the context of developing countries and is the first systematic study of applying the life-cycle cost approach to assessing allocations. It presents unit cost estimates of the WASH sector across geographic locations and technologies, including rural and peri-urban areas, and these are compared with service levels. It analyses detailed data from more than 5000 households across nine agro-climatic zones in Andhra Pradesh State in India. Key issues assessed include poverty analysis of service levels, cost drivers and factors at the village and household level, and governance aspects such as transparency, accountability and value for money in relation to unit costs and service levels. This is the most comprehensive study of the WASH sector in India and elsewhere that utilises the life-cycle cost approach, along with GIS, econometric modelling and qualitative research methods. Not only does it contribute to research and methodology in this area, but the analysis also provides valuable insights for planners, policy makers and bi-lateral donors. The authors show how the methodology can also be applied in other developing country contexts.

CONTENTS: Watershed Management: Global & Indian Perspectives; Reorienting the Watershed Development Programme in India; Technologies & Tools for Management of Watersheds; Watershed Management to Counter Farming System Decline: Towards a Demand Driven System Oriented Research Agenda; Economic Rationale, Subsidy, Cost Sharing in Watershed Projects; Urban Watershed Management: Sustainability, One Stream at a Time; Sustainable Practices in Watershed Management: Global Experiences; Arizona NEMO: Integrated Watershed Management & Planning; Challenges to Decentralization of Watershed Management: The Case of New South Wales, Australia; Evaluating Watershed Projects in India; Watershed Development, Panchayats & Village - Based Institutions: An Assessment of Institutional Capacity; Equity in Watershed Development: A Case Study in Western Maharashtra; More Water, More Health in Darewadi Village.