Report on solutions to water-scarcity, irrigation and water-erosion problems in Western India

Type :

Research papers

Pages :

8 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

04/29/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Ecology & environment

Oboulo.com selection criteria

$ 16.95 Add to cart

Summary :

Introduction
Structuring the problem
Three approaches to land use under consideration
Alternative solutions
Analysis of alternative solutions
Evaluation
References

Abstract

Projects in the Maharashtra State of india, especially among rural dwellers in the Ghats Mountains area, to improve water use and availability were actively pursued by Canadian and Indian researchers in the 1990s. This project was carried out with local people, paying particular attention to the traditional methods of water gathering and water-spreading. This was proposed as positive alternatives to more high-tech methods of water transport and storage such as two level pumps and filtration plants, especially in areas where flooding occurs as a result of monsoons in the summer. The rural poor are not able to meet their nutrition needs as a result of a century of deforestation, desertification, erosion of soils and escaping water; the goal is to find ways to restore and revitalize the area to prevent western technological industrial solutions which may worsen life; i.e. the idea of a sugar plantation economy developing with money aid to build a pipeline from a dam as a main water source. The work of Simpson and Sohani from the University of Windsor, Canada, in employing traditional countour bunding provided solutions that improved quality of life and sense of empowerment among the poor, often primarily women rural farmers in the mountainous regions of an area known for its spectacular biodiversity. Monoculture will only destroy further the biodiversity which includes medicinal knowledge and local agriculture in favour of profit and exploitation and increasing denuding of the nutrients and the landscape itself.