Justifiable Intermediations and Approaches to Alleviate Water Crunch in the Agro-climatic Zones of Chhattisgarh State in India—An Appraisal

The state of Chhattisgarh came into existence in the year 2000. The policy makers and planners tried to develop a government policy to alleviate the water crisis and thereby the sustainable development of water resourcesWater resources in the state. The problems are accompanying with the cultivation in bunded and unbunded fields in various soil types. The cultivation issues are associated with each of the three ecological zones like Central plains, Bastar plateau and the Northern hill zone. Location-specific interventions in dissimilar agro-climatic zonesAgro-Climatic Zone are of prerequisite to account the differences in topology and terrain conditions across the state coupled with the related differences in soil texture and moisture retention. All the reservoirs, tanks, and water harvesting structures in the state lost their water recharging capacity due to siltation on account of deforestation in all the agro-climatic zonesAgro-Climatic Zone. Implementation of micro- and minor irrigation projects and dry farmingDry farming would be encouraged in the undulating terrain of tribal areas in Northern Hilly agro-climatic zoneAgro-Climatic Zone. The adoptable latest techniques like modernizing existing dams and canals; executing watershed management schemes to check erosion and subsequent silting along with canal lining and proper drainage are found immensely beneficial for socio-economic growth in the command areas. Implementation of scientific command area development with an emphasis on sustainable water management, conjunctive use practice of surface and groundwatersGroundwater and introduction of precision agriculture are also useful strategies to strengthen the water resourcesWater resources of all the agro-climatic zones of Chhattisgarh. Based on consideration of all these suitable interventions followed by identification of site-specific water issues, an appropriate cropping management, including fertilizersFertilizer to be used may be embraced. Scientific use of small-scale water technology would be appreciable to accelerate the socio-economic development in the rural sector. Water for irrigation must be subsidized till the food insecurity and livelihood shortfalls are addressed. GroundwaterGroundwater should first be conserved for drinking and for use of farmers, who have lesser access to canal irrigation on account of geographical or socio-economic factors. Extraction of groundwaterGroundwater resources may be inspired in unification with surface water resourcesWater resources and rainwater management measures, since often rainfall may not replenish groundwaterGroundwater reserves on account of sub-surface heterogeneity in aquifer geometry. It is recommended to use dry farmingDry farming technology during lean periods with proper maintenance of dams, canals, and other water conservation structures, crop diversification with respect to soil, site specific conjunctive use, water harvesting and conservation, utilization of managed aquifer recharge, proper monitoring of systematic monitoring of groundwaterGroundwater regime, community participation and sensitisation to farmers about the modern agricultural technologies and so on are required for alleviating water issues in the study area. The SWOTSWOT analysis related to the water issues and management aspects has been attempted along with Cause and effect of Chhattisgarh water problems by FishboneFishbone analysis. Extensive potential unconfined aquifers occurring along major River courses and perennial in nature of Rivers are the major strength in the Chhattisgarh, major Weakness includes diverse topograpghy and terrain condition across the state; there are wide scope for implementation of micro- and minor irrigation projects along with adoption of dry farmingDry farming and the major Threat is the Post-monsoon DTW of major part of the state with declining trend. The cause and effect related to Depletion water table, Water quality deterioration, Soil chemistry and lack of site-specific interventions among water sector are analysed by FishboneFishbone analysis.