Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Be prepared for any possibility' that was published in Newsband

Be prepared for any possibility

Will India, particularly Maharashtra, get good rains this time? Last year, almost one-third of the country received far too little rain and has been left parched, with water resources running low. A good monsoon now is absolutely necessary to fill our lakes and help us in agriculture.

A Meteorological Department has forecasted that the monsoon rainfall for South Asia would most likely be within the normal range with a slight tendency towards the higher side of the normal range. But there are other experts who warn of below normal rains over some north-western and southern parts of the subcontinent.

But the gadgets that these experts use to forecast about the rainfall have limitations in forecasting the distribution of monsoon rainfall geographically, and over time. It is not clear as to which parts of the country will get more or less rain this far in advance of the monsoon. Whatever may be the case, we should be prepared and learn to live with the inevitable variability of monsoons.

We should store in whatever way possible the rain water and ensure rational water use in agriculture, towns and cities for residential and industrial purposes and encourage water recycling and reuse. The government should be prepared for the possibility of low rainfall and start preparing to take actions to prevent a drought. Prevention is better than cure, after all.

Apart from rain water harvesting and recycling and reuse of available water resources, it is also necessary to undertake massive afforestation drive from this monsoon itself on all India basis. All the local government bodies should be given the responsibility of this planting programme by finalizing the quantum of saplings to be planted each year.

Implementation of a national water plan and a comprehensive policy to deal with issues related to rain deficit or excess are need of the day. There are also unresolved issues which arise out of conflict of interests of industry, agriculture and urban dwellers, as each group has own needs of water We also have problems related to inter State water sharing. There should be more awareness and willingness to take concrete steps to meet challenges of uncertain monsoon.