An Overview of Water Resources in hills with special reference to Himachal Pradesh-Opportunities and Challenges

Water is the elixir of life. Water, as a resource is one and individual: rainfall, river waters, surface ponds and lakes and ground water are all part of one system. It is a part of a larger ecological system and vital to the essential environment for sustaining all life forms. It is a basic need for all life forms. Water is one of the most vital natural resources of Himachal Pradesh. The state is richly endowed with a hilly terrain having an enormous volume of water from the catchment areas of Satluj, Beas, Ravi and Chenab rivers. In State, the availability of water is highly uneven in both space and time. Precipitation is confined to only about three or four months in a year (mid-June to mid-September) and varies from about 600 mm in Lahaul & Spiti district to around 3200 mm in Dharamshala in district Kangra Therefore, the usage of water as a scarce and precious resource has to be planned, along with conservation and management measures, on an integrated, environmentally sound and sustainable basis, keeping in view the socio-economic needs of the community. The gross irrigation potential of the state is estimated to be 3.53 lakh hectares, while the irrigation potential created has reached 2.56 lakh hectares by the end of 2013–14. Production of food grains in the state has increased from around 0.7 million tonnes in the year 1966–67 to about 1.45 million tonnes in the year 2012–13. This will have to be raised to around 2.4 million tonnes by the year 2025 to meet the needs of the projected population of 92.25 lakh. The production of fruits and vegetables has increased from 0.05 million tonnes (1966–67) each to 1.09 and 1.35 million tonnes (2012–13) respectively. In order to meet the food requirements and nutritional security of ever growing population of the country, the area under irrigation has to be increased manifolds. Majority of the water resources of the country has been utilized and there is very less scope remained for their further exploitation. The irrigation needs of hilly areas are significantly different from the plains. Due to topographical constraints the expansion of canal net-woks is not possible. Non-availability of ground water due to hilly terrains, the expansion of tube-well irrigation is also restricted. Therefore, seven different location specific strategies have to be adopted to enhance irrigation potential of the hill states including Himachal Pradesh. The location specific strategies to be adopted are water diversion from glaciers/rivulets/streams, lift irrigation schemes from small rivulets/major river system, expansion of area under canal irrigation system, expansion of area under tube-well irrigation, water harvesting in poly-lined tanks in rain-fed areas, construction of cemented/earthen dams for water storage and adoption of micro-irrigation system in existing irrigation schemes. Besides, these location specific measures, micro-irrigation systems like drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation has to be adopted in large scale to meet irrigation needs of the crops in hill states.