The major consumption of river water is agriculture. Therefore if ADB is willing to frame reform policies in water sector, it should try to reduce wastage of water in agriculture sector. In India major wastage of water is in field channels ( called water courses in India) and farmer's field. This fact has not been noticed by the governments and financial institutions or they are not willing to work to improve water use efficiency in field channels and farmers field. They are self charmed by the idea of drip or sprinklers. The problem now is that the people sitting at the top of organizations, have no desire to know the ground realities and work accordingly. They go by slogans like roof top water conservation or IWRM or any other new slogan. The proper pricing of water is essential to provide water to starving people. The drinking water is used for irrigating lawns and other wasteful uses. The proper pricing of water, higher cost per unit for higher consumption will be reasonable, with little cost for low consumption. The other issue is water meters gets out of order in a short time after installation. A new technique for water meters should be adopted , so that they may not get out of order in a short time, as compared to electricity meters.
Published by Yogesh Agrawal, Director (retired), Minor irrigation schemes, Water Resources Department at Govt of Rajasthan
The major consumption of river water is agriculture. Therefore if ADB is willing to frame reform policies in water sector, it should try to reduce wastage of water in agriculture sector. In India major wastage of water is in field channels ( called water courses in India) and farmer's field. This fact has not been noticed by the governments and financial institutions or they are not willing to work to improve water use efficiency in field channels and farmers field. They are self charmed by the idea of drip or sprinklers. The problem now is that the people sitting at the top of organizations, have no desire to know the ground realities and work accordingly. They go by slogans like roof top water conservation or IWRM or any other new slogan. The proper pricing of water is essential to provide water to starving people. The drinking water is used for irrigating lawns and other wasteful uses. The proper pricing of water, higher cost per unit for higher consumption will be reasonable, with little cost for low consumption. The other issue is water meters gets out of order in a short time after installation. A new technique for water meters should be adopted , so that they may not get out of order in a short time, as compared to electricity meters.