NOT JUST ANYWHERE

Water structures built under rural employment guarantee scheme must be suited to local geography

- M DINESH KUMAR

THE UNION government has spent some ₹3,83,320 crore in the last seven years (2014-2020) under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a year. Almost 40 per cent of the funds spent on physical works is focused on water management, which includes creating water storage structures and irrigation sources, implementing watershed works, desilting village tanks, ponds and irrigation canals, levelling of land as well as afforestation. The rationale behind this deliberate push for such interventions, which are planned and executed at the level of gram panchayats, is to improve water security in rural areas. Yet after 15 years since the implementation of mgnrega, the actual outcome of the scheme remains unsatisfactory.

Today, many water management structures built under MGNREGAacross the country lie defunct. A prime reason for this failure is that a majority of them are poorly constructed due to the absence of sound technical specifications for planning and design of the schemes and of proper expert supervision of the works. The other major shortcoming is the inadequate attention being paid to the topography, hydrology, geohydrology and the climate of localities where such interventions are planned.